Landfill Agrees to Stop Polluting Coyote Creek & the Bay

Mar 14, 2018

Baykeeper recently secured a new legal victory to stop the Newby Island landfill facility in Milpitas from releasing polluted runoff into tributaries of San Francisco Bay.

The Newby Island Resource Recovery Park is a landfill, compost, and material recovery facility located near the Bay shoreline. Through our investigations, Baykeeper found that the facility had been releasing excessive levels of pollutants—including selenium, iron, aluminum, nitrogen, and sediment—into Coyote Creek and Lower Penitencia Creek for years. Both of these creeks are tributaries of San Francisco Bay.

Baykeeper reached a settlement agreement with International Disposal Corp. and Browning-Ferris Industries—the operators of the Newby Island facility—that requires improvements in pollution and debris control. These improvements include strengthening basic housekeeping to regularly clean up contaminated materials on site; installing storm drain filters; taking actions to prevent erosion; and regularly testing rainwater running off the site to monitor pollution levels. If initial improvements don’t stop the contamination, the facility has agreed to make further improvements.  

To partially offset the harm from its past polluting activities, the operators of the Newby Island landfill will provide funds to the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, to support the work of other nonprofit projects that benefit San Francisco Bay.

This agreement is the 41st settlement in Baykeeper’s Bay-Safe Industry campaign, which targets the widespread illegal practice of releasing industrial pollution into San Francisco Bay.

Newby Island

The Newby Island landfill facility is located near Coyote Creek and the Bay's shoreline.

Related Content

The Dirty Business of Recycling
It’s a cruel irony that the process of recycling plastic, cardboard, metals, and other materials can be harmful to the environment. Recycling facilities are often covered in contaminants—everything...
Hiding in Plain Sight
A few years ago, Baykeeper skipper Jeff Wasserman and his wife Julie were kayaking along the Alameda shoreline on a lazy Saturday afternoon when they noticed something glittering in the embankment....
Bringing a Repeat Polluter to Justice
In a recent roundup of industrial polluters around the Bay, our pollution monitoring team encountered a familiar name: Granite Rock. Granite Rock is a mining and construction company with several...
Join us to hold polluters accountable and defend the Bay DONATE NOW >