Chris White Tech Reporter
September 26, 2019 11:13 AM ET
The Trump administration will tell California Gov. Gavin Newsom Thursday that his state’s homeless population is hurting the environment, a move that ratchets up the president’s political war with the country’s biggest blue state.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler wrote a letter to the Democratic governor citing multiple instances of California failing to meet federal water quality standards, noting that the problems are stemming from the state’s homeless population.
“The agency is aware of the growing homelessness crisis developing in major California cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, and the impact of this crisis on the environment,” Wheeler wrote. (RELATED: Trump Touts Decision To End California’s Ability To Set Its Own Emission Rules)
He added: “Based upon data and reports, the agency is concerned that California’s implementation of federal environmental laws is failing to meet its obligations required under delegated federal programs.” Wheeler’s volley comes amid growing disdain between the two sides.
Newsom’s office dismissed the letter.
“There’s a common theme in the news coming out of this White House this week,” Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is not about clean air, clean water or helping our state with homelessness. This is political retribution against California, plain and simple.”
President Donald Trump announced on Sept. 18 his decision to end California’s authority to craft emission regulations that are stricter than federal rules, a move that was long in the making. The Trump administration was working on removing the exemption since mid-2018.
California returned fire, with the state’s Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who’s been a thorn in Trump’s hide, announcing a lawsuit against the administration in response. Becerra has sued Trump more than 60 times, most of which are related to the president’s regulatory rollbacks.
The EPA cited in the oversight letter that 202 water systems in California have reported drinking water problems. There are 82 areas in the state that don’t meet air standards for six pollutants. About three dozen other states also had counties that did not meet those national benchmarks.
Trump, for his part, is on record disapproving of California for its rampant homelessness and pollution.
“There’s tremendous pollution being put into the ocean because they’re going through what’s called the storm sewer that’s for rainwater. And we have tremendous things that we don’t have to discuss pouring into the ocean,” the president told reporters on the day he nixed California’s exemption. “You know, there are needles, there are other things.”
Trump officials threatened to withhold federal highway funding Tuesday from California, arguing the state has not made enough headway cleaning up its waterways. The president is also targeting California for being an incubator of vagrancy.
Trump reportedly sent aides from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to California in September and asked them to focus on Los Angeles, where people are camping on the sidewalks for miles. He is considering cleaning out the camps while building new facilities and for occupancy, The Washington Post reported.
What’s the reason(s) for the sudden increase in homelessness? I have my suspicions but this is an open question for people who are more familiar with the issues than I am
What are your suspicions?
There are things that should be blatantly obvious to everybody. The animals for leaders in the whole world no what are Star the Sun Fury can create. Some of our older people can tell you but there’s history missing points that we should be able to look up in our history and we can’t find. People in their 80s and 90s to tell you about a solar storm that happened in 1957. A solar storm a hundred years after the Carrington event. That should be really easy to look up and find. When that’s solar flare happen 1957 it’s scared the s*** out of our animals for leaders. You have to trust me. I’ve been studying the Sun my whole life since I was 10. I’m 52. Our star the sun has dramatically changed. No I can’t tell you the answers because I don’t know them. But I can tell you what I observe. Are animals for leaders if you look close and hard at all of them all over the world. Especially the ones on top they know. You can tell they’re scared something. You can tell that our governments are moving s*** around. Supplies moving an underground. Ask yourself why. Are you building underground s***. This whole answer is right there in front of our whole face. And it has nothing to do with CO2.
Robbie your posting is incoherent. You come across as a Left wing troll providing you rendition of a right wing troglodyte. Knuckles dragging and drool dropping troglodyte no less. Nice try but “totes” transparent.
Dominionists forces hope to exterminate large segments of the population in the USA. By polluting fresh above ground water and destroying crops and soil quality. Race wars and ethnic cleansing are clearly in the agenda. A Hitleresque scenario.
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It’s an “all of the above” situation, illegal immigration, drug problems, shifting real estate values with an improved economy, on and on. But California’s social welfare system doesn’t help. They allow people to walk in off the street and claim benefits, with no ID, no address, nothing to try and provide them with some stability. It invites people to avoid any responsibility, so people who are basically lazy can just “camp out.”
