Cole Burchiel came to Baykeeper after spending time as a park ranger in Vermont; he was hiking the Appalachian trail when he got the call to interview. Now Cole manages Baykeeper’s signature Bay patrols, as well as our volunteer programs, scientific support for our legal team, and our Pollution Hotline—and he’s also a licensed drone pilot.
Sometimes when the Bay scores a big win, you might not be aware of it. There's not a fireworks show or a victory parade. Most often, the developer with a bad proposal or the industrial company with a harmful expansion plan just doesn't get that last permit approved. Their bad idea is rejected and fades away, and the polluter moves on to another plan.
Last year, the US Army Corps of Engineers unveiled a plan to dredge a deeper shipping channel through San Francisco Bay to Stockton. The move itself wasn’t unusual since the Corps regularly dredges mud to clear shipping channels throughout the Bay and Delta. But the new plan had an ulterior motive.
Baykeeper’s Bay-Safe Industry Campaign is making rapid progress. We launched the campaign in 2012, and have so far secured legally-binding agreements requiring 51 industrial facilities to implement controls to keep toxic pollution from contaminating San Francisco Bay.
These victories include cleanup of toxic pollution by:
All around the Bay Area, hundreds of industrial facilities allow their polluted runoff to seep into the watershed—a slow drip of toxic waste that turns into a deluge every time it rains.
At Baykeeper, we’re working to put a stop to this widespread source of pollution. Our scientists and lawyers carefully review water quality test results from industrial sites that lie near the Bay or along its many tributaries. When we find a facility that’s dumping dangerous levels of pollution, we take action.
We’re feeling grateful and relieved that millions across the country came together to choose Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, leaders who trust science and believe in protecting our health and environment. The week’s seemingly endless counting of votes made it clear that democracy works and our voices matter. And in the historic election of this country’s first female, South Asian, and Black vice president, we elected a leader who also happens to know and love San Francisco Bay!
Nothing like a dramatically historic—and incomplete—election night to remind us all that it's still 2020. We've heard for weeks that we wouldn't immediately know the results of the election, but it's disconcerting nonetheless. With ballots still being counted in unsettled states across the country, and breaking news of requested recounts, there’s tension and uncertainty in the air.
If there's one thing that 2020 has been relentless in teaching us, it's that we can never underestimate how strange things can get—and we need to remain patient.
We hold certain truths about nature to be self-evident: The sun rises in the east, gravity grounds us, tides ebb and flow, and the sky is blue. But leave it to 2020 to show us that even some of these truths can’t be relied on anymore. September's orange skies creeped me out—not in a scary Halloween way, but more like an anxious danger-is-coming way.
Oakland, CA — Baykeeper and the US Coast Guard reached an agreement today that requires the federal agency to make significant changes to reduce heavy metals and other pollutants from its Yerba Buena Island facility in San Francisco Bay.
