Enewsletter for December 2020

Last year, the US Army Corps of Engineers unveiled a plan to dredge a deeper shipping channel from San Francisco Bay to Stockton. This year, they pulled the plug.

The project would have cost taxpayers millions of dollars, for the exclusive benefit of Big Oil. Deeper channels would have meant bigger oil tankers on the Bay—posing a greater risk of catastrophic oil spills—and the potential contamination of drinking water. 

Baykeeper and our allies at Sunflower Alliance, Stand.earth, and Communities for a Better Environment, along with others in the community, submitted legal and scientific challenges to the proposal during the review period, which resulted in the plan's cancellation.

Photo of an oil tanker under the Richmond Bridge, leaving the Bay, by Daniel Parks, Flickr/CC

You might not have noticed what went down last month between Phillips 66 and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. But that's OK, they didn't really want you to.

The refinery asked for a new permit so they could bring more oil tankers carrying heavy tar sands crude into their port at Rodeo, and at the same time said they were going to switch to making only renewable diesel. The Air District thought that double dealing was unnecessary, so they deep-sixed the permit application for tar sands expansion.

That means no additional tar sands on the Bay and less danger of a heavy oil spill that response agencies have no technical ability to clean up—and that spells victory for the Bay!

In a little over a month, we'll transition to a new Presidential Administration. After four years of relentless assaults on the environment, many of us are eager for President-elect Biden to hit the ground running.

Through our global Waterkeeper Alliance, we worked with 100 of our fellow waterkeepers across the country to develop a water action plan of what Biden must do in his first 100 days in office. With our eye on San Francisco Bay, we were glad to support a collective effort to push the federal government to undo Trump's weakening of the Clean Water Act, prioritize environmental justice protections, ban offshore oil drilling, and restore the National Environmental Policy Act.  

We’ve also separately joined over 500 nonprofit partners to call on Biden to be the first "plastic free" President. This coalition is advocating for eight crucial actions the president can take without any help (or obstruction) from Congress, immediately setting the nation on a pathway to a plastic-pollution-free future. Click here to sign a petition to add your individual voice to this effort!

Photo by Jana Shea/Shutterstock

But now, Trump's EPA and Cargill, the multinational corporation that wants to pave over the salt ponds, are appealing our legal win.

We’re ready for them. Baykeeper and our partners will keep fighting for the protection and restoration this shoreline area deserves.

You can help us end 2020 on a high note—with a sound defeat of the Trump administration’s last attack on the Bay. Please make a gift today to help the Bay be healthy, resilient, and protected for the future.

Photo by Dicklyon / CC BY-SA

Annual high tides—known as the King Tides—arrived in the Bay Area in mid-November and again earlier this week.

The tides are a natural phenomenon, occurring when the alignment of the sun and the moon create extra gravitational pull. But Baykeeper’s scientists have been monitoring the King Tides carefully in recent years because they’re a useful indicator of the areas most vulnerable to sea level rise. In past years, we’ve partnered with LightHawk Conservation Flying to document the high tide levels near critical infrastructure, and this year we relied on our new drone to assess certain parts of the shoreline.

Drawing on information from our King Tides observations and many other sources, we’ve created recommendations for how to protect the Bay from sea level rise. You can read Baykeeper’s analysis and recommendations on our ShoreView site.

Photo of King Tides in Sausalito by Tom Hilton, Flickr/CC

If you're looking for a way to connect with nature and contribute to citizen science, check out the 121st annual Christmas Bird Count hosted by our friends at the Audubon Society.

The count started this week and will last through January 5. The results of this bird census provide critical population data for science and conservation. If your home lies within one of the designated count circles, you can even report out from your own backyard!

Photo by Robb Most

A few weeks ago, we received a hotline report that a dredging crane had slipped its mooring, capsized, and started spilling diesel and engine oil into the Petaluma River.

After alerting response agencies, the tipster called Baykeeper to report a visible oil sheen in the water that stretched a mile from the spill. 

So we deployed our new patrol drone, Osprey, to take a look at the situation from above. Our Field Investigator Cole Burchiel was able to observe the oil collecting in patches downstream of the sunken dredger, as well as orange booms used to contain the spill. Fortunately—thanks to a rapid response by the local Fire Department and fast reporting by the tipster—most of the oil was contained. Cole and Osprey were able to confirm that a negligible amount of oil had reached the nearby Shollenberger Park wetlands.

Pictured above and below: Osprey’s footage of the sunken dredger and oil spill in the Petaluma

Baykeeper is hiring! We're looking to fill an existing position with an experienced senior attorney who will join our high-impact environmental enforcement and legal advocacy program.

In addition to litigation, the attorney will also work collaboratively with our staff scientists, lawyers, and outside partners to strengthen water quality policies through legal advocacy. Even during these difficult COVID times, it's critical to keep Baykeeper's legal team fully staffed so we can keep achieving big wins for the Bay! The Senior Staff Attorney is a leadership position instrumental to the continued success of Baykeeper's legal program and our mission to help the Bay thrive.

Click here for more details and how to apply.