The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board of California was following a mandate of the federal Clean Water Act amendments of 1972 when it directed five communities surrounding Humboldt Bay to start planning for a regional sewage treatment plant. That federal legislation calls for area-wide solutions to water quality problems, which many environmentalists see as key to coordinating land use on a regional scale. Perhaps no state has matched federal efforts on water quality with more enthusiasm than California.

After a study of the Humboldt Bay basin, one of 16 in the state, California state water pollution officials concluded that the area's waste-water treatment needs could best be addressed by a regional facility that would treat sewage from towns ringing the bay and discharge the treated water into the ocean beyond the bay. This plan was in keeping with both the Clean Water Act and California law, which also stresses regional approaches to water quality control; furthermore, it conformed to state-of-the-art engineering practices.

One town chose to buck all this conventional wisdom. Arcata, with a population of 12,849, wanted to develop an independent treatment system. Collaboration between the town's city council and scientists at Humboldt State University had yielded a decidedly unorthodox proposal. Arcata wanted to upgrade its aging but serviceable treatment plant and add to it a series of oxidation ponds in which salmon would be raised and marshes that would clean the waste water and provide a habitat for wildlife. This system would then discharge the treated water—and the salmon—into the bay. Not only would Arcata's system be cheaper than the proposed regional facility, the town argued, but it would also enhance the quality of Humboldt Bay. Moreover, the wetlands it created could become a major recreation area.