It wouldn’t have anything to do with our magnetic field switching poles now would it. Telling you you got to look deeper start researching our Sun do some history.
What exactly does the state of the magnetic field have to do with the number of homeless?
Let’s just say it’s way easier to live on the streets of lovely warm Los Angeles than freezing cold Ulan Bator.
Also much easier on the streets of LA than our favorite climate change sanctuary city, Duluth, MN.
Newsom wastes billions on illegal immigrants. renovate abandoned buildings. don’t hand out syringes like they’re candy.proper i.d. train people. LOOK OUT FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS FOR A CHANGE.
This pretty much. I live in another southern city and homeless travelling kids come here because it doesn’t freeze in the winter. Where would you rather go if you were homeless, California or NYC?
Years of easy access to prescription pain killers created thousands of addicts. Then it was shut down and the addicts had to move to illegal drugs. The cartels were happy to step in and serve the market. If we could deal with the addiction piece it would probably halve the problem. Then you have to attack mental illness which is difficult in a nation that values freedom like the US does.
Sound to me you are Lawyer looking for a great pay out, prescription pain killer have never been easy to get legally. In fact many people have committed suicide because they were denied them even though their chronic pain was still there. Terminal ill patients have been denied them because they might get addicted to them, if that not max stupid! Blaming the drug companies for our drug problem is as big as a farce as blaming a lack of gun control laws causing mass shooting. Not to you idiots out there, previous to the 1968 gun control law you could count mass school shooting in one hand, even it you had a single finger left on you hand. People have been using heroin long before prescription pain killers, have you not read about the opium dens at in the 19th century?
Oh since I’ve traveled around and talked to most of them a lot of them anyway. They’re displaced man from floods storms fires and towns that used to be bustling with jobs look like ghost towns. But that’s long before President Trump. But it seems to me that most of these people are homeless. Because there are weather events it fires put making people homeless. I mean don’t get me wrong there was a lot of crazy people that need help. A lot of them are veterans from Vietnam that we forgot about we went over there and got shot at for a lie. People these animals for leaders creating a distraction to keep us all blind. As a scientist and knowing the truth how scary it is, that they are keeping us all asleep. Ladies and gentlemen we are in Grand solar minimum. If you don’t start investigating it and do some history a lot of you will starve and be just as they are homeless. She better start looking into what our star the sun can do and it’s Fury. Start waking up. And how you people could even listen to a group of scientists that can’t lay out their findings with facts and data points and at least show us that they’ve done their homework. How could you even listen to that. I could go up there and Babylon some b*******. For real people wake up man. Think about it
Have a listen to Dr. Drew Pinksy on the combination of causes that created the problem.
To better understand homelessness in general, I recommend reading Myron Magnet’s “Dream and the Nightmare”, which chronicles the dismantling of the mental health institutes, the laws, and the links to homelessness. After reading that, the Seattle KOMO 4 report on homelessness looks like a rerun.
Scute, the primary reasons for the hockey stick like rise in homelessness in California is directly due to the Democrat position of “compassion” for the downtrodden which takes the form of refusing to enforce any laws they may break which would make their life even harder. They announce that they will not enforce anti vagrancy laws. They announce they will not enforce crimes regarding drug use. They announce they will not arrest people for relieving themselves in the streets. They announce that “urban camping” is legal. The crimes that the homeless engage in regularly like stealing shopping carts, breaking into cars, dumping RV toilet water on the street, panhandling, trespassing, and many others have all been negated by the state. And the homeless know this. It is a lawless utopia for them where they couldn’t get arrested short of murdering someone, which isn’t a rare occurance. The liberals in this state think this is “compassion”, to let them wallow in a drug addled stupor covered in their own waste.
My spouse worked for our state’s office of homelessness. One of the primary reasons for homelessness is mental illness. Depending on where you are the numbers can be higher than 75%. Now one also might note that most, if not all, the so called mass shootings were also by people that are/ were mentally ill.
