SF mayor says President Trump’s remarks on used needles “pouring into the ocean” is ridiculous

by DCG

Someone may want to tell the good mayor that needles wash into oceans from the beaches and other land areas. But that would mean she’d have to acknowledge what a sh*thole her city has become.

From SF Gate: San Francisco Mayor London Breed called President Donald Trump’s claim that used drug needles are pouring into the ocean “ridiculous” in a statement Wednesday night.

At the tail end of his California visit on Wednesday, Trump threatened to unleash the Environmental Protection Agency on San Francisco, accusing the city of allowing massive amounts of waste, including needles, to go through storm drains into the ocean.

“It’s a terrible situation that’s in Los Angeles and in San Francisco,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One returning to Washington. “And we’re going to be giving San Francisco — they’re in total violation — we’re going to be giving them a notice very soon.”

“They have to clean it up. We can’t have our cities going to hell,” he said.

Breed was quick to respond. “To be clear, San Francisco has a combined sewer system, one of the best and most effective in the country, that ensures that all debris that flow into storm drains are filtered out at the city’s wastewater treatment plants,” she said. “No debris flow out into the bay or the ocean.”

San Francisco has long struggled with problems of human waste and needles on the streets, especially in the Tenderloin district where many addicts and homeless people congregate to access services. The city set up public toilets and last year announced formation of a special six-person “poop patrol” team to clean up the human waste.

The city also announced funding to hire people to pick up used needles.

Many of those needles came from the city itself. The health department hands out an estimated 400,000 clean syringes a month under programs designed to reduce the risk of HIV and other infections for drug users who might otherwise share contaminated needles.

Read the whole story here.

The article closes with this little nugget:

“Breed responded to Trump’s visit on Twitter, writing, “The President is cutting clean air and clean water standards, restricting our ability to regulate car emissions, and denying climate change even exists. He’s cut funding for homelessness and affordable housing. In SF, we’re meeting the challenges on our streets.“

DCG