Updates and news about our latest victories defending San Francisco Bay
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—...
Fifty Legal Wins to Hold Industrial Polluters Accountable
Across the region, industrial facilities illegally pollute the Bay with stormwater runoff containing high concentrations of toxic contaminants like lead, chromium, copper, and oil. With the help...
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....
Clean Water Act at 50: Making Lives Better
Happy 50th birthday to the Clean Water Act! This law has been Baykeeper’s primary legal tool for the past thirty-plus years, helping us win hundreds of victories for the Bay and the people of the Bay...
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...
Is Alameda Going Underwater?
A human-made island, at sea level, surrounded by San Francisco Bay, Alameda faces an unusually high risk from sea level rise. In the coming decades, sea levels around the Bay will rise by at least...
What Goes Up Must Come Down
A metal plating company in Fremont, Global Plating, has long avoided Clean Water Act requirements by claiming to have no industrial activities outdoors. But after collecting stormwater samples,...
Fighting Giants Around the Bay
The determined underdog emerges victorious after defeating a ferocious giant. It’s a mythic story that cuts across centuries and cultures. One of the most familiar versions takes place in the valley...
A Turning Point for Bay Fish
In response to our advocacy efforts to reduce pollution in Bay fish over a decade ago, a local water agency informed us that there was “no evidence of subsistence fishing in the Bay Area.” This came...