The Left, beginning in the 1960s, pushed to close all mental institutions with about the only one’s remaining are for those mentally ill people who have committed violent crimes, e.g., murder. Today to get an person committed just for observation requires a fair effort. The Left then got a judge to rule that we could not require even the severely mentally ill to take their medications again unless they have committed a violent crime or hurt themselves. The Left made it a civil rights issue. Then in places like California, Washington, Oregon and NY they fundamentally quit enforcing low level drug crimes. They even made needles freely available. What is truly remarkable is how much these same states claim they spend on homelessness. At least in our state our Legislature demanded results.
Primary reason is that in the late 60s the courts decided it violated the civil rights of the mentally ill to institutionalize them. About a third of the homeless are mentally ill and cant function without medication, which they don’t take because they’re not living in a setting where anyone can remind them to take it. Another third predate the court decision and have drug or alcohol problems that keep them from holding down a job or home. The last third have a variety of other problems (misfortune, abusive relationships, choice, etc). If we reinstituionalize the mentally ill and get the addicts into treatment, that will make a huge dent in the problem. Unfortunately, the mental illness lobby gets Congress to spread the money around to help lots of people with mild mental illnesses, leaving those with serious mental illnesses out on the street with no funding for institutional beds and treatment. Those seriously mentally ill then tend to become a law-enforcement problem (harassing or attacking passers-by) and make up a big chunk of the unarmed people who force the police to use various levels of force, up to and including deadly force, against them. If we just funded mental institutions properly we’d make a huge dent in both the homelessness and police shootings problems.
The most support for Israel, the greater the homelessness in America.
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The Homeless only become visible during Republican administrations….
The Homeless only become visible during Republican administrations….
That’s true, they’re not useful for political propaganda during Democrat ones . . . it wouldn’t look none too good for Progressives now would it?
Shameless doesn’t quite cut it.
You get more of what you subsidize. The subsidies for being homeless in CA is greater than most (all?) of the nation. Realize that the subsidy need not be just monetary. Subsidize drug use by not enforcing laws against their recreational use. Subsidize illegal immigrants by refusing to deport them.
Scute, the homeless problem in California is widespread but concentrated in the big “progressive” counties like Los Angeles and San Francisco. California gives money to counties to administer the State poverty programs and many counties spend their own taxpayer dollars to enhance these programs. Having worked on homeless programs for multiple counties, there are vast difference in how they approach the problem. Hence, vast differences in visible outcomes.
By the way, poverty causes homelessness. In one county, almost 80 percent of the homeless are single parents working one or more jobs. Basically, they can’t afford a place to live because they don’t make enough money. Out of the remaining percentage, a significant portion of them are mentally ill.
Housing costs are astounding in most of California, largely because state and local regulations make housing more expensive and therefore unaffordable to the poor. Heck, we even have laws that require affordable housing to comply with regulations that make affordable housing cost double that of “normal” housings which is already too expensive.
One enlightened county realized that homeless shelters are astoundingly expensive and now issues hotel vouchers to the homeless. It costs the county 25% of what they used to spend on shelters, giving them 4x the number of sheltered homeless than previous. Problem solved.
California governments are to blame, and the so-called progressives run the government here. Draw your own conclusions.
Sloth-reluctance to work or make an effort; laziness.
“This is not about clean air, clean water or helping our state with homelessness. This is political retribution against California, plain and simple.”
Gee I wonder why?
Same reason Nixon decommissioned the Boston Navy yard in 1974
This is hilarious. I’m waiting for someone to superimpose Greta’s face on the kid in The Exorcist whose head rotates 360*.
Greta does Death Metal
https://twitter.com/NoTricksZone/status/1177510472280506369
I’m waiting for someone to superimpose Greta’s face on the kid in The Exorcist whose head rotates 360*.
This one is pretty good:
Made a back-up as a precaution, as you could risk this video has low back-up priority at YourTube. Reminds me: I miss MiniAOC, she should have been invited to UN instead of ClimateGreta.
MiniAOC is back
https://twitter.com/RealMiniAOC
Good news!
I noticed that people have made contributions to her education but they’ve asked that contributions be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital instead. (I forget how much has been raised.)
A good kid with good parents.
(I wonder what Grrrreta’s parents do with contributions?)
I’d love to see a “mini-Greta”.
