The San Francisco Bay (Bay) drains water from 40 percent of
California. This includes flows originating from the Sierra
Nevada mountain range and the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers
that make their way down through Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta
through the Bay to the Pacific Ocean.
The Bay is the largest harbor on the U.S. Pacific Coast and
covers about 400 square miles with an average depth of 14 feet.
Its deepest point is 360 feet at the Golden Gate.
Every year, more than 67 million tons of cargo pass through the
Golden Gate. The Bay also supports commercial bait shrimp,
herring and Dungeness crab fisheries.
The Bay is a vital estuary and a key link in the Pacific Flyway,
and millions of waterfowl use the shallow portions of the bay as
a refuge each year.
Homeless volunteers collect so much trash in the Russian River
watershed — 150,000 pounds as of October this year — that the
state Water Resources Control Board sees it as a model for the
rest of California.
The City Council will certify the Water Quality and Flood
Protection Initiative at its Dec. 17 meeting after Alameda
property owners voted in favor of a fee hike. … The increased
fee will fund repairs and new pump stations, which is vital to
combat potential flooding as sea levels rise; improve lagoon
systems, enhance street sweeping procedures and maintain and
install new trash capture devices. These devices are key to
keeping the shoreline free of trash and other debris.
As land around the Bay was developed, creeks were rerouted
underground through pipes called culverts for flood protection.
But in some spots, these hidden waterways can be brought back
up to the surface to provide habitat for wildlife and respite
for people. The Bay Area is a national leader in this type of
restoration, which is aptly called daylighting. And now we’re
undertaking our most ambitious such project yet.
Over the past three decades, a shoreline lagoon and a historic,
natural lake have been restored. Hundreds of thousands of
native plants — some of them endangered — have been planted.
Indigenous wildlife has returned, and an ancient creek
ecosystem was freed from underground pipes, exposing hidden
streams and ponds that once quenched the thirst of American
Indians.
Studies suggest that in the US alone, the introduction of
invasive mollusks into local ecosystems costs more that USD 6
billion per year. In an attempt to respond to this problem, the
state of California (which is perhaps one of America’s most
environmentally conscious states) has introduced the ‘Marine
Invasive Species Act’.
A group of California Democrats on Monday pressed the EPA’s
internal watchdog to investigate whether the agency has
retaliated against their state for political reasons, including
by threatening to withhold federal funds for multiple
transportation projects.
The Environmental Protection Agency fanned the flames of an
ongoing dispute with San Francisco on Thursday, reaffirming its
stance that the city’s water agency improperly discharges
wastewater into the ocean. In a letter to the San Francisco
Public Utilities Commission, EPA officials reiterated their
assessment that the city was out of step with its wastewater
discharge permit, which regulates water quality standards.
With drone photography, “we can track all of the trash in a
creek, river, or stream, examine how it’s distributed, and then
apply machine-learning algorithms to analyze those images as
often as we want,” says Tony Hale, program director for
environmental informatics at the nonprofit San Francisco
Estuary Institute. The drone research is part of a new project
by SFEI and its sister organization Southern California Coastal
Water Research Project, through funding from the Ocean
Protection Council…
San Francisco Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously declared a
State of Urgency, calling on the city to expand its Emergency
Firefighting Water System to ensure the entire city is
protected in the event of a major earthquake or fire.
Currently, the water system only covers about one third of the
city, leaving neighborhoods in the city’s west and south sides
vulnerable.
Lew Stringer is leading a tour of the massive renovation
of the entire watershed on the Presidio’s waterfront. The
next string of pearls to be unearthed is Quartermaster Reach, a
7-acre salt marsh on the south side of Mason Street. … The
$118 million park project, opening in late Spring of 2020, is
part of a wetlands restoration movement across the Bay Area
that will benefit all species – including us – facing the
uncertain future of climate change.
The start of work on the restoration of the Bel Marin Keys
wetlands is another example of efforts to bring back the miles
of wetlands that, over the past century, have been lost to
development, other encroachments and years of sedimentation
buildup.
State transportation crews are wrapping up paving and drainage
improvement work along Highway 37 ahead of winter rains in an
attempt to avert flooding, which in two of the past three years
led to multiday closures of the critical North Bay commuter
artery.
Seeking to fortify the city against future droughts, the Palo
Alto City Council endorsed on Monday a long-term agreement with
Santa Clara Valley Water District and Mountain View to build a
salt-removal plant in the Baylands and then transfer the
treated wastewater south.
Even today, with all we know about the challenges posed by
climate change and sea-level rise, some cities seem determined
to continue to fill and develop their shorelines. One of the
most flagrant examples is taking place in the city of Newark…
The board charged with overseeing the water quality in much of
the San Francisco Bay Area unanimously approved a plan
requiring local businesses, residents and government agencies
to reduce the amount of fecal bacteria they put into the
Petaluma River watershed, including San Antonio Creek.
On Thursday, the East Bay city of Newark will consider
approving 469 single family homes and 2,739 parking spaces at
the edge of the San Francisco Bay shoreline, on a 430-acre
parcel where conservation groups and state and federal agencies
have for decades hoped to restore wetlands. … The proposal
illustrates one way even straightforward and widely agreed-upon
regional climate solutions can fall apart at the local level…
Instead of pushing efforts to restore wetlands and wildlife
habitat to help our region become more climate resilient,
developers and city leaders are pushing to advance plans to
fill in Newark’s Bay shoreline. The proposed “Sanctuary West
Residential Project,” would build 469 luxury units along the
City of Newark’s shoreline on a 559-acre site…
While breaking this levee would seem like a catastrophe, state
and federal agencies intend to do just that. The purpose is not
to unleash some biblical, punishing flood, but rather to allow
nature to reclaim nearly 1,600 acres of wetland habitat.
A state agency cannot make the federal government dredge two
vital San Francisco Bay channels more frequently, a federal
judge ruled Monday, despite arguments that less dredging could
increase the risk of a container ship accident or oil spill.
In order to take care of environmental concerns and maintain
our facilities in a safe and effective manner, we have
identified about 900 encroachments on public lands managed by
Valley Water that require resolution. … Valley Water has
implemented a new process to resolve these encroachments by
working with our community.
Working with the East Bay Regional Park District,
Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan has secured $4 million in
state funding to daylight and restore an over 2,000-foot
culverted section of creek in the upper San Leandro watershed.
The health of North America’s largest estuary, the San
Francisco Estuary, is showing some signs of improvement, but
much of the historic damage caused to the massive watershed has
either not improved or worsened, according to a new report.
The Trump Administration’s EPA takeover, with its race to the
bottom rollbacks of the environmental and public health
protections that Americans have relied upon for decades, is
low; so low that even some of the industries the Administration
seeks to support are pushing back. But what the Trump
Administration has been up to lately in California–
weaponizing the Clean Water Act to serve a political
vendetta…well, can it get any lower than that?
