Soon, state regulations requiring furniture and other consumer products in California to be doused with toxic flame retardants will be revised, with input from environmental and human health advocates. Governor Jerry Brown ordered the revision on June 18.
Charity Navigator, the nation’s leading evaluator of nonprofit organizations’ financial performance, has awarded San Francisco Baykeeper its top 4-star rating. This rating designates Baykeeper’s financial efficiency, accountability and transparency to be “Exceptional: Exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its cause.”
Finding a Bay Area beach with water clean enough for swimming, surfing and other in-the-water recreation is going to be easier with Baykeeper’s launch of the Swim Guide app. This new, free smart phone app provides up-to-date water quality information from government authorities on more than a dozen Bay and ocean beaches in the Bay Area. The app is available from the Apple App Store, for Android from Google Play or online at www.theswimguide.org.
It’s safe to go in the water at Bay Area beaches during the summer, according to the Annual Beach Report Card released today. But during wet weather, sewage spills are still a threat to surfers, swimmers and other recreationists.
The report card, issued by our partners at Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay, assigns a grade of A to F to beaches along the West Coast for water quality. Better grades indicate a lower risk of illness for people who go in the water. Over the past year, 98% of the Bay Area's ocean beaches and 88% of Bay beaches earned a grade of A or B.
Birds and other wildlife coated with oil during oil spills will be more likely to get rescue and care under Baykeeper-sponsored legislation being considered in the California Senate. Update: The legislation, SB 1192, has passed the Senate and is now being considered in the California Assembly. SB 1192 raises fees on oil and shipping companies to fully fund the Oiled Wildlife Care Network.
We would like to congratulate Baykeeper Advisory Council member Felicia Marcus on her appointment by Governor Jerry Brown to the State Water Resources Control Board.
Baykeeper is very pleased to have a strong advocate for the environment and San Francisco Bay taking a leadership post at this important regulatory agency. The Water Resources Control Board is the primary regulator of California water quality and the primary enforcer of water pollution laws in our state. The agency is also tasked with overseeing water rights and flow issues, including water transfers from the Delta.
Long-term plans for the future of San Francisco Bay shouldn’t make it easier to discharge pollution into the Bay and its tributaries, Baykeeper recently told the Bay Area’s primary water quality regulators.
Baykeeper urged the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board to instead take a proactive approach to focus its limited resources on protecting the Bay, by identifying pressing areas of concern and setting forth clear goals and objectives for improved water quality. We made these recommendations during the board’s process for revising the San Francisco Bay Region Basin Plan.
The owner and operator of the Dubai Star, a tanker that spilled 422 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay in 2009, will pay $1.96 million to settle violations of state clean water laws. The payment will be used primarily to restore wildlife habitat and enhance public recreation in the East Bay.
Oil spilled on October 30, 2009—sticky, black bunker fuel—coated 10 miles of Alameda County beaches. Crown Beach had to be closed for 25 days. The state Department of Fish and Game estimates that the spill killed 186 birds, including brown pelicans, American coots and shorebirds.
New rules to keep invasive species out of San Francisco Bay are a big step forward, but should be even tighter, Baykeeper recently told regulators.
Baykeeper urged the adoption of the proposed rules, with further protections for the Bay and all California waters, during the State Lands Commission’s process for implementing the state Marine Invasive Species Act and Coastal Ecosytems Protections Act.