OAKLAND — Despite numerous efforts to reduce the amount of trash washing into the bay, the city is falling ever further behind in reaching its state-mandated goals.

Under terms of their urban stormwater runoff permits, 76 Bay Area communities are ordered by the state water board to reduce by July the amount of trash they send into the bay by 70 percent from 2009 levels.

The target last July was a 60 percent reduction.

The city’s not going to make it, this year, said Paul Ledesma, Save the Bay’s regional political coordinator.

Oakland is one of 26 Bay Area communities falling short of meeting its required trash diversion, according to a Save the Bay report. Last year, Oakland reduced its rubbish dump by 47 percent, but this year it is at 44.6 percent, according to the report.

That 2009 baseline was an estimated 98,625 gallons of trash that made its way into the bay that year from Oakland, after street sweeping culled 103,898 gallons of trash and storm drains and pump stations pulled another 11,238 gallons out of the city’s 213,762 total gallons of litter.

The city already has banned plastic shopping bags and styrofoam packaging, Ledesma pointed out — some of the “low-hanging fruit” — but the challenge grows more difficult the closer a city gets to its targets.

Oakland has been able to stave off penalties so far by submitting detailed plans for dealing with its trash, including more vigorous efforts at reducing its illegal dumping.

Although the city appeased the state water board by submitting an acceptable plan for further reductions, the board could potentially fine it up to $10 per gallon for still coming up short.

Worse, the city could potentially be sued by a third party and ultimately subjected to stricter, court-imposed guidelines and legal fees, Ledesma said. San Jose last year agreed to pay $100 million plus legal fees to settle just such an action brought by the environmental group San Francisco Baykeeper, he said.

“Oakland’s got some serious challenges because of the way the city has developed, and longstanding land use policies,” he said. Among those are the city’s high-density housing, industrial manufacturing base and port.

Ledesma also pointed out the freeways that pass through Oakland contribute to its trash problem and aren’t under the city’s control.

In December, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a notice of violation to Caltrans, which is responsible for the highways that traverse Oakland, saying it failed to show reasonable progress to control trash.

For its part, the city takes issue with some of the state’s findings.

Oakland Watershed Manager Lesley Estes of the Public Works Department said the state doesn’t take into account the city’s Excess Litter Fee program on 900 “high trash” businesses, such as fast food restaurants, convenience stores, liquor stores and gas stations. The businesses are assessed an annual fee that pays for a crew to pick up litter. The city is also working to expedite removal of illegally dumped trash or offer rewards for reporting illegal dumping.

In a letter to the regional water quality control, Estes recommended that the state adopt an alternative strategy, seeking full compliance by 2025 rather than by the increments currently in place. Fines would be counterproductive to the city’s efforts, Estes wrote.

Among the challenges facing the city is a lack of dedicated funding to address the problem, Ledesma said.

In San Jose, where he spent six years managing the trash reduction program, property taxes included a stormwater fee that provided millions toward upgraded sewer and stormwater systems that Oakland is only beginning to acquire.

Those full trash capture devices cost about a half-million dollars each to buy and install, and Oakland has a few in place, such as at Lake Merritt.

But given that funding for them competes with funding needs of the police, fire department and libraries, “they’re not high on the pecking order,” Ledesma said.

The city’s stormwater staff is scheduled to report to the council’s Public Works Committee at a public hearing April 25. Its latest report can be found at http://tinyurl.com/Oakland-Storm-Water-report.

Contact Mark Hedin at 510-293-2542, 408-759-2132 or mhedin@bayareanewsgroup.com.