Alameda property owners are being asked whether they are
willing to pay more to maintain and upgrade the city’s aging
stormwater system. … The reason? The city’s stormwater fund
is running a $1 million annual deficit and the system needs
about $30 million in upgrades, including at its pipe stations,
some of which date to the 1940s…
When the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Andrew
Wheeler, accused California of allowing “piles of human feces”
on city streets to contaminate sewer systems … the
accusations, contained in a Sept. 26 oversight letter, had been
developed without the knowledge of the California-based staff,
which would normally issue such notices. Instead, it was put
together by a small group of political appointees in Washington
assigned specifically to target California, according to three
current E.P.A. officials.
The Alameda County Water District is considering shelling out
$72 million for a fourth-generation, 50,500-acre cattle ranch —
touted as the largest potential land sale in the state — to
preserve water quality, officials say. … The N3 Cattle Co.
ranch is roughly the size of Fremont. It’s located east of
Fremont, Milpitas and San Jose, south of Livermore, and
stretches into parts of Alameda, Santa Clara, San Joaquin and
Stanislaus counties.
A tiny fiberglass island is bobbing up and down in the San
Francisco Bay right now. From far away, it looks like a beluga
whale poking through the water. Up close, it looks like a
misshapen raft. In reality, it’s a buoyant structure known as
the “Float Lab,” which is designed to foster a floating
ecosystem.
Concerned that rising waves will flood runways and buildings in
the coming years, officials at San Francisco International
Airport are moving ahead with a $587 million plan to build a
major new sea wall around the entire airport.
Areas under Clean Water Act, or CWA, jurisdiction are not
prohibited from being filled for development, but if developed,
the act does require federal oversight, permitting and full
mitigation for any loss of wetlands and wildlife habitat.
Removing CWA protections would likely make the 1,400-acre salt
pond site more profitable to develop, and thus more difficult
to purchase for tidal marsh restoration.
The loss of oyster reefs in the bay has affected its entire
ecosystem. Oysters are natural filter feeders, filtering out
small sediments and contaminants in the water. The unclean
water has made it difficult for underwater grass to grow,
reducing habitats for fish. The California Shellfish Initiative
… works to advance local restoration plans for the bay,
partnering with the California Coastal Conservancy to rebuild
its native oyster reefs and wetlands.
On a biological scale, 20 years is like the blink of an eye —
if not faster. But for San Francisco marine biology
researchers, 20 years is priceless in what it can tell about
the changing nature of the bay’s wildlife, especially in the
face of a changing climate.
California’s senators have asked the Environmental Protection
Agency’s watchdog to investigate whether the agency abused its
enforcement powers when it accused San Francisco of improperly
dumping waste into the ocean.
Chronicle reporter Ryan Kost spent four days along the bay. He
didn’t have a plan, but he had a map showing future flood zones
— and a desire to know what would be lost under all the blue.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of
violation to San Francisco on Wednesday, accusing the city of
improperly discharging waste into the ocean and bay and
following through on President Trump’s recent pledge to cite
San Francisco for water pollution.
To optimize mitigation for impacts to wetlands, other
wildlands, and at-risk species, the California Department of
Fish and Wildlife is developing a program called the Regional
Conservation Investment Strategy (RCIS). … Each RCIS
identifies top conservation needs, such as habitat for
sensitive species…
A new “green infrastructure” project under construction along
the western side of the block is designed to slow down that
process by detoxing the water through soil and plants and
pumping a purified product back out to the creek. The project,
a whopping seven years in the making, is part of a $4 million,
four-city effort…
Now that the San Francisco Giants’ underwhelming season is
over, the team has big off-season plans — at least in terms of
real estate. Construction should begin this winter on the first
phase of the remake of the team’s parking lot south of McCovey
Cove along Third Street, including a 5-acre waterfront park
with tide pools open to waders and a bayside lawn capable of
holding 5,000 people.
In an effort to widen the use of a nearly limitless — but
expensive — source of water for California and other places
worldwide that are prone to shortages, Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory has been selected to lead a $100 million
project aimed at bringing down the cost of desalination.
Jaime Jahncke, a marine biologist with Point Blue Conservation
Science, which is headquartered in Petaluma, said the concern
is that another long-lasting warm water episode could do
serious harm to an already fragile ecosystem. “We’re going into
a blob and we don’t know what’s happening next,” said
Jahncke…
If the battle against climate change has a front line, the
shore of San Francisco Bay might be it. At the County Parks
Marina in Alviso, trucks rolled in like an armored column,
delivering tons of dirt that will eventually be used to build a
4-mile-long sea wall.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Bay Area
conservation groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency
Tuesday for failing to protect Redwood City’s salt ponds under
the Clean Water Act, a decision they say will harm the San
Francisco Bay ecosystem.
Santa Clara County has 23 active Superfund sites, more than any
other county in the United States. … The sites came to the
attention of the EPA after groundwater testing in the area
revealed that toxic chemicals—notably, a solvent called
trichloroethylene—were present, possibly from leaking pipes or
underground storage tanks.
In an effort to open the spigot on recycled water in the
region, Palo Alto and Santa Clara Valley Water are exploring a
deal that would send the city’s wastewater to a treatment plant
elsewhere in the county, where it would be treated, transformed
into potable water and potentially resold to the city for its
residents and businesses.
It’s a big feat to get 65,000 people to do anything, let alone
spend three hours picking up soiled trash. Yet, state officials
are expecting around that number to turn out Saturday for the
35th annual Coastal Cleanup Day.
Two bills to ban smoking at all state beaches — with a $25 fine
for violators — have reached Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk and await
his signature. Former Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed similar bills
three times, saying people should be allowed to smoke outdoors
in parks. But this year there’s a new governor.
Claims by President Donald Trump on Wednesday that discarded
drug needles in San Francisco are making their way through the
city’s sewage system and into San Francisco Bay and the Pacific
Ocean were widely blasted the following day by experts who say
he has no idea what he’s talking about.
“There’s tremendous pollution being put into the ocean because
they’re going through what’s called the storm sewer that’s for
rainwater,” Trump said. “And we have tremendous things that we
don’t have to discuss pouring into the ocean. You know there
are needles, there are other things.”
Dr. Jim Cloern is a recently retired senior scientist emeritus
at the US Geological Survey who has spent his career learning
how estuaries respond to human activities and variability of
the climate system. In this brown bag seminar, Dr. Cloern gives
specific examples of how local, regional, and global scale
processes affect the San Francisco Bay and Delta.
