As a result of Baykeeper’s advocacy, a major shoreline industrial facility has been ordered to better control toxic waste blowing into the Bay. Schnitzer Steel, a metal and vehicle recycler on the Oakland Estuary, has long been one of the Bay’s worst runoff and airborne dust polluters. At our urging, the Regional Water Control Board recently instructed the company to improve its efforts to keep airborne dust containing toxic waste from blowing and washing into San Francisco Bay.

Large industrial facilities released more than one million pounds of toxic chemicals into San Francisco Bay and other water bodies in the 60,000 square-mile Bay-Delta watershed during 2011, according to a report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The majority of this pollution comes from the large oil refineries located along San Francisco Bay shorelines.

Even more toxic chemicals were disposed of on land or released into the air, with an overall total of more than 20 million pounds.

A Hayward recycler of TVs, computers, and other electronics has volunteered to test its storm water runoff to see if it is polluting San Francisco Bay, and to reduce any pollution found.

The company, e-Recycling of California, responded to Baykeeper’s suggestions for pollution controls by proposing a new effort to improve their environmental stewardship, even though most of the contamination entering the Bay from the company’s site was from a recently-closed facility next door.

When an oil tanker hit the Bay Bridge Monday morning, no oil got into the Bay, according to the Coast Guard and other agencies investigating the collision. I immediately went to the scene in the Baykeeper boat to observe the situation, along with Baykeeper Program Director Jason Flanders, who took these photos.

The tanker, the Overseas Reymar, damaged the bridge tower’s protective barrier, as shown in the photo at right.

For most people, a rainy forecast means carrying an umbrella—but for our new team of pollution investigators, it’s a call to action. Baykeeper staff members and Volunteer Pollution Investigators are braving rainy weather to find San Francisco Bay’s industrial polluters.

Baykeeper is working to stop Schnitzer Steel, a metal and vehicle recycler on the Oakland Estuary, from allowing airborne dust containing toxic waste to blow into San Francisco Bay.

Schnitzer Steel Oakland processes, shreds, and ships out tens of thousands of tons of scrap metal from automobiles and other sources every year. A recent study of a similar facility found that dust falling onto nearby and downwind areas contained lead, copper, iron, zinc, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic, among many other pollutants.

Charity Navigator, the nation’s leading evaluator of nonprofit organizations’ financial performance, has awarded San Francisco Baykeeper its second consecutive top 4-star rating.

“Only 17% of the charities we rate have received at least two consecutive 4-star evaluations, indicating that San Francisco Baykeeper outperforms most other charities in America,” wrote Charity Navigator President and CEO Ken Berger, in a letter announcing the award.

Five years ago on the morning of November 7, the 900-foot container ship Cosco Busan left Oakland, in heavy fog with low visibility. It side-swiped a Bay Bridge tower, ripping open two fuel tanks and pouring more than 53,000 gallons of heavy bunker fuel into San Francisco Bay.

Some noteworthy research findings about water quality in San Francisco Bay have recently been released in an annual publication by local scientists and regulators. Here are some highlights: