 City of Burlingame: Friend or Foe? |
| by Michael Lazzaro April 24, 2007 |
| The City of Burlingame is currently being sued by Baykeeper. Baykeeper is a Non-profit, Non-governmental Organization that serves to protect the water in our area; protecting it all the way to its source. The suit is over an illegal discharge of partially treated sewage into a “near shore fallout”. The EPA has strict regulations over where and what can be dumped into the Bay. It is not shocking that our treated sewage ends up in the bay, because all treated sewage in this area end up in a deep water fall out. These deepwater fallouts are usually a mile off shore, and in the deep water shipping channels. What is shocking is that: “more than a million gallons a year and sometimes as many as three million gallons a year since 2002” (http://www.baykeeper.org/work/burlingame.html) gets discharged out of this near shore pipeline. The Burlingame Sewage Treatment Plant breaks regulations on the use of this pipeline, by dumping sewage that is not properly treated. They are also only allowed a certain ratio of treated sewage to bay water that can be dumped in this near shore pipeline. Baykeeper has posted a copy of their lawsuit on their website, which provides better information on this issue. Considering that Burlingame’s Sewage Treatment plant is about 1.5 miles west of Coyote Point this is an issue important to anyone who uses Coyote Point Recreation Area (Windsurfers). It is also important to understand that the media is bias, so the best way to get the real facts is to read the lawsuit, and the statements that the City of Burlingame has made on the issue. |
 |
| Baykeeper: |
Work Cited:
|