San Francisco Baykeeper recommends a Yes vote on Berkeley’s Measure M. This bond measure will provide funds to reduce rainy-season pollution that runs off Berkeley’s streets and into San Francisco Bay.
During storms, rain rushes across roads, driveways, sidewalks, and roofs, picking up trash, oil, pesticides and other pollutants. In Berkeley, as in most Bay Area communities, the contaminated rainwater zooms down a storm drain into a concrete culvert that dumps it—unfiltered and untreated—into creeks or the Bay itself.
Measure M will fund Berkeley infrastructure projects that decrease runoff pollution. These projects include rain gardens and permeable street paving that keep rainwater on site and out of creeks and the Bay. Instead, the rain percolates into the ground, where pollutants are broken down naturally. San Francisco Baykeeper has long advocated for Bay Area cities to control storm water pollution using the methods that will be funded by Measure M. Vote Yes.