The suit asks the U.S. District Court to enjoin the city from violating the act and requests civil penalties of up to $109,000 per day for each violation.
The center sits on the San Francisco Bay in a remote parking lot at the water's edge, just across an inlet from Hunters Point. The city leases the site from the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
The city opened the center at that location in 2021 and, according to the plaintiff's complaint, intended for it to serve as a temporary shelter for unhoused individuals living in their vehicles. It was originally anticipated that up to 150 vehicles would use the center, each with a connection to electricity.
According to the complaint, the city believed the location was "optimal" for the intended use, at least in part because the site had existing infrastructure, including water, sewer and electrical poles for lights.
The complaint alleges that notwithstanding those expectations, there is no permanent electrical service to the site and instead the city provides electricity through a cluster of 16 diesel generators that it installed and put into service without obtaining a permit under the federal Clean Air Act.
The complaint alleges that several months after the 16 generators were put into service, the city applied for permits from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to operate three large fossil fuel generators to supply power for daily needs at the center. However, the city allegedly did not disclose in its permit application that it was already serving the site with the 16 unpermitted generators.