PS This site has an international readership. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is devoted to treating and curing children with cancer. Like Shriner’s Hospitals (which treat kids with a wider range of ailments), the families never get a bill.
icisil and steve case,
Both very good! Thanks for the laugh!
I ‘snipped’ the ‘Iceberg/Thunberg’ pic. After enlarging and printing, it’s going in the back window of my truck!
So what happened to all the jobs Trump has created? How come there’s anyone left unemployed?
There are more than 1 million more jobs unfilled than people looking for work.
“Looking for work” is the key here. The people you’re talking about would have to get off their butts and “look for work” but many of them would rather have the hand outs from California.
They are employed and a lot are living in RVs while also working in the case of California, in the land of impact fees, zoning wars, and solar rooftop mandate on all homes and businesses.
https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2019/07/15/homeless-rv-dwellers-silicon-valley-santa-clara-county/
They are addicted to heroin. Go talk to them and tell them they should go get a job, please, really do it.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who’s been a thorn in Trump’s hide, announcing a lawsuit against the administration in response. Becerra has sued Trump more than 60 times, most of which are related to the president’s regulatory rollbacks.
Correction: HaaVeeAir Becerra has been a thorn in the side (hide?) of all Californians since opening the Border to each and every ILLegal who shows up. HaaVeeAir’s allegiance is somewhere south of CA’s border … he cares NOT for CA … and definitely NOT for the USA. Downtown LA, and the beachfront from Venice to Santa Monica is a third world sh*thole. Why isn’t HaaVeeAir addressing THAT instead of suing the POTUS!? HaaVeeAir has destroyed the beautiful State of my birth.
Holy … you’re not exaggerating. In fact, from what I’ve seen in this story and others, I think you may be insulting the third world.
Somebody is doing something wrong for sure.
I used to live in the LA area (San Fernando, Van Nuys and Burbank anyway)
Back when the worst was the Air you could cut with a knife, glad I left the area before things got real bad.
“the president’s political war”…give me a break….they have to inflame everything…divide, conquer…and sell more crap
Agreed. They have raged political war since the moment he announced he was running. They are now on their 2nd coup attempt, if not 3rd.
“This is political retribution against California, plain and simple.””
Well, California – quite literally now something of what can only be called a confederate state – has been at war with the Constitution and settled federal law for some time now.
Let the games begin.
There are also all the wavers the Obama era EPA granted California, a lot of them by simply ignoring California failures to comply. The Trump EPA isn’t going to turn a blind eye to California’s neglect anymore.
Good headline, good story.
🙂
well well, now this made me chuckle..well done Donald;-))
I see hes also called for 18k max immigrants per yr
good on him. the legal and proper applications first.
pity we in Aus dont go back to that sane level as well
The EPA definitely has a case. A local High School in California had to stop holding car washes because the water was running off of the parking lot and into the storm drain. [ Water for car washes is recycled in CA] Just where do these city administrators think the bodily wastes are going? There are some buildings I have walked past, that because of this bodily waste, the entryway smelled worse than the worst gas station bathroom I have ever had to use.
Uh oh. What if Calizuela decides to secede? Then we’d be sorry! Then who would we kick around?
We could still kick them around, we just wouldn’t have to support them while doing it.
If California wanted to secede they would only got about 1/2 of the state. 46% of California is Federal Land. It would be interesting to see what would happen if California residents wanted to go to the Sierra Nevada. They would be stopped, asked for passports, be subject to a criminal background check … or Big Sur, or on and on.
If it makes leaving more attractive, I’d be willing to let them have all the federal land in the state.
Bruce Cobb September 27, 2019 at 7:28 am
Bruce, so what happened the last time a State tried to secede? Sure let them try, then after it’s all done, they get to go through “reconstruction”.
michael
Californian’s would never vote for secession. It would be seen the same as having to leave their parents basement and go out and earn their own way in life. I know because I remember when the San Fernando Valley tried to secede from Los Angeles. It never came close because all of the liberals were terrified of the idea of independence.
Other places suffer similar problems. Who knows? If it gets bad enough we may eventually see the return of public toilets, which some consider a mark of civilization.
It wasn’t that long ago that California was shutting down highway toilet stops to save money. Gormless idiots.