An intensifying marine heat wave in the northeastern Pacific
Ocean has triggered government warnings about harm to salmon
and other fisheries along the U.S. West Coast, and it’s raising
concerns about hurricane risks to the Hawaiian islands and
wildfire risks in California.
Valley Water is looking for volunteers to aid with cleaning up
local waterways in Santa Clara County. … In addition to
contaminating water, and harming birds and wildlife, waste and
debris can block our creeks potentially causing flooding,
according to Valley Water.
For San Franciscans … there are new worries for the city.
Fires now burn more regularly across the Sierra Nevada as well
as coastal mountain ranges. The flames may ruin plans for
weekend getaways to Yosemite or deliver noxious smoke to the
Bay Area. And locals may start to reach for air masks as
dangerously smoky days become more common.
There’s a lot to like about the Bay Area’s efforts to prepare
for sea level rise: the collaborative efforts, the detailed
studies and, laudably, the voters who are willing to tax
themselves with an eye to future needs. But if the long-term
threat is as grim as scientific projections indicate, local
experts say the region needs to respond with increased urgency
— an urgency that is at odds with the Bay Area’s often
cumbersome decision-making processes.
In 2015, the Board of Supervisors gave initial approval to a
$58 million shoreline protection program to protect SFO from
sea-level rise. But on Wednesday, the board’s Budget and
Finance Committee approved an updated program that will now
cost $587.1 million. City officials attributed the increase to
new sea-level rise estimates and guidelines issued by the State
of California…
For perhaps the first time in 80 years the California State
Lands Commission … faced a decision this summer between
competing ideas for the same parcel. The commission staff
announced at the end of August that it will enter negotiations
to lease a shoreline parcel for a park in Burlingame,
potentially shaping the way the lands commission considers sea
level rise in its decision-making, and the way the Bay
shoreline is developed in the future.
While researching the impacts of industrial site restoration on
aquatic ecosystems in the Coyote Creek watershed, a major
tributary in the southern San Francisco Estuary, scientists
with the University of California, Davis, observed surprisingly
high densities of reproductive adult smelt in the marshlands,
which were not previously known to be heavily exploited by the
species.
A major oil spill in one of the nation’s most economically
important waterways could become more likely unless a plan to
dredge two San Francisco Bay channels less frequently is
reconsidered, lawyers for the state of California and a
conservation group argued in court Wednesday.
California’s Great America announced it will open South Bay
Shores in summer 2020. The expanded space will include three
new water attractions, more food locations, cabanas and a sandy
beach area.
Known to locals as “Long Beach,” it’s part of the San Leandro
Shoreline Marshlands and once stretched at least 23 miles. The
most recent official estimate done back in 2008 put the beach
at seven miles amid development and rising sea levels.
South County gets most of its water from groundwater, so this
project, part of the Safe, Clean Water and Natural Flood
Protection Program that was overwhelmingly approved by voters
in 2012, is vital to ensuring a reliable water supply for the
region.
Restoration of nearly 1,600 acres of wetlands near Bel Marin
Keys is set to begin this year after the approval of $20
million in funding on Thursday. The state Coastal Conservancy
voted unanimously during its meeting in Sausalito on Thursday
to allocate the money to begin the first phase of
construction…
More than 60 elected officials and environmental and community
groups throughout the Bay Area are urging Redwood City
officials to reject proposals to develop the Cargill salt ponds
and rather have them restored as wetlands.
Newly released documents shed light on why a sewage processing
agency, Silicon Valley Clean Water, paid its general manager
$875,000 as part of a severance agreement, and it appears a big
part of that was equity the agency gave him in a $4.5 million,
six-bedroom home in the hills overlooking Redwood City.
Lake Temescal in Upper Rockridge sits atop the Hayward Fault,
which passes underneath the right abutment of the manmade
lake’s aged dam. Experts agree that creep has been observed
near Lake Temescal Dam, but disagree on whether this indicates
the area is at risk of suffering major damage during a strong
quake.
Ariel Rubissow Okamoto, the editor in chief of Estuary Magazine
and long-time Bay Area science writer, talks about the
resiliency of the largest estuary on the West Coast, the
challenges facing the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, and the
potential impacts of climate change and sea-level rise on the
San Francisco Bay.
California Water Service crews are at work in Los Altos’ Rancho
neighborhood and the surrounding areas, installing a new water
pipeline aimed at strengthening infrastructure reliability and
resiliency for customers and enhancing fire protection in the
area for first responders.
In the past, California city planners have been largely
reactive, reconstructing boardwalks lashed by winter storms.
Now, with the long-term outlook for the coast coming into
focus, the California Coastal Commission is urging communities
from San Diego to Humboldt counties to revise their local
coastal programs to take comprehensive adaptive approaches…
There is hard reality that can’t be dodged in pursuing a dreamy
idea that’s existed as long as the 100-year old water and power
system. Pulling the plug on the watery expanse to expose the
original valley is much more complicated than a sunny study
commissioned by an anti-dam environmental group hoping to pump
up its cause.
Environmentalists have raised concerns about the project’s
costs, and the fact that it would submerge 1,245 acres of oak
woodlands… But the Santa Clara Valley Water District, a San
Jose government agency that provides water to 1.9 million
Silicon Valley residents, says the reservoir is needed to store
more water as insurance against California’s next drought.
Marin health officials have reopened beaches along Tiburon’s
shoreline after recent water quality tests showed low levels of
bacteria, but the source of contamination that shut those
beaches down for more than two months remains elusive. “I’m
just as confused as I was before,” said Bill Johnson of the San
Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board…
There was a glint in Michael Boland’s eyes as he watched cars
zooming along the Presidio Parkway over an ugly panorama of
broken asphalt, weeds and construction debris behind a
chain-link fence next to Crissy Field. The chief of park
development and visitor engagement for the Presidio Trust was
excited as he envisioned what the vacant lot was about to
become — a picturesque lagoon surrounded by walking trails,
vivid greenery and a spectacular view.
With targeted autism/neurodiversity employment programs
emerging regularly now around the country, a small employment
program by a water utility in California would normally not
draw attention. However, this employment program of the San
Francisco Public Utilities Commission (PUC), has several
distinctive features.
To reduce flooding on roads near Novato Creek, a Marin County
flood control agency and a local environmental group are
partnering to upgrade flood control equipment and improve
wetlands in the Simmons Slough basin.
Contractors are busy digging, stockpiling and hauling off an
average of 40 truckloads of contaminated soil a day from the
site of a former wastewater treatment plant at Larkspur
Landing. About 64,000 tons of the mixed soil and demolition
debris, which contains trace amounts of polychlorinated
biphenyls, or PCBs, will be sent to a municipal landfill, while
another 2,600 tons, will be shipped to a hazardous waste
landfill.
