Following the recent sewage discharges in Bay Area waters the California legislature is going to necessary and overdue actions to address the problem. The Clean Water Act of 2008 (Assembly Bill 2986) was introduced by Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and coauthored by Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Francisco), and is sponsored by Baykeeper and Friends of the Earth, will require the state to issue every sewage treatment plant in California a report card that shines a light on waste water collection systems that are polluting our waters.

Here's Assemblyman Leno's statement:

In late January 2008 , heavy rains and operator error caused a huge sewage overflow of sewage at a treatment plant in Marin County. More than 2.5 gallons of only partially sewage spilled out of the plant and into Corte Madera Creek which flows into Richardson Bay. Unfortunately, this is the second spill to occur in one week. Only five days earlier, the same sewage treatment plant discharged another 2.5 million gallons of sewage after having been overwhelmed by heavy rains.

The impact of these spills is unquestionable. Richardson Bay supports steelhead salmon population and Richardson Bay is home to one of the largest eelgrass beds in the Bay as well as populations of native oysters, herring, endangered clapper rails, and endangered salt marsh harvest mice.