How about the CDC looking into the unsanitary conditions that seem to be reviving Medieval diseases? They ought to be forcing the local governments to clean up the hazardous health situations they allowed to be created that could potentially affect the health of thousands. I wouldn’t walk by the homeless camps without wearing a biohazard suit.
The next step is to force them to use electric buses when shipping the homeless out of state with one-way tickets to the streets of Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas.
I’m not sure y’all have thought this through…
As soon as their new Bullet train is running, California’s government will be able to make this problem disappear by giving the homeless free tickets to Nowhere.
“This is not about clean air, clean water or helping our state with homelessness. This is political retribution against California, plain and simple.”
Funny how making a person live up to their own standards is political retribution. California is the single biggest pusher of environmental regulation… It should live up to its own standards.
Obviously this is nothing but political attacks by an out of control lawbreaking constitution-breaking President Trump and the bootlickers he hired who have allowed themselved to be corrupted by him.
The total number of homeless in California is 129K out of 39.4M residents – 0.33% of the total population. Their collective total environmental impacts are not measurable.
And of course, California state government is not purposefully seeking out the homeless, so there is no particular policy that the corrupt Trump and his corrupt bureaucrats can point to as a violation of any existing Federal environmental laws or regulations or social policy laws or regulations.
Trump has succeeded in turning the USA into a corrupt banana republic, in fact if not official policy. The greatest scofflaw and traitor to ever occupy the oval office, he continually embarrasses our nation on a daily basis .. people are literally afraid to ask how much worse Trump’s performance can get, because the answer is, there is no lower limit.
“Trump has succeeded in turning the USA into a corrupt banana republic, in fact if not official policy. The greatest scofflaw and traitor to ever occupy the oval office, he continually embarrasses our nation on a daily basis .. people are literally afraid to ask how much worse Trump’s performance can get, because the answer is, there is no lower limit.”
Talk about being completely “out to lunch” (out of touch). You sound like a Democrat. You’ve been watching too much CNN. Here’s a hint: CNN lies about Trump every day. They are trying to undermine Trump. The truth is not in them and they seek to convince the gullible to believe in the lies they spread.
I, personally, would like to see Trump be president for the rest of his life or until he decides to retire. As a conservative, I can’t imagine having a better, more effective advocate for me and my way of looking at the world than Donald J. Trump. He’s almost single-handedly saving the Free world, despite all the forces arrayed against him. To see him the way you describe him is delusional. It’s denying reality.
Tom, you use the term “scofflaw” as an insult to Trump while failing to understand that the homeless problem is in large part due to California’s scofflaw attitude about enforcing laws against vagrancy, urinating and defecating in the street, camping on sidewalks, panhandling, doing illegal drugs, drinking in public, illegally entering the country, dumping RV waste in the street, petty theft, trespassing, graffiti, vandalism, and a whole host of other things that the cops will not show up for because they have been ordered to ignore these things. I know, I live here. There is very little law enforcement in California if you are poor. You would have to commit murder to be jailed, but like Kate Steinle’s killer, you would be out free in short order. Law enforcement is only for people that you can fine in large amounts here.
“Tom, you use the term “scofflaw” as an insult to Trump”
That was Duane’s quote, not mine, Hoyt. I like Trump. 🙂
Maybe not for life, as that has too many unsavory connotations, but at least a third term in the Presidency as he was illegally and immorally prevented from doing his job fully by a seditious conspiracy. The DemoKKKrats, the MSM and much of the D.C. bureaucracy have “resisted” anything that might help the middle class and American businesses thrive. We should return the favor by demanding four more years. TRUMP 2020!! TRUMP 2024!!!
Impacts not measurable?
Sure they are. Just look at the SF (surface feces) map.
If it’s not measurable, why do the locals complain about it so much?
It really is funny how liberals only object to ignoring the constitution when the other side does it.
Of course none of the so called law/constitution breaking that Trump has been accused of ever actually happened.
I guess we have reach the point of Captain Obvious where we need to do a study of the negative impacts of local impact fees on populations.
I was on the Board of Directors (an unpaid volunteer) for sixteen years at the largest homeless shelter in Canada. During my tenure, we doubled from 600 beds per night to more than 1200, and we served over 1.2 million free meals per year.