Scientists, water quality experts and lawmakers are learning
more about what microplastics are, the extent of contamination
and how to keep them out of the environment. California aims to
have the beginnings of a control plan in place by 2021.
Blasted by sun and beaten by waves,
plastic bottles and bags shed fibers and tiny flecks of
microplastic debris that litter the San Francisco Bay where they
can choke the marine life that inadvertently consumes it.
When the population collapses, like it did between 2013 to
2016, the effects ripple across the ecosystem. Brown pelicans
struggled to reproduce and those that did abandoned their
chicks. Thousands of sea lion pups were found malnourished and
dehydrated on California’s beaches. These effects may be
exacerbated by humans, especially when high fishing rates
remain when stocks are in decline. California anchovies are
almost exclusively sold abroad as food for fish farms and bait
for tuna.
Fifty feet below the platform of the Powell Street BART Station
sits the starting point for one of the largest water recycling
projects in San Francisco — one that’s transforming dirty
groundwater into clean steam heat for hundreds of downtown
buildings. In the process, it’s saving tens of millions of
gallons of drinking water annually.
The Trump Administration last year proposed to combine the
responsibilities of both the NMFS and the USFWS under one
federal roof. This would promote more efficient, effective, and
coordinated management of all ESA responsibilities for
anadromous and freshwater fish in Western watersheds, from the
highest reaches of our headwaters to the Pacific Ocean.
The latest update of the California Water Plan was released
this past week. You may not have heard the news. You may not
even know there is a California Water Plan. And that’s just
fine, because it doesn’t mean a darn thing.
The East Bay Municipal Utility District is replacing an aged
and faulty 3,000-foot water pipeline that would most likely
rupture during a major earthquake and cut off water service to
residents for weeks, if not months. The current pipeline has
averaged a major break each year for the last 30 years,
with increasing regularity, as this land has continued to shake
and shift.
While the local sewerage agencies followed state and federal
law in reporting spills to governmental agencies, the public
wouldn’t necessarily know much about them. In this case, it has
taken Heal the Bay, a statewide environmental organization, to
dig them out of bureaucracies’ files.
Utilities, including several in the Bay Area, simply don’t have
the backup power to replace the electricity that Pacific Gas
and Electric Co. normally provides for water delivery and
sewage treatment. The agencies are trying to make their
operations more energy efficient and adding alternative power
sources in case the cord is cut, but it may not be enough.
Santa Clara Valley Water District (Valley Water) has resumed
pre-construction activities in Alviso, California, delivering
on a long-made promise to protect shoreline communities in
Santa Clara County from devastating flooding.
Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica, Cowell Beach in Santa Cruz, Keller
Beach in Richmond and Aquatic Park in San Mateo were announced
as four of the top 10 most polluted in the state, referred to
as “beach bummers.”
Before the threat of rising seas was widely understood,
California created an agency to protect its famous beaches from
overdevelopment. Now the state Coastal Commission is pouring
resources into a war against the effects of climate change, and
it could lead toward the removal of oceanfront homes.
A Pleasanton company has an unusual idea to cool data storage
machines that they say uses a fraction of the energy and cuts
greenhouse gasses. But local environmentalists are against the
plan because of the possible impact it could have on San
Francisco Bay.
An investigation into the Bay Conservation and Development
Commission found mismanagement and disorganization so rampant
that the once-celebrated watchdog agency allegedly neglected
its primary responsibility — to protect San Francisco Bay. A
state audit of the regulatory agency known as the BCDC
describes slow and inefficient enforcement, a huge backlog of
cases and an inability to perform key duties.
Coastal communities should not rule out a sea-level rise in
excess of 6.5 feet, according to the study published this week
in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. …
Should this worst-case scenario come to pass, good portions of
cities like New York City and Miami on the East Coast and Los
Angeles and San Francisco on the West Coast would be underwater
by 2100.
While Belvedere officials consider a series of flood control
projects that could cost up to $27.1 million, the city has
appointed a new advisory committee that represents some of the
hillside homeowners who say that money shouldn’t come out of
their pockets. … An engineering consultant has designed
several iterations of the projects, which are meant to
safeguard the community from the forthcoming effects of
sea-level rise.
The combination of droughts and floods has given rise to a
process known as saltwater intrusion — what San Jose Mayor Sam
Liccardo refers to as his city’s greatest climate threat. …
In coastal regions like San Jose, overpumping allows seawater
to seep into the city’s aquifers, exposing local residents to
excess sodium in their drinking water. The problem is
compounded by sea level rise, which pushes seawater inland
toward the city’s filtration system.
A data storage company wants to siphon water from the bay to
cool its equipment, a process it says is greener and more
sustainable than using traditional air cooling. But the idea is
not winning over some environmentalists, because the water will
warm slightly by the time it’s returned to the bay and they say
that could potentially damage marine wildlife.
According to a new study by Audubon California, the illegal
mooring of private boats has caused significant harm to the
eelgrass bed in that bay, with 25 to 41 percent of the seafloor
habitat suffering damage. … The number of boats moored in
Richardson Bay, known as “anchor-outs,” has increased from
about 90 boats in the early 2000s to as many as 240 in 2016.
The Mountain View City Council approved the water district’s
18-foot-deep basin project in 2013 in exchange for the park
upgrades. Designed to accommodate a 100-year flood, the
McKelvey Park basin is one of two basin projects of the larger
Permanente Creek Flood Protection Project, which water district
officials claim will provide natural flood protection for
approximately 2,200 properties in Mountain View and Los Altos.
Tens of thousands of people flooded into San Francisco in the
1850s looking for gold, but there wasn’t nearly enough drinking
water to quench the thirst of the boomtown. So speculators
looked south of the city to San Mateo County in hopes of
delivering clean water to San Francisco and big money to their
own pockets. And they weren’t going to let anything get in
their way.
The commission, created in 1965 and comprised of 27 members
appointed primarily by state and local officials, is supposed
to protect the environmental health of the bay. If they won’t
take their job seriously, Gov. Gavin Newsom, legislative
leaders and local officials should replace them with people up
to the task.
The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission
has “neglected its mission” to protect the bay and surrounding
wetlands, the California state auditor reported Tuesday. The
commission, which issues permits for activities like boating,
dredging and dumping, has a backlog of 230 open enforcement
cases, some decades old.
On a former tidal marsh in Corte Madera that’s blanketed with
bay mud and overgrown with invasive grasses, Golden Gate Bridge
officials are planning a $2 million restoration project that
would bolster habitat for an endangered bird species displaced
by the Larkspur Ferry Terminal. The district has released the
results of an environmental study of the proposed project and
is accepting comments on the report until May 26.
