State files water pollution complaint against San Jose for failing to clean up homeless encampments
Source: San Jose Mercury News
SAN JOSE -- In a move that could cost San Jose thousands of dollars in fines and lead to punitive cleanup orders, state wildlife officials have filed an environmental complaint against the city, claiming it's violating pollution laws for failing to adequately clean up homeless encampments along Coyote Creek, one of Silicon Valley's most troubled waterways.
The action by the State Department of Fish and Wildlife not only escalates the homeless issue politically, it also means state water regulators will investigate whether trash, human waste and other refuse from homeless encampments -- already a recognized public nuisance -- causes ecological damage similar to a factory dumping chemicals into local water channels.
"Basically what it comes down to," said Fish and Wildlife Lt. Byron Jones, who filed the complaint Wednesday with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, "is they accept the encampments, they feel no sense of urgency to remove them, nor have they ever. It's always been about the next cleanup. It's never been about ending the practice of illegally camping and being in proximity to water."
Although the department previously has taken on government agencies like Caltrans, Jones said, this is the first time guardians of the state's wildlife have pursued a California city for essentially allowing the homeless to create a waterborne pollution threat to fish in the streams and, by implication, to humans who come into contact with the water.
Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_25388561/state-files-water-pollution-complaint-against-san-jose
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The action by the State Department of Fish and Wildlife not only escalates the homeless issue politically, it also means state water regulators will investigate whether trash, human waste and other refuse from homeless encampments -- already a recognized public nuisance -- causes ecological damage similar to a factory dumping chemicals into local water channels.
"Basically what it comes down to," said Fish and Wildlife Lt. Byron Jones, who filed the complaint Wednesday with the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, "is they accept the encampments, they feel no sense of urgency to remove them, nor have they ever. It's always been about the next cleanup. It's never been about ending the practice of illegally camping and being in proximity to water."
So they compare a homeless camp to a chemical factory and then berate the city for just looking to the next 'cleanup'?
What about all of the factories along waterways that dump crap into the water? Agricultural runoff of roundup and animal feces?
Oh right, homeless people don't have cash to pay off government agencies like agribusinesses and heavy industry.
The irony is thick....
