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.
Ten years. That’s how much time the Bay Area’s 37 wastewater
treatment plants will have to reduce fertilizer and sewage in
their water by 40%. The estimated price tag for the facility
upgrades is $11 billion. The San Francisco Regional Water
Quality Control Board plans to adopt the change as part of its
new discharge permit requirement beginning June 12. Previous
permits did not require reductions …The regulatory change
follows a damaging algae bloom in 2022 and 2023. A brown algae
species called Heterosigma akashiwo, which feeds off the
nitrogen in wastewater, infected the Bay and damaged aquatic
ecosystems.
When heavy rain overwhelms wastewater treatment plants in San
Francisco, causing stormwater to overflow onto streets and
into the bay, sewage is an unfortunate part of the mix.
After heavy rain, the largest recipient of the potent brew of
stormwater and sewage in the city is Mission Creek — a
channel to the bay that is home to houseboats, walking trails
and a kayak launch. At Mission Creek, Islais Creek, another
channel at India Basin, and a few locations in between, the
city discharges 1.2 billion gallons of “combined sewer
discharges” in a typical year, according to the environmental
group S.F. Baykeeper, which has notified the city it intends to
sue over how such discharges impact the environment. A large
portion of the combined sewer overflows — which SFPUC said
are composed of 94% treated stormwater and 6% treated
wastewater — is making its way without basic treatment
into the bay during storms, according to S.F. Baykeeper.
A rusty red color in Lake Merritt that left lake stewards
scrambling to sample the water on Mar. 7 has tested positive
for the same algae that caused the devastating harmful algal
bloom in 2022. On Friday, lake stewards sent water
samples to labs run by the California Department of Public
Health and San Francisco Bay Regional Water Control Board.
Unofficial field testing initially detected no harmful algae.
However, lab testing confirmed over the weekend the presence of
Heterosigma akashiwo, a type of algae often associated with
harmful blooms. Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, occur when
certain types of algae grow rapidly and release toxins, lower
oxygen levels, and cause other changes in water quality that
can kill fish and other marine creatures.
A report released by the Navy confirmed concerns that for years
have been hanging over the radiological cleanup of San
Francisco’s Hunters Point Shipyard: that rising seawater
levels, and other environmental factors resulting from climate
change, could cause toxic materials that have long been buried
at the site to surface. The study, called Climate
Resilience Assessment, was included in an ongoing review
process that the Navy must undertake every five years to
evaluate its remediation plan for the former shipyard, which
has long been a designated Superfund site. The shipyard is
also slated for redevelopment into a new neighborhood, with
cleaning efforts by the Navy and its contractors underway for
more than a decade to prepare it for reuse. The report is
the first time that the Navy has studied the impacts of climate
change in relation to the shipyard, which spans hundreds of
acres and contains radioactive waste and other contaminants.
Audubon California and partners released their San Francisco
Bay Eelgrass Habitat Suitability Model, a powerful new tool
that highlights future-resilient locations within the bay most
suitable for restoration of eelgrass, a linchpin species for
long-term bay health. The project was developed as a
collaboration between Audubon California, Merkel & Associates,
Inc., and Dr. Katharyn Boyer (Interim Director, Estuary and
Ocean Science Center, San Francisco State University), funded
by a grant from the California Ocean Protection Council.
… San Francisco Bay hosts an estimated 17% of
California’s eelgrass. Eelgrass (Zostera marina)
plays a critical role in the marine food web and bay ecosystem.
Not only does it provide home and food to a vast quantity of
marine life, including waterbirds like Surf
Scoters, Buffleheads, and Western Grebes - its
dense growth along the seafloor traps sediment and substrate, a
crucial factor in preventing coastal erosion.
The Marin Municipal Water District is planning to replace
several miles of leaking pipes in Marin City at an estimated
cost of about $5.9 million. The district will soon be reviewing
bids for the first phase of the project, which officials say is
needed to reduce water loss and improve the resilience of the
area’s drinking water system. “This is an underserved
community,” said Jed Smith, a district board member, said
during an operations committee meeting on Feb. 16. … The
first phase of project has an estimated cost of $3.8 million.
It would replace approximately 9,200 feet of a 65-year-old
leak-prone cast-iron pipe with welded steel pipe on various
streets. The work would take about 332 days to perform, with
completion scheduled around Jan. 31, 2025. The project also
will replace 197 service laterals — piping owned by the Marin
water district that connects the water main pipeline to the
service meter and customer-owned pipes.
A California environmental group has sued Radius Recycling
(RDUS.O), opens new tab, alleging the recycled steel company’s
operations are polluting the San Francisco Bay and its
tributaries with dirty stormwater runoff. San Francisco
Baykeeper filed its lawsuit on Tuesday in Oakland federal
court, alleging the company has violated the federal Clean
Water Act by failing to stop heavy metals and other pollutants
from washing away during storms at four of its facilities in
the San Francisco Bay area where cars are
dismantled. Radius Recycling was formerly known as
Schnitzer Steel, and was recognized last year by the
research firm Corporate Knights as the world’s most sustainable
company due to its reported improvements in things like energy,
carbon, water and waste use.