The water that irrigates Santa Clara Valley’s last farms comes
dirt cheap for growers who pump it out of the ground. They pay
just a fraction — 6 percent — of the amount residents and
businesses in the valley must pony up for their well water. The
rest of the cost for farmers’ water is subsidized, mostly from
revenue the Santa Clara Valley Water District receives through
property taxes.
Once one of most extensive wetland areas in North America, the
edges of the San Francisco Bay have become covered with farms,
industry, and urban areas, squeezing out the marches and their
animal and plant occupants. But at the lower end of the Napa
River, a remarkable effort is underway to undo a century and
half of damage to the once-thriving marshes.
For the third time in the last five years, Phillips 66 plans to
pay to settle accusations that its Rodeo refinery released
chlorine into San Pablo Bay. State water regulators announced
Wednesday that the Houston-based company will pay $80,000 for
violating chlorine limits in water it released into the bay
more than a dozen times over a five-month period last year.
If it doesn’t rain another drop for the rest of this “winter,”
we got exactly 0.13 inches more than an ordinary season,
putting 2018-19 at almost exactly the historical average.
There’s only one San Francisco Bay. But the Bay Area is made up
of nine counties and 101 cities, each with its own politics,
local rules and shorelines, differences that can make it
complicated to figure out how to protect billions of dollars of
highways, airports, sewage treatment plants, homes and offices
from the rising seas, surging tides and extreme storms climate
change is expected to bring in the years ahead. A new report
released Thursday aims to make that gargantuan challenge a
little easier.
While oysters and sea grasses may not immediately stand out as
defenders against sea level rise, a five-year test run using
oyster reefs and eelgrass beds in the waters off of San Rafael
has shown promising results. … Marshlands, reefs and other
natural habitats have proven to buffer shorelines from erosion
and powerful waves, but human development over the past two
centuries has resulted in a substantial loss of these natural
defenses.
The district is proposing to raise rates by about 4 percent
annually over the next four years and to impose a new annual
capital maintenance fee. The fee, which would be based on
customers’ meter size, would switch the district from borrowing
money to a cash-based system for funding repairs and
replacement of pipes, pumps, water tanks and treatment plants.
Unusually high concentrations of carbon dioxide have been
blowing out to sea from Bay Area cities and agricultural areas,
raising concerns that the previously unknown infusions could
increase ocean acidity faster than climate change experts have
predicted, Monterey Bay scientists said this week.
By the 1930s, the Leslie Salt Company had consolidated over a
dozen small producers into the world’s largest industrial salt
production company, and half of the South Bay’s extensive
marshes, whose ducks and salmon once far outnumbered humans,
were gone. Now, the south San Francisco bay shoreline’s next
mammoth transformation is well underway: a 50-year project to
return the salt ponds back to the bay, restoring them once
again into tidal marsh for the first time in 150 years.
In just the past week, water about an inch deep has popped up
out of nowhere in both the northbound and the southbound lanes
just south of the 880 interchange. … Underground aquifers are
full from all the recent rain and pressure is now forcing water
to bubble up in weak spots in the surface.
Expected to temporarily hold excess sewer flows during storms,
a project to build an underground flow equalization system
underneath the San Mateo County Event Center parking lot is one
of several components of San Mateo’s Clean Water Program. …
But for many residents … pile driving and the installation of
dewatering wells included in the project’s construction plans
drew concerns about noise, the structural integrity of nearby
homes and the project’s impact on neighbors’ quality of life.
Climate change is already negatively affecting the health of
Marin residents and within 15 years attendant sea-level rise
could threaten the county’s shoreline buildings, roads and
original utility systems. This was the sobering message Marin
supervisors received after Supervisor Kate Sears requested an
update on the local health impacts of climate change and
efforts to prepare for sea- level rise.
Every day, 46,000 people drive Highway 37, the scenic route
that connects Marin County with Vallejo, Napa and just about
everywhere east. This thread, though essential, is also tenuous
in that it’s strung atop a berm barely above sea level.
Traversing the vast salt marshes known as the San Pablo
Baylands, the 21-mile stretch is emerging as an early challenge
to planners confronting California’s changing climate.
While this season has stood out in many people’s minds as
noteworthy and painstakingly rainy, “it’s just a normal year,”
said Jan Null, a consulting meteorologist with Golden Gate
Weather Services. The city measured similar rainfall totals as
recently as 2016-17.
Facing a wave of opposition over proposed fees for using well
water, the directors of a little-known public agency backed
away from a decision Thursday and agreed to consider an
alternative plan that would exempt rural residents and cost
other groundwater users far less overall.
As the Marin Municipal Water District gears up to consider
another rate and fee hike this year, some of the public debate
has turned to whether the district is paying too much in
salaries and benefits to its employees.
San Jose Water, the local water company, recently sent out a
public notice saying it wants to impose a year-long surcharge
beginning this summer. The reason? To recover what it described
as an “under-collection” of more than $9 million in fixed
costs. … In other words, thank you for following the rules
and limiting your water usage, but that’s hurt our bottom line,
so we’ll be sending you a bill.
Our soggy spring has been a big boost to these so-called
“vernal ponds,” ephemeral bodies of water which play a critical
role in preservation of threatened and endangered creatures…
The team found larvae of the threatened California tiger
salamander in 28 of the 58 pools they monitor. The endangered
vernal pool tadpole shrimp was found in 49 of these pools.
That’s the third-highest tally in recent years.
A fierce battle by Berkeley firefighters to prevent a gas-tank
explosion succeeded in averting a potential disaster this week
— but an apparently deadly aftereffect is that hundreds of fish
were killed when water and retardant foam from the firefight
flowed into a nearby stream.
Almost everyone who flies into San Francisco or San Jose
airport has seen it — a vibrant patchwork quilt of colorful
water. … As part of a huge effort called the South Bay Salt
Pond Restoration Project, the Cargill salt company has freed
almost 16,000 acres of their salt ponds.
Five months after voters approved a bond measure to protect the
waterfront from earthquakes and flooding from sea-level rise,
San Francisco plans to start using the first batch of funds.
Next week, The City is expected to introduce to the Board of
Supervisors for approval a proposal to use $50 million of the
$425 million Embarcadero Seawall Earthquake Safety general
obligation bond approved by more than 80 percent of the voters
in November.
Spearheaded by the San Mateo Resource Conservation District,
with additional support from California State Parks and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the project
aims to re-establish more than a mile of the historic creek
channel, remove 45,000 cubic yards of sediment and restore more
than 10 miles of habitat for threatened steelhead trout and
endangered coho salmon.
Too often considered a problem confined to the Central Valley
and agricultural communities, the fact is that lack of access
to safe, clean drinking water in school water fountains and
home faucets affects every region of our state. This is a
situation Gov. Gavin Newsom has rightly called a “disgrace” and
has made it a priority to fix the crisis. In this life-saving
endeavor, he has the support of Silicon Valley’s most
innovative companies.
