"In a striking change of direction, the California Coastal Commission yesterday voted 8-4 to give San Diego its third exemption from pollution standards set by the federal Clean Water Act.
Just two months ago, commissioners voted overwhelmingly to deny the five-year waiver from secondary treatment levels at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant. The facility processes sewage from more than 2.2 million people in and outside the city's limits.
The commission's reversal saves San Diego from having to retrofit the facility at a price of up to $1.5 billion. The last major step is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which already has granted a preliminary waiver.
San Diego is the only city in California that hasn't committed to meet the secondary treatment level for discharges to the ocean."
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/oct/08/wastewater-plant-gets-exemption/?metro&zIndex=179167
This article talked about how San Diego has been exempt from the pollution standards for the third time in a row. The votes were 8-4 so according to this they still want San Diego to not have to follow some of the rules to ensure that it's bays are pollution free. The article states that San Diego is the only city in California that hasn't agreed to these standards.
The article needed to have more opinions from such as maybe a local resident and what they taught about this being the third exemption. They also could have written more about what they intend to do to ensure that San Diego's bays don't end up being full of nasty pollution.
My next steps would be to ask the reasons for why they changed their minds and if they were going to have a vote again about this issue. At the end of the article it said that they might change it so that San Diego wont be exempt from those standards. A good thing would be to add the opinions from the opposing side as well as some quotes to.
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