Over the years, Marin has taken the initiative to restore its
wetlands. The focus and work is a recognition of the importance
this soggy acreage plays in the ecological chain that keeps our
bays and oceans healthy and thriving. In many cases, it means
restoring historic wetlands covered by years of built-up silt
and blanketed by landfill. The announcement that work will soon
start on two such projects is another sign that progress is
being made to restore and revive these shorelines. In
Kentfield, work will soon start to lower sections of the tall
concrete flood-control walls built along Corte Madera Creek in
the 1960s.
A notoriously flood-prone section of southern Marin could soon
get its own defense against sea-level rise. Caltrans is
proposing protections for the area along Richardson Bay between
Marin City and Tamalpais Valley. The project would include the
Manzanita Park and Ride lot and the Highway 101 interchanges at
Shoreline Highway and Donahue Street. An online public meeting
to introduce the plans is set for 6 p.m. Feb. 29. The webinar
can be accessed at bit.ly/3ud2ovl. … The lower half of
the Manzanita lot is closed an average of seven to 12 weeks out
of the year because of frequent tidal flooding driven by
sea-level rise, according to Caltrans. Intense rains coupled
with high tides also flood the southbound Highway 101 offramp
at the Donahue Street interchange in Marin City, O’Donnell
said.
Lawmakers want Californians to have the chance to vote on a new
measure they believe would save the Bay from future flooding.
On Friday, lawmakers and climate advocates on the Peninsula
proposed a vote to help protect people, homes and businesses
near the water. “Low-lying communities are all at risk but the
impacts of sea level rise will soon be felt by all residents of
the Bay Area,” said Assemblymemebr Damon Connolly.
Specifically, they’re pushing for a $16 billion climate
resiliency bond. It covers many issues, including wildfire
prevention, and clean energy – but it would also fund some of
the projects that non-profit Save the Bay says are urgently
needed.
Last May, a Bay Area company curiously named Montezuma Wetlands
submitted an application to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to build a “CarbonHub” in Solano County’s Montezuma
Wetlands. According to the proposal, the project would involve
drilling a well for carbon injection and establishing an
extensive expansion of submerged pipelines across San Francisco
Bay. Almost immediately the project rightfully came under fire
from our organization and many others due to the reality that
such a venture would threaten public health, degrade the local
environment and stall legitimate climate action. Indeed, carbon
capture and sequestration (CCS) — the process of trapping and
storing climate pollution before it enters the atmosphere — has
never worked in the real world and, in an ironic twist, has
mostly been embraced by major polluters who see it as a way to
claim they are cleaning up their act without changing
anything. -Written by Chirag Bhakta, California director of Food
& Water Watch.
Invasive weeds are threatening a recently restored section of
Corte Madera marsh and officials say they’re dealing with it
before the problem plants spread. Since the marsh restoration,
which was completed in 2021, workers have found invasive plants
in the 9 to 12 acres surrounding the 4 acres of restored tidal
wetlands along San Francisco Bay. The Golden Gate Bridge,
Highway and Transportation District, which owns the land,
approved a treatment plan in August that includes plant removal
and site monitoring through 2028. An addendum was approved at
the board’s Jan. 25 meeting to allow for manual weed removal
instead of herbicides. With these new approvals, the project
cost has escalated by more than $800,000, to $3.3 million.
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.
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.
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.”
Zooplankton, which are floating
aquatic microorganisms too small and weak to swim against
currents, are are important food sources for many fish species in
the Delta such as salmon, sturgeon and Delta smelt.
This 3-day, 2-night tour, which we do every year,
takes participants to the heart of California water policy – the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterfowl, and extends from Alaska and Canada, through
California, to Mexico and South America. Each year, birds follow
ancestral patterns as they travel the flyway on their annual
north-south migration. Along the way, they need stopover sites
such as wetlands with suitable habitat and food supplies. In
California, 90 percent of historic wetlands have been lost.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
15-minute DVD that graphically portrays the potential disaster
should a major earthquake hit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“Delta Warning” depicts what would happen in the event of an
earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale: 30 levee breaks,
16 flooded islands and a 300 billion gallon intrusion of salt
water from the Bay – the “big gulp” – which would shut down the
State Water Project and Central Valley Project pumping plants.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors”
features photos and information on four such species – including
the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic
threats posed by these species.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive plants can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native plants and animals. “Space
Invaders” features photos and information on six non-native
plants that have caused widespread problems in the Bay-Delta
Estuary and elsewhere.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
Operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the
Bay Model is a giant hydraulic replica of San Francisco
Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. It is housed in a converted World II-era
warehouse in Sausalito near San Francisco.
Hundreds of gallons of water are pumped through the
three-dimensional, 1.5-acre model to simulate a tidal ebb
and flow lasting 14 minutes.
Invasive species, also known as
exotics, are plants, animals, insects and aquatic species
introduced into non-native habitats.
Often, invasive species travel to non-native areas by ship,
either in ballast water released into harbors or attached to the
sides of boats. From there, introduced species can then spread
and significantly alter ecosystems and the natural food chain as
they go. Another example of non-native species introduction is
the dumping of aquarium fish into waterways.
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water provides an overview of the
idea of a dual conveyance facility, including questions
surrounding its cost, operation and governance
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Delta through the
many ongoing activities focusing on it, most notably the Delta
Vision process. Many hours of testimony, research, legal
proceedings, public hearings and discussion have occurred and
will continue as the state seeks the ultimate solution to the
problems tied to the Delta.