“The community is miserably divided,” said Napa County
Supervisor Diane Dillon during a meeting on Tuesday. Dillon and
her four fellow board members were tasked with crafting and
approving the Water Quality and Tree Protection Ordinance, a
controversial new law that seeks to conserve trees and forested
areas while improving water quality for the many creeks that
feed the Napa River.
This may be the bleakest shoreline in the Bay Area, and it
isn’t just the industrial infrastructure that gives character
to this place. Floating trash has collected along the docks,
and the waters are contaminated by the loading and unloading of
vast amounts of fossil fuels. A sign posted to a piling warns
fishers not to eat anything they catch here.
Major new efforts to manage runoff and protect existing homes
and businesses will be needed. Sea level rise will also affect
water management in other ways. One area is wastewater
treatment. Throughout coastal California and particularly in
the San Francisco Bay Area, wastewater and stormwater treatment
takes place in facilities that are currently at or near sea
level. Water supply will also be affected. Many coastal
aquifers will see increases in salinity …
In places like Oakland, flooding will occur not just at the
shoreline, but inland in areas once considered safe from sea
level rise, including the Oakland Coliseum and Jones Avenue,
where [UC Berkeley professor Kristina] Hill and her students
now stood, more than a mile from San Leandro Bay. In fact, she
added, rising groundwater menaces nearly the entire band of
low-lying land around San Francisco Bay, as well as many other
coastal parts of the U.S.
U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, and U.S. Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, D-CA, called on EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to
explain how the agency determined that the Redwood City salt
plant site was not subject to federal permitting under the
Clean Water Act despite an earlier draft that stated otherwise.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District, Santa Clara County Board
of Supervisors and Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority all
recognize the importance of curbing urban sprawl, encouraging
farm-to-fork enterprises, and providing open space for urban
dwellers through various policies. However, well-meaning
changes may have unintended consequences, putting these goals
in jeopardy.
Milpitas mayor Rich Tran is following up on a campaign promise
to do something about the bad odor that has drifted over the
city for decades. … The goal is to trace the source of the
stench, which residents have long suspected to come from the
Newby Island landfill, the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional
Wastewater Facility or the Zanker-owned recycling facility.
With rising tides threatening to submerge the Palo Alto
Baylands by mid-century, city officials agreed on Monday
they need to explore new barriers — both physical and
legislative — to protect coastal area from sea level rise.
These measures will be approved as part of a new Sea Level Rise
Implementation Plan, a document that Public Works staff are in
the process of putting together and that could have significant
ramification for properties around the Baylands.
After years of planning, the Las Gallinas Valley Sanitary
District is gearing up to break ground on a three-year,
multimillion-dollar renovation of its sewage treatment plant.
Workers were rained out the past couple of months but are now
preparing the work site at the district headquarters at 300
Smith Ranch Road in San Rafael to replace the wastewater
treatment facilities and expand its recycled water capacity.
A move by the Environmental Protection Agency could revive the
contentious plan to develop 1,400 acres of Redwood City
shoreline owned by Cargill Salt, which operates an industrial
plant there. The EPA removed one barrier to development earlier
this month by ruling that the area is not subject to
restrictions in the federal Clean Water Act. That puts the EPA
at loggerheads with environmentalists, who want to convert the
land back to tidal wetlands.
By allocating $1 million last week toward a creek restoration
project set to rejuvenate threatened and endangered species and
reduce flooding in Pescadero, county officials locked in
funding needed to begin a dredging effort experts expect will
give the Butano Creek a chance to reset.
One way or another, $53 million of Utahns’ money soon may get
sunk into a deep-water export terminal on the West Coast in an
effort to shore up the state’s fading coal industry. On Monday,
a Senate panel advanced a bill that would transfer a special
fund to the Utah Office of Energy Development… That fund was
set up to legitimize a $53 million CIB loan that four
coal-producing counties hoped to invest in a controversial
export terminal under development in Oakland, Calif.
A sprawling stretch of salt ponds on the western edge of San
Francisco Bay, once eyed for the creation of a virtual
mini-city, is back at the center of debate over regional
development after the Trump administration this month exempted
the site from the Clean Water Act.
A long battle over development of the Cargill salt ponds in
Redwood City may soon return after the EPA declared the site
exempt from the federal Clean Water Act — causing concern by
environmentalists and the city’s mayor. The Environmental
Protection Agency announced its decision earlier this month,
effectively removing one of several barriers to development of
the 1,400-acre Bayside property.
Gov. Gavin Newsom should immediately allow the thinning of
vegetation on almost 94,000 acres of state land in a bid to
keep more than 200 communities safe, California fire officials
said Tuesday as they released a list of the state’s 35 most
critical fuel-reduction projects.
In 70 years, San Francisco as we know it could look drastically
different. Gentrification, development and the other forces of
urban change we fret about may be mere trifles compared to the
drastic effects of climate change, including the rise of sea
levels and erosion, scientists say. By 2100, rising sea
levels could displace more than 480,000 people along the
California coast and result in property losses upwards of $100
billion if no preventative measures are taken, according to a
2009 study by the California Climate Change Center.
For decades, the steelhead trout and Chinook salmon trying to
complete their instinct-driven trip upstream have been blocked
by an impassable concrete structure known as the BART weir,
which supports the trains overhead. Within a few years,
however, this capturing and relocation may not be necessary as
the Alameda County Water District, in conjunction with other
public agencies, is investing nearly $70 million in upgrading
or replacing rubber dams and building fish ladders.
A countywide effort to address sea level rise is gaining
momentum after San Mateo County supervisors took steps to form
a new government agency to manage flooding, sea level rise,
coastal erosion and stormwater infrastructure this week. By
expanding the San Mateo County Flood Control District’s
responsibilities … officials have looked to facilitate
coordination between jurisdictions as they set their sights on
a new set of challenges for water infrastructure projects.
A new approach to flood management around the San Francisco Bay
could trim maintenance costs for water agencies, restore
habitat for endangered species, and help protect against rising
seas. What links the three? Sediment. Winter storms push
sediment down creeks that flow into the Bay and, long ago,
these waterways fanned out when they reached the edge. Sediment
settled there, nourishing tidal baylands — salt marshes and
mudflats that are rich in wildlife, and also buffer the shore
from storm surges, the highest tides, and sea level rise. Today
few of these low-lying tidal baylands remain.
What was supposed to be a great flood control project that kept
homes safe in the South Bay has turned into a nightmare for
many homeowners. Repair crews continue to work on Ridgemont
Drive in San Jose, where they are replacing brick pillars
residents claim were damaged by the pounding to the flood
control project along the Silver Creek. Homeowners are footing
the bill for the repairs and say someone else should be paying.
