The new leader of the region’s leading watchdog group for water quality is putting elected officials on notice that pollution from businesses could land local governments in court.

“We get screwed because the cities are not doing enough to control the industrial pollution,” said Matt O’Malley, executive director of San Diego Coastkeeper, referring to the intractable problem of stormwater runoff contaminating the region’s streams, beaches and other waterways.

That’s a relatively different — potentially more confrontational — tone for the nonprofit environmental group, which has notched significant legal victories in the past but struggled in recent years with leadership stability and how to balance fundraising and advocacy.

Municipal officials, business executives, developers and others have said the region has progressed significantly in curbing water pollution over the decades. They maintain that establishing comprehensive clean-water systems, upgrading them to meet the state’s increasingly stringent regulations and monitoring residents and businesses for compliance is a complex and time-consuming process that costs billions of dollars.

The Coastkeeper board’s decision to promote O’Malley follows the abrupt departure of Tracie Barham, who was hired in April to improve the organization’s finances. After the Great Recession, the group saw its annual budget of about $1.4 million get slashed nearly in half because of plummeting donations.

Bruce Reznik — who oversaw Coastkeeper for a decade before leaving in 2010 — applauded the O’Malley pick, saying his leadership could be a fresh start for the organization.

“Matt was pretty straightforward with the board (of directors) about getting back to San Diego Coastkeeper being that advocacy voice,” said Reznik, who now works as executive director of Los Angeles Waterkeeper.

“My big hope is the community recognizes the value in what Matt can do and comes in to support him financially,” Reznik added.

O’Malley has been Coastkeeper’s legal and policy director since 2014. His new role combines this work along with becoming the group’s top advocate for fundraising and public leadership. The structure is common among other waterkeeper groups in the state.

“For the organization’s credibility and long-term maintenance, I think it makes sense,” said O’Malley, a 43-year-old environmental lawyer.

Jack Monger, chief executive of the San Diego-based Industrial Environmental Association, a business advocacy group, praised the new leader of Coastkeeper for having a practical approach.

“He’s really focused on the egregious offenders,” Monger said. “I support him in what he’s doing to make them aware and looks for solutions that don’t necessarily bankrupt them.”

Matt Adams, vice president of the Building Industry Association of San Diego, was more circumspect.

“We hope Coastkeeper under Matt’s guidance will be a collaborative partner in finding ways to address stormwater (issues) in a fair and meaningful way,” he said.

Coastkeeper’s stated priorities for the coming year include trying to ensure continued advancement of the city of San Diego’s fledgling water-recycling program, known as Pure Water, boosting its educational workshops in public schools and maintaining a voluntary water-quality monitoring program.

The group also is gearing up to help like-minded organizations fight, if need be, Donald Trump’s incoming presidential administration on water-quality issues, said O’Malley, who serves on the board of the California Coastkeeper Alliance, an umbrella organization that coordinates efforts by the state’s 13 waterkeeper programs.

And there’s the strategy by San Diego Coastkeeper of throwing its full weight behind the longstanding dispute over whether enough is being done to reduce business-related stormwater pollution.

This year, the group sent out half a dozen legal notices calling on several recycling companies, the National City Marine Terminal and the Del Mar Fairgrounds racetrack to improve practices designed to limit runoff from washing chemicals into creeks, storm drains and eventually beaches.

Local governments are responsible for monitoring and cracking down on such industrial water pollution. O’Malley said determining whether municipal officials are properly overseeing local businesses will be a priority and that his group won’t be afraid to use the courts to get results.

“We are certainly digging into the actions that are taken or not taken to assess if they are doing their due diligence,” he said.

Jack Minan, a former chairman of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board and currently a law professor at the University of San Diego, said Coastkeeper may be able to gain some traction in the courts — but the legal battle will be tricky.

“I think it’s going to be difficult to ratchet up the (cities’) monitoring requirements,” Minan said. “But if (Coastkeeper is) finding violations and a city isn’t doing anything with respect to it, then they’re in violation.”

Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com