We live in a much colder climate than California – street people here lose fingers and toes, or freeze to death.
Our shelter housed ~6 times the numbers of the next-largest shelter, because we were the only large shelter that housed inebriates and the mentally ill, comprising ~70% of our clients. Those are the two biggest causes of homelessness, and those populations are the most intractable and unlikely to improve their lives, despite well-structured rehab programs. The remaining ~30% of the homeless population are people with temporary problems, who quickly rejoin the workforce.
Professionals in the social sciences, typically of the political left, tend to make homelessness very complicated, such that only they can suggest solutions. They have also proposed false “solutions” that failed catastrophically, foolish idealistic concepts that reflected no intellectual ability or common sense.
Those of the extreme right often view the shelters as enablers, who encourage the indolent to life free off the work of others. That is perhaps true, but the alternative is to let the homeless live via urban crime, an extremely costly and harmful alternative, or freeze to death.
We attempted a middle approach, to keep the homeless from dying and to discourage them from urban crime. This is not an idealistic solution, it is neither right or left – it is pragmatic, humane and very cost-effective. We housed about 0.1% pf Calgary’s total population, which is about half of Calgary’s singles homeless population. The rest reside in other shelters or on the street.
Reading the EPA’s Administrators’ September 26, 2019, letter was instructive. Despite Governor’s Newsom’s bluster , the fact is the letter provides the State of California with formal notice that the State’s regulating bodies are not complying with the EPA’s minimum Federal standards for both the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Should the State of California fail to corrected the water-related problems identified, then the CWA REQUIRES the EPA to void the State’s authority to issue National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits and take over all CWA permitting and enforcement activities within the State.
Also I noted that the author of this article tries to tie the EPA’s Administrators’ September 26, 2019, letter to the Clean Air Act (CAA) stating:
” The EPA cited in the oversight letter that 202 water systems in California have reported drinking water problems. There are 82 areas in the state that don’t meet air standards for six pollutants. About three dozen other states also had counties that did not meet those national benchmark.”
The alleged Clean Air Act (CAA) violations are NOT mentioned in the EPA administrator’s letter. This makes me think the article’s author (Chris White) is trying to deliberately trying to obfuscation the issue and mislead his readers.
That said, I found it interesting that the EPA did not mention the: Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) , the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), or the Clean Air Act (CAA) in the September 26 letter. I would have thought these Acts would have also come under play, as fecal matter is solid was under SWDA and RCRA. And airborne fecal waste, as I best recall, comes under the CAA. This observation is interesting because.
• Under the both the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) the EPA is can take complete control of state’s enforcement authority – and can do so without notice.
• Under the CAA, the EPA must issue a notice to the state government informing them of instances of non-compliance and providing a dead line for compliance . If the state does not take corrective action, then EPA can take the State’s enforcement authority from them.
In any event, the Governor has 30 days to response.
I’d suggest Governor Newsom’s staff quit with the obfuscation and start producing the remediation plans required under federal law.
Feces are a water issue. While you might be able to argue a waste disposal problem, the more you add, the more you stretch your logic. The air issue is nonsensical, as stench is not a Clean Air Act pollutant, and the VOCs are far too low to be an Ozone contributor.
The primary problem is bacterial contamination of surface water, as I doubt the quantities are enough to give BOD problems.
Ben of Houston
Your comment: “While you might be able to argue a waste disposal problem, the more you add, the more you stretch your logic. The air issue is nonsensical, as stench is not a Clean Air Act pollutant and the VOCs are far too low to be an Ozone contributor.”
Apparently you’ve never dealt with the EPA or its regulatory processes. Fecal matter are biological waste both in the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Airborne hazardous, including airborne biological hazards (including airborne fecal matter), are covered under the Clean Air Act (CAA).
I didn’t mention “stench” (a non-federal regulatory issue), nor VOCs (not relevant), nor Ozone. So, I don’t know how you got there.
As to your comment:
“The primary problem is bacterial contamination of surface water, as I doubt the quantities are enough to give BOD problems.”
