Novato, county scrap with state over fecal pollution
Marin County and Novato are disputing a state water board’s contention that they are doing too little to prevent the discharge of fecal bacteria into the Petaluma River. The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Board notified both the county and Novato in January that they are out of compliance with a program that it adopted in 2019 to reduce the level of fecal bacteria in the river. Both jurisdictions, however, contend that they are not required to comply with the program because the scheme has not yet been incorporated into their municipal storm sewer system permits, which are issued by the State Water Resources Control Board.