A federal judge ruled Mountain View and Sunnyvale owe nearly $1.2 million each in civil penalties for allowing sewage to flow into Stevens Creek and other waterways through its stormwater system, a violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
“The violations here are serious and long-running. They involve actual pollution – not just paperwork violations – that can pose public health risks,” wrote U.S. District Judge Edward Davila, in a decision from March 31.
The suit was filed in 2020 by San Francisco Baykeeper, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization, against Sunnyvale and Mountain View for discharging bacterial pollution into area waterways which led to violations of water quality standards.
Baykeeper executive director Sejal Choksi-Chugh said the cities had wasted years and millions of taxpayer dollars fighting the lawsuits when instead the cities could have fixed the water systems.
Read MoreSource: Los Altos Crier