San Diego Coastkeeper, an environmental group, has accused the U.S. Marine Corps of violating the Clean Water Act by polluting the Pacific Ocean with raw sewage and sludge. According to a lawsuit filed in federal court, the pollution originated from Camp Pendleton near San Diego, where the Marine Corps allowed its sewers to overflow more than 100 times, including 22 times that discharged a total of 400,000 gallons of untreated waste into creeks and the ocean between 2006 and 2010. In at least 70 other cases, according to the lawsuit, untreated sewage was exposed to people or the environment.

 

The base is also accused of illegally dumping sludge a dozen times between 2008 and 2010 into coastal waters. The plaintiffs want the Marines to stop contaminating the ocean and clean up affected areas.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Enviros Say Marines Befoul the Ocean (by Sonia Angelica Diehn, Courthouse News Service)

San Diego Coastkeeper v. Department of Defense (U.S. District Court, Southern California) (pdf)