“When the Catellus Development Corporation planned the Mission Bay Project, it was to consist of thousands of housing units, a 43-acre UC campus, and millions of square feet of office space. While the project planned to use the City of San Francisco’s sewage system, its additional sewage would have increased sewage overflows by 2 million gallons each rainy season. After environmental groups raised concerns about these projected overflows through a CEQA-enabled environmental review process, Catellus agreed to several mitigation measures.
The company first separated the new development’s stormwater from the City’s system. It then included a state-of-the-art water filtration system at five stormwater outfalls to the bay and created a wetland habitat along a bayfront public park. In addition, the company assembled a team of consultants to evaluate the feasibility of further reducing stormwater pollutants through additional innovations. The CEQA process allowed these measures to be agreed upon without litigation.