Feds Approve California Sewage Ban and Create Largest Coastal No-Discharge Zone in the Nation. Federal action is unprecedented in geographical scope, will prohibit the discharge of more than 22 million gallons of treated vessel sewage to shorelines and shallow waters in Calif. each year. U.S. EPA’s Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld will today sign a rule that will finalize EPA’s decision and approve a state proposal to ban all sewage discharges from large cruise ships and most other large ocean-going ships to state marine waters along California’s 1,624 mile coast from Mexico to Oregon and surrounding major islands. Today’s action establishes a new federal regulation banning even treated sewage from being discharged in California’s marine waters.