The San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) recently announced that it has been awarded a $9 million grant from the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) to build an all-electric passenger ferry to serve the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco. The grant, awarded through CalSTA’s Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program, will […]
Did you know this year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day? My staff would normally be tabling at festivals around the Bay Area, organizing volunteers at shoreline trash cleanups and hosting happy hours at local restaurants to toast the Bay we love. Yet here we are instead, celebrating the Earth inside […]
BY KRISTY HAMILTON Nothing captures our imaginations quite like the mystery of the sea—we have legends like Captain Cook, Jules Verne and Jacques-Yves Cousteau to thank for our fascination with Earth’s waters. Sailing into San Francisco from March 12 to 15, the International Ocean Film Festival returns for its 17th year with new tales of […]
During the last few rainy seasons, Baykeeper’s scientists spent many weeks scrambling down hillsides and wading into mud to collect water samples from storm drain outfalls. Our field team was looking for the source of pollution to South Bay creeks and rivers that feed into San Francisco Bay. We got surprising results. The water samples […]
BY JOEL WILLIAMS It was shortly after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake shook the Bay Area that the first sea lions began hauling out onto the piers in the Pier 39 marina. It was a few here and there at first, but by January 1990 their numbers had reached 500—at one point they topped out […]
Last month, high tides in San Francisco Bay washed up onto the shoreline of a large former pharmaceutical company in Richmond. A few hours later, the outgoing tide pulled contamination—including pesticides, toxic chemicals and radioactive waste—off the industrial land and into the Bay. Right now, this occurs a few times every year during the highest […]
BY BILL PICTURE I have to admit my own carbon footprint wasn’t as light as it could have been back in 2007, when Bay Crossings asked me to contribute a monthly feature about environmental sustainability for a new section it planned to call the “Green Pages.” Sure, I recycled. I’m pretty sure my flatmates and […]
On November 7, park managers and community and civic leaders, led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, broke ground on 14 acres of new national parkland atop highway tunnels with dramatic views of the Golden Gate, the Bay, the Presidio and the San Francisco skyline. The Presidio Tunnel Tops project, slated to open in […]
BY BILL PICTURE Nearly 20 years ago, port officials in San Francisco began assessing the City’s underused (and largely dilapidated) southern waterfront to decide on the best path forward for the once thriving area. During that assessment, stakeholders wanted to find an industrial-recreational balance that would honor the area’s rich maritime history. At the same […]
BY BILL PICTURE The San Francisco Estuary Partnership has broken ground on a green street project that will help improve water quality in the Bay by cleaning the stormwater that travels along paved city surfaces. The “Green Stormwater Spine” will eventually replace a cumulative total of six acres of concrete and other impervious surfaces along […]