Improvements eyed for San Francisco Bay in wake of devastating algae bloom
Marine scientist Dr. William Cochlan is old friends with the tiny algae blamed for the recent devastating bloom in San Francisco Bay. He and his colleagues at the Estuary and Ocean Science Center in Tiburon first identified it during an event here nearly two decades ago. … For more than a century since the Gold Rush, the Bay has been historically murkier, in part because of the heavy runoff from hydraulic mining. But for several reasons, many of them good, the Bay water is now generally clearer, allowing sunlight to reach the algae. Add to that, the increased volume of wastewater released from our treatment plants introduce more nutrients like nitrogen into the mix.