The rainwater collection system is broken at the environmental
research station on a remote, rocky Pacific island off the
California coast. So is a crane used to hoist small boats in
and out of the water. A two-year supply of diesel fuel for the
power generators is almost gone. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
personnel ordinarily would help with such problems. But they
haven’t been around since the partial federal government
shutdown began a month ago…
Doing surgery on San Francisco’s water system is no simple
task. Replacing one mile of distribution main costs about $3.8
million dollars. That’s just the direct cost of installing a
section of drinking water pipe. There are also side effects:
disruptions to traffic, sidewalks, and businesses when streets
are pried open. In one of the nation’s densest and highest-cost
cities the expense amounts to an incentive for well-informed
decisions about what to dig up and when.
In the North Bay, so much runoff from our recent rains has
created some spectacular sights. Waterfalls are becoming big
attractions around Mt. Tamalpais. The sound of rushing water is
everywhere in the lush, emerald green hills below Mt. Tam.
The Alameda County Water District is proposing to raise
customers’ bills 8 percent over the next two years to cover
infrastructure costs as well as salary increases, benefits and
pensions for its employees. The district also wants to
create an emergency pricing schedule that kicks in during water
shortages, such as in droughts.
Top managers of the environmental engineering firm Tetra Tech
directed their employees to commit widespread fraud in the
cleanup of America’s largest Superfund waste site, according to
new legal complaints by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Montgomery is known for fostering collaborative relationships
among stakeholders and as a leader in protecting and restoring
water quality within California and throughout the Southwest
and the Pacific Islands. He is currently serving as the
Assistant Director of the Water Division in the US
Environmental Protection Agency (Region 9).
A state board on Wednesday approved a contentious proposal to
boost water flows through a Central California river, a move
that would increase habitat for salmon but deliver less water
to farmers and cities such as San Francisco. The plan under
consideration by the Water Resources Control Board would alter
management of the Lower San Joaquin River and three tributaries
to address what environmental groups say is a crisis in the
delta that empties into San Francisco Bay.
Del Mar is a picturesque place that’s name means “of the sea,”
in Spanish. That’s becoming increasingly true. Del Mar is one
of countless coastal communities in California and across the
U.S. that is seeing the impacts of climate change and preparing
for worse to come.
The biggest ticket item on California’s November ballot, tucked
between the governor’s race and local elections, is an $8.9
billion bond to help modernize California’s sprawling
waterworks. The measure, which was authored by a former state
water director, would fund scores of projects, from shiny new
desalination plants to upgrades of old dams and aqueducts to
restoration of tainted watersheds, including San Francisco Bay.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has agreed to protect San
Francisco and Humboldt bays from runoff of dangerous chemicals
on utility poles in a settlement with an environmental group.
… The suit said oil and wood waste from poles stored at the
yards washed into the bays, damaging the environment and
endangering human health and wildlife.
Wading into the water along the rocky shore off Aramburu Island
in Richardson Bay, Brian Cheng reached 3 feet under water and
pulled up an algae-covered rock. “Here we go,” he yelled as he
splashed ashore soaking wet and pointed out a tiny snail on the
underside of the rock. “And, we got a bonus,” he said,
gesturing toward a cluster of yellow gelatinous egg capsules.
Following nine years of research, a California agency has
proposed to increase water flows in the San Francisco Bay-Delta
Estuary. But the decision is causing contention between farmers
and fisheries. … The California Water Board is scheduled
to vote on the proposal in August.
The amazing thing about the 35 people who swam for miles in the
San Francisco Bay on Sunday — besides that they swam for miles
in the San Francisco Bay — is that they came out of the water
soiled only by saltwater. Maybe some seaweed. No sewage clung
to their hair.
A final draft plan for the San Joaquin River system has been
released by state water regulators. … But Friday the State
Water Board also released a “framework” for a similar plan
being prepared for the Sacramento River watershed, which would
see even larger reductions of diversions in the north valley.
California water officials on Friday released a plan to
increase flows through a major central California river, an
effort that would save salmon and other fish but deliver less
water to farmers in the state’s agricultural heartland.
State regulators proposed sweeping changes in the allocation of
California’s water Friday, leaving more water in Northern
California’s major rivers to help ailing fish populations — and
giving less to farming and human consumption.
This small rectangle of wetland near the San Francisco Bay in
San Lorenzo doesn’t look particularly visionary. Above ground,
it’s an appealing – if unusually orderly – array of meadows,
cattails and willows. But there’s far more here than meets the
eye. This modest strip of land, just 38 by 150 feet, in the Oro
Loma Sanitary District promises to help solve two of the Bay
Area’s most pressing concerns: sea-level rise and nutrient
pollution.
Proposition 68 was approved with 56 percent of the vote to
authorize the state to borrow $4.1 billion for investments in
outdoor recreation, land conservation and water projects,
according to the latest results Wednesday morning.
In October 2002, the cruise ship Crystal Harmony anchored
outside Monterey Harbor, ferrying more than 900 passengers
ashore for the day before continuing on its way to Acapulco,
Mexico. Later that night, 14 miles off the pristine coastline
of Big Sur, the 790-foot-long ship dumped 36,400 gallons of
sewage, gray water and oily waste into the Monterey Bay
National Marine Sanctuary.
You can shove water back from the land, or let the land flood,
but either way, San Francisco Bay is getting higher. Along more
than 400 miles of bayfront, in at least forty communities that
touch water, the once-sneaky problem of sea level rise is
revealing itself as it accelerates.
Design teams from around the world unveil their visions today
for a ring of ambitious projects circling San Francisco Bay,
all aimed at increasing “resilience” to the challenges of
rising sea levels and other growing threats to communities.
After a year’s worth of ground work, nine teams participating
in the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge take the wraps
off of their various visions.
The city of Oakland and East Bay Municipal Utility District
must pay more than $360,000 for violating the Clean Water Act
by allowing untreated sewage into the San Francisco Bay,
officials said Tuesday. In 2014, EBMUD and seven East Bay
communities it serves, including Oakland and Berkeley, paid
$1.5 million in civil penalties for past sewage discharges.
A local environmental watchdog group says it has reached a
legal settlement with operators of the Newby Island Resource
Recovery Park landfill to curb toxic runoff into local
waterways.
Back in June 2016, Bay Area voters approved Measure AA to raise
$500 million to pay for wetlands restoration, flood control and
wildlife projects around San Francisco Bay. Now the first wave
of that money — nearly $18 million — is about to be put to use.
On Wednesday, the board overseeing the money will vote on
projects in six counties totaling $17.9 million.