If you’d bothered to actually read the EPA administrator’s letter you’d have noticed the issue involves numerous violations in allowing the discharge of untreated sewage into the waters of the United States. Untreated sewage touches on a variety of CWA/NEPA issues including: public safety, biological waste disposal (liquid), heavy metals (in liquids), suspended solids, and pH. In the San Francisco case alone, the EPA noted, the city discharges a billion gallons of combined and untreated sewage and storm-water waste annually. I’d say that’s more than enough to “give BOD problems” and impact the other issues I identified above.
The EPA also noted numerous state-wide violations including (but not limited to): 67 systems with 194 health-based exceedances of arsenic levels, 210 lead action exceedances at 168 Public Waster Systems (PWS) in the last 3-year interval, two serious ground water violations, 44 systems with 154 exceedances of Stage 1 and 2 disinfectant byproduct regulations, and (scary as hell) 25 systems with 69 violations of radiological standards.
The above are just a sample of the violations listed in the EPA letter.
My impression is your knowledge of the scope of the EPA’s regulatory reach is somewhat limited. As is your understanding of the scope of the problems related to State of California’s governments inability and long-term unwillingness to meet federal clean water standards. My experience in California suggests it’s no better at meeting the clean air, hazardous waste, or solid waste standards than it is in meeting clean water standards.
I think my knowledge of these regulations may be a bit broader than your own. As background, I spent 30 years dealing with EPA regulations including those in: CWA, SDWA, NEPA, SWDA , RCRA, CERCLA, and the CAA. These include dealing with: biological waste processing and disposal; asbestos remediation and disposal; heavy metals remediation and disposal; fertilizer production; radiological waste handling; explosives production, remediation, and destruction; chemical weapons production, declared national emergency response, remediation, disposal, and destruction; and variety of Clean Air mitigation efforts related to NOx, SO2, SO3, Hg, ozone, heavy metals, visible emissions, and particulate. And… well probably a dozen projects I’ve forgotten.
Regards, Dave
So true.
I encounter a classic example a couple of days ago. I live near a section of train track commonly used by the “traveler” community to catch trains on the route between the north-eastern/mid-west United States to Florida. This time of year the “travelers” are migrated south for the winter. So, we’re getting the usual assortment coming thru our community. Most are relatively self sufficient but, on occasion, the truly desperate show up. Two days ago one of these individuals went into a Cracker Barrel I usually frequent. He got some water at the fountain, took a seat near the door when the hostess wasn’t looking, stole a biscuit from an abandoned table, and fled the restaurant before the manager & staff knew he was there. In this case I tried to tracked him down (unsuccessfully) to made sure he got a meal.
My reasoning? Any one that desperate for food is likely to do something that will get someone hurt and land him in jail. Better to see he got fed rather than than put the rest of the community at risk. And better for him to get a free meal from me than pay my tax dollars for a jail term to “punish” him for an act of pure desperation in an attempt to simply survive.
Thank you Dave. It’s about harm reduction.
One further point that you mentioned – the cost of housing homeless people in our shelters is approx. one-tenth to one-20th the cost of imprisoning them – and that does not include the cost to society of their crimes, police enforcement, court time, EMS, etc.
Given the depressed market for stolen goods, the erosion of value in a simple theft-of-property crime is typically about 90%, plus the repair cost of breaking into a car, home or business. Crimes of violence are much more costly.
Reading the EPA’s Administrators’ September 26, 2019, letter was instructive. Despite Governor’s Newsom’s bluster , the fact is the letter provides the State of California with formal notice that the State’s regulating bodies are not complying with the EPA’s minimum Federal standards for both the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Should the State of California fail to corrected the water-related problems identified, then the CWA REQUIRES the EPA to void the State’s authority to issue National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits and take over all CWA permitting and enforcement activities within the State.
Also I noted that the author of this article tries to tie the EPA’s Administrators’ September 26, 2019, letter to the Clean Air Act (CAA) stating:
” The EPA cited in the oversight letter that 202 water systems in California have reported drinking water problems. There are 82 areas in the state that don’t meet air standards for six pollutants. About three dozen other states also had counties that did not meet those national benchmark.”
