Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Sewage spill soils the Bay

by Amy Alton, Communications Associate

The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that approximately 720,000 gallons of sewage spewed into the Bay during last week's spill at the Sausalito-Marin City Sanitary District.

Not surprisingly, sewage spills are a health risk for both people and wildlife—touching, inhaling, or ingesting sewage-contaminated water can cause rashes, infections, and nausea and vomiting. And large amounts of sewage can also cause die-offs due to increased nutrient load as oxygen in the water is used to break down the influx of organic matter, causing fish and wildlife to leave, or even die.

This current leakage, in addition to the spills in Marin last year, are some of the largest sewage spills in recent years. But in reality, sewage spills happen quite regularly because the infrastructure is old and weak and significant investment is needed to repairs these lines and upgrade our plants.

While it's true that sewage spills can harm both people and wildlife, you might be surprised to learn that runoff pollution from our homes, cars, and neighborhoods poses a much larger threat to the health of the Bay. Check it out:

-- Each (car-owning) Bay Area resident contributes one quart of motor oil to the Bay from their cars every year.

-- When cars are washed on pavement or in the driveway, soapy water, motor oil, copper, zinc, lead and other heavy metals are washed down the storm drains – which bypass the wastewater treatment plants – and flow straight into creeks and the Bay.

-- Pharmaceuticals and mercury put down any drain contribute to Bay pollution.

-- A 2005 study found an average of three pieces of trash along every foot of streams that lead to the Bay.

-- Mercury from one thermometer can contaminate five million gallons of Bay water – the same amount of water needed to fill six Olympic-size swimming pools.

Click here to learn more about how YOU can prevent Bay pollution.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

A Mouse in the House

by Darcie Collins, Ph.D., Habitat Restoration Director

$30 million in the stimulus package for a mouse? That was the claim in last Thursday’s Washington Times. GOP officials, arguing the new stimulus package is stuffed with Democratic pork, charged Nancy Pelosi with earmarking $30 million of the $780 billion package to protect the salt marsh harvest mouse, an endangered animal endemic to the marshes of the San Francisco Bay.

The story evolved like this: last week, a House Republican staffer circulated an email claiming an unnamed Federal Agency would spend “thirty million dollars (of stimulus money) for wetland restoration in the San Francisco Bay Area—including work to protect the salt marsh harvest mouse.” Although there is no specific language in the bill indicating the money would go explicitly to protecting the endangered animal, the staffer held to this claim: “The bottom line is, if this bill becomes law, taxpayers will spend $30 million on a mouse.”

Pelosi’s staff disagreed. “There are no federal wetland restoration projects in line to get funded in San Francisco,” Pelosi spokesperson Drew Hammill said. “Neither the Speaker nor her staff have had any involvement in this initiative. The idea that $30 million will be spent to save mice is a total fabrication.”

In truth, it's not a total fabrication. But many San Francisco Bay wetland restoration projects—earth-moving, planting, fence and road building, and creating wildlife viewing areas and parking lots—are currently at a stand-still due to inadequate funding. These “ready-to-go” projects are prime for the stimulus package. And they would help protect the salt marsh harvest mouse.



So what is wrong with a project that benefits an endangered species and creates job opportunities? Unfortunately the little mouse has been getting a bit of a bad rap.

In wetland restoration, the salt marsh harvest mouse operates as an “indicator species." Indicator species are very sensitive organisms that respond to extremely small changes in the environment and are often used to indicate pollution and other impacts in ecosystems. In the case of the salt marsh harvest mouse, the loss of San Francisco Bay tidal wetlands and salt marshes has caused a dramatic decrease in the harvest mouse population, resulting in its addition to the Endangered Species List in 1970.

But just as sensitive species can be indicators of disturbance, they are also indicators of healthy systems, and restoration biologists often use these species as evidence of the successes of restoration work.



So what does the mouse-bashing mean for SF Bay restoration ?

Healthy salt marshes are vital for a sustainable Bay ecosystem, which helps combat the effects of global warming and leads to a sustainable fishing industry, improved water quality, and increased tourism and recreation. GOP officials may bash the little mouse, but a thriving salt marsh harvest mouse population indicates a healthy wetland ecosystem. And since salt marshes are the lungs of the Bay—providing habitat to hundreds of fish and wildlife species, trapping pollutants from urban areas before they reach the Bay, capturing carbon from greenhouse gases and providing flood and erosion control—this is a good thing.

The proposed stimulus package includes $30 million to restore San Francisco Bay wetlands, which ultimately protects the salt marsh harvest mouse. Some call it pork; others call it cheese. I call it a good investment for our Bay.

Learn more about Save The Bay's wetland restoration program.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Big win for the Bay!

by Laura Reinhard, Policy Associate

I was at the hearing this week where the Water Board unanimously agreed that 24 tributaries and two major shoreline sections of the Bay are so clogged with trash that they violate the Clean Water Act. This historic step was widely reported in over 20 media stories, including this article in the San Francisco Chronicle or this article in the San Jose Mercury News.



Save The Bay members and concerned citizens helped document this problem by sending in photos of trashy creeks and shorelines around the Bay. Of course, now we have a lot more work to do to make sure that our creeks and Bay get cleaned up. Stay tuned!

For more information on Bay trash, and to find the trash hot spots near you, click here .

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Way to GTO!

by Sarah Lyons, Administrative Assistant

A photo of Sylvia McLaughlin, one of Save The Bay’s founding members, hangs in the hallway and watches over me as I work at my desk. The gorgeous Bay landscape and Sylvia’s determined smile are part of what prompted me to recently become head of our Greening The Office (GTO) committee. GTO is a new, inter-departmental group committed to the task of reducing our carbon footprint, and adhering as much as possible to the three R’s--reducing, reusing, and recycling.

It is amazing how much paper, cardboard, electronics, desks, plastics, food waste, disposable bags, metals and more a normal office can go through in just a single day. But Save The Bay is no normal office, and we set about to reduce, reuse, recycle (and compost!) everything we could get our hands on.



A war was already being waged on the most obvious culprit, paper. Some sources say that the consumption of paper in the United States increases by 20% every year. To combat this, we replaced all virgin paper with post-consumer recycled content paper products. And all non-sensitive used paper, including shredded sensitive documents, are placed in clearly-labeled recycling bins. If only one side of a piece of paper is used for a print-job, it’s flipped over and re-used.



A small compost bin is in the kitchen for our discarded food scraps, and my own, personal compost bin has never been happier with the amount of veggie and fruit material I bring home since we have some very healthy staffers. Cotton towels are hanging in the kitchen and bathrooms, and the small amount of paper towels still used is added to the compost. Environmental and animal-friendly soaps and detergents were also thrown into the mix, as well as compostable cups and plates when re-usables are not available.




On the to-do list is the addition of more office plants, a basement cleanout to support bulk orders of supplies (thus cutting down on fuel for transport and packing materials), and aerators for the sinks (supplied by EBMUD). We're always looking to do more, so please feel free to share any ideas you have!

All of these steps are singularly small, but together they make a big difference. It's important to remember—when faced with the daunting task of saving the Bay--that every little bit helps. Not all our efforts to save the Bay need to take on the Bay; some can happen right in our downtown office.

Office greening resources:
www.Stopwaste.org
The Environmentally Green Office at a Glance
www.ireuse.com