A $1.3 trillion spending package approved Thursday by the House
and early Friday by the Senate includes nearly $448 million for
Environmental Protection Agency programs benefiting regional
waters degraded by pollution, overdevelopment and exotic
species invasions. … Aside from the Great Lakes, those
staying at their current levels include Chesapeake Bay, San
Francisco Bay …
A whopping 99 percent of mussels collected from the San
Francisco Bay were contaminated with at least one algal toxin,
while more than a third contained four different kinds of algal
toxins, according to a study published in the March
issue of the scientific journal, Harmful Algae.
It [proposed 2019 budget] would remove all EPA funding of
cleanup programs for the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Champlain, Long
Island Sound, San Francisco Bay, Puget Sound and South Florida,
including the Everglades and Keys.
San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood has been selected as one of 10
Bay Area sites to get attention from a phalanx of architects,
urban planners and environmentalists as part of a competition
to battle sea-level rise. Fueled by an almost $5 million grant
from the Rockefeller Foundation, teams have been formed to
tackle what researchers say is inevitable flooding brought on
by climate change.
Last winter’s drought-busting wet weather was a boon for
reservoirs and parched landscapes, but not so much for some
invasive species in San Francisco Bay, according to a long-term
study by Tiburon-based researchers. All that fresh water
that poured into the bay was bad news for certain invaders,
which have turned up in droves in recent decades from around
the world, often in ships’ ballast water.
Next time you spray Rover or Fluffy for fleas, you may be
harming San Francisco Bay. An insecticide found in commonly
used over-the-counter flea treatments like Frontline Plus and
Pet Armor appears to be washing down pet owners’ drains and
flowing through sewage treatment plants into the bay, new
research shows.
Nutrients – such as nitrogen – are essential to life, but
an overabundance can mean trouble for waterways. Take
Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, which are infamous for
“dead zones” where closely packed bodies of fish float to the
surface or wash ashore by the thousands. These dead
zones are caused by nutrient pollution, which makes
algae grow too fast.
Estuaries are places where fresh and
salt water mix, usually at the point where a river enters the
ocean. They are the meeting point between riverine environments
and the sea, with a combination of tides, waves, salinity, fresh
water flow and sediment. The constant churning means there are
elevated levels of nutrients, making estuaries highly productive
natural habitats.
Last year, on June 7, the nine counties of the Bay Area passed
a ballot measure called Measure AA. The measure placed a $12
per year parcel tax on local landowners to be directed towards
wetlands restoration.
Despite spending millions of dollars over the years on garbage
cleanup, Oakland has the Bay Area’s worst record for limiting
the rubbish that pollutes creeks, lakes and the bay, according
to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.
The flow of waste violates mandates set by the board to reduce
storm drain litter this year by 70 percent compared with 2009,
a goal that Oakland is far from meeting.
Three days after the 112-foot barge Vengeance overturned in
high winds near Yerba Buena Island, the U.S. Coast Guard worked
Sunday to contain the diesel slick spilled from its depths and
walked nearby beaches to check on wildlife.
There were no new signs of fuel leaking into San Francisco Bay
as a Coast Guard helicopter crew carried out an overflight and
divers conducted an underwater assessment Saturday on a freight
barge that sank south of the Bay Bridge.
The Trump administration could eliminate all federal funding
for wetlands restoration in San Francisco Bay, according to a
budget plan that has shocked local and state officials, but is
just one piece of broad changes to federal environmental
programs.
The heavy storms that washed away California’s drought this
season have come with a side effect: large slugs of pollution
and sewage washing into San Francisco Bay and the Delta.
San Francisco voters will be asked to allow $350 million to be
spent on a first round of improvements for the city’s crucial
but fragile Embarcadero seawall, officials said Monday.
Powerful storms often hailed for bringing drought-busting rains
to California also served to virtually wipe out a healthy
growth of native Olympia oysters at China Camp near San Rafael,
raising concerns about climate change, according to a new
study.
Understanding the importance of the Bay-Delta ecosystem and
working to restore it means grasping the scope of what it once
was.
That’s the takeaway message of a report released Nov. 14 by the
San Francisco Estuary Institute.
The report, “A
Delta Renewed,” is the latest in a series sponsored by the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW). Written by
several authors, the report says there is “cause for hope” to
achieving large-scale Delta restoration in a way that supports
people, farms and the environment. SFEI calls itself “one of
California’s premier aquatic and ecosystem science institutes.”
The San Francisco Bay Joint Venture — celebrating its 20th
anniversary this year — has helped coordinate and complete more
than 150 wetland habitat projects, conserving and restoring
about 75,000 acres of habitat in and around the bay since 1996.
High levels of a toxic freshwater algae known to be harmful to
humans have been detected in mussels at several locations in
San Francisco Bay, scientists said Monday.
The Bay Area made history in June 2016 by passing Measure AA, a
wetland restoration parcel tax and the first ballot measure to
include all nine counties. Besides providing wildlife habitat
and flood protection, the measure may hold lessons for future
regional governance. Most of all, however, the measure’s
success underscores how important the Bay is to us.
Evidence of what scientists are calling the planet’s Sixth Mass
Extinction is appearing in San Francisco Bay and its estuary,
the largest on the Pacific Coast of North and South America,
according to a major new study.
Unlike most other microorganisms, zooplankton are
technically heterotrophic animals – meaning they cannot produce
their own food. Instead, they feed upon phytoplankton like algae,
a
process responsible for keeping these populations under
control.
Those small, seemingly insignificant bits of plastic in San
Francisco Bay found at nine local sites last year could end up
being the next major water quality problem. What to do about
them is an important next step, said Rebecca Sutton, senior
scientist with the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI).
During a Thursday seminar sponsored by the State Water
Resources Control Board in Sacramento, Sutton said experts are
embarking on a course of better understanding microplastic
contamination and its effect on the environment and human
health.
Today [July 1], the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
proposed a federal Clean Water Act rule to tighten the current
selenium water quality criteria for the waters of San Francisco
Bay and Delta. The proposed change would better protect aquatic
species, including salmon, smelt, and diving ducks, that are
dependent on the Bay and Delta ecosystem, from harmful exposure
to elevated levels of selenium.
Settling a major lawsuit from environmentalists, San Jose city
officials on Tuesday agreed to spend more than $100 million
over the next decade and beyond to reduce tons of trash that
flows into creeks and San Francisco Bay, repair miles of
leaking underground sewage pipes and clean stormwater
contaminated with harmful bacteria.
Thousands of acres of land around the San Francisco Bay will be
returned to wetlands after voters in the nine-county Bay Area
approved a new $12-per-parcel tax that will raise millions of
dollars for bay enhancement and habitat restoration.