The alleged Clean Air Act (CAA) violations are NOT mentioned in the EPA administrator’s letter. This makes me think the article’s author (Chris White) is trying to deliberately trying to obfuscation the issue and mislead his readers.
That said, I found it interesting that the EPA did not mention the: Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) , the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), or the Clean Air Act (CAA) in the September 26 letter. I would have thought these Acts would have also come under play, as fecal matter is solid was under SWDA and RCRA. And airborne fecal waste, as I best recall, comes under the CAA. This observation is interesting because.
• Under the both the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) the EPA is can take complete control of state’s enforcement authority – and can do so without notice.
• Under the CAA, the EPA must issue a notice to the state government informing them of instances of non-compliance and providing a dead line for compliance . If the state does not take corrective action, then EPA can take the State’s enforcement authority from them.
In any event, the Governor has 30 days to response.
I’d suggest Governor Newsom’s staff quit with the obfuscation and start producing the remediation plans required under federal law.
The problem seems to be that California is obsessed with what they think the “real” pollution is, CO2, and seem to care less about anything else.
People with no job prospects … how did that happen? TENS OF THOUSANDS of US businesses went under, as investors looked for more return from Korea, Malaysia, Viet Nam and CHINA (thank you Henry Kissinger), where people work for 1/5 the wages needed to live in a US suburb. My New Jersey high school pal closed the family business because his metal products line was pirated. It’s called GLOBALIZATION and DE-INDUSTRIALIZATION, the Neo-liberal agenda from the 1980’s onward. Shame on you victim-shamers who have no clue how hard it is for people with no remaining resources to find work, or to get re-trained for anything approaching their former income. In desperation they flock to urban centers, where the situation is even worse. Drugs, alcohol and mental illness are the symptoms of this betrayal of the American worker.
The reasons why companies look for the cheapest supplier is because consumers (that’s you and me bub) demand the lowest prices.
So true.
I encounter a classic example a couple of days ago. I live near a section of train track commonly used by the “traveler” community to catch trains on the route between the north-eastern/mid-west United States to Florida. This time of year the “travelers” are migrated south for the winter. So, we’re getting the usual assortment coming thru our community. Most are relatively self sufficient but, on occasion, the truly desperate show up. Two days ago one of these individuals went into a Cracker Barrel I usually frequent. He got some water at the fountain, took a seat near the door when the hostess wasn’t looking, stole a biscuit from an abandoned table, and fled the restaurant before the manager & staff knew he was there. In this case I tried to tracked him down (unsuccessfully) to made sure he got a meal.
My reasoning? Any one that desperate for food is likely to do something that will get someone hurt and land him in jail. Better to see he got fed rather than than put the rest of the community at risk. And better for him to get a free meal from me than pay my tax dollars for a jail term to “punish” him for an act of pure desperation in an attempt to simply survive.
No one needs to worry about this. I am sure that completing the high speed rail system between Bakersfield and Fresno will solve all of the state’s problems.
When people hit rock bottom, we have to help them get back on their feet.
Seems like some of your state governments sort of want to keep them there. I suppose if you think people should be completely dependent on the government, you would encourage this sort of thing.
If I were a border State I would point out the advantages to illegal immigrants of moving to CA, and lay on free busses to take them there. Take them to Hollywood, their biggest advocates.
You know it makes sense.
You can say it is the homeless doing the damage but it is really the crooks in Sacramento, San Fransicko and LaLaLand. Hopefully, after four more years of the Trump presidency, the wackos will be in open revolt and the U.S. military can free the people of CA from bondage by dividing the state in two, like Virginia during Civil War I.
Make the counties of L.A., S.F. and any others that vote to remain West CA. California would be comprised of all the agricultural areas of the state plus the Sierra Nevadas. Then give West CA four or five years to solve their power and water supplies before closing down the CA Aqueduct and returning the San Joaquin Valley to it’s pastoral greatness. Victor Davis Hansen would make a great interim/military governor until all the kinks are worked out. FREE California!! Make the urban elites pay for their stupid, socialist policies!
We have a huge homeless problem in Vancouver BC as well, our previous mayor promised to end homelessness but being left wing I think he realized that homeless people have a lower carbon footprint, so now we have more than ever.