Water Board has opportunity to keep trash out of our Bay!

We have an opportunity to greatly reduce the amount of trash entering San Francisco Bay, yet many local governments are resisting it. We need to speak up now for a cleaner Bay.

The trash problem

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of the more sobering discoveries of the last decade: a massive accumulation of plastic and marine debris, brought together by Pacific Ocean currents. The Garbage Patch is roughly twice the size of Texas. People often react with shock - how can this exist? - and with disbelief that an estimated 80% of trash in the Garbage Patch originates right here on land.

Closer to home, San Francisco Bay has a number of mini-garbage patches in the making. Discarded trash on the streets flows or blows into storm drains and creeks, which discharge trash with the rest of the urban run-off directly into the Bay. At creek mouths and storm-drain outfalls, we see accumulations of bags, wrappers, cans, balls, cups, and cigarette butts - most of which will never biodegrade - in plasticky drifts known as Bay trash hot spots. Two of the more conspicuous are at the mouth of Berkeley's Strawberry Creek (behind the Sea Breeze Market) and in Oakland's Damon Slough, seen by tens of thousands of A's fans who walk the BART overpass. Walkers, joggers, boaters, and swimmers see many more of these eyesores.

Others are more hidden, but all dangerous to wildlife. Animals often get entangled by trash, suffer, and die. Further, wildlife can't tell trash from their regular diets, and this "junk" food with no nutrients leads to starvation.

We don't know how much accumulates in Bay trash hot spots and how much floats out the Golden Gate to join the Pacific Garbage Patch. We do know that there's just too much trash hitting the water: a recent Coastal Clean-Up pulled 138 tons of garbage from shorelines around the Bay Area in a single day.

A solution

The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board is preparing a new permit governing the release of stormwater into the Bay by cities and counties. This permit is a critical tool for reducing trash pollution to creeks, the Bay, and eventually the Pacific Ocean. Compared to other pollutants, trash control is highly achievable and requires only low-tech methods like screens and nets - but the Board has yet to require real limits on trash discharge. Most Bay Area cities and counties agree that trash is a problem, but they strenuously oppose new requirements. In contrast, the Los Angeles region is showing us what can be done - with an ambitious plan for zero trash in the Los Angeles River - and has secured funding to make it a reality. Save San Francisco Bay is leading efforts to replicate these successes in our area.

Also, the city of Oakland is engaged in a valuable effort to reduce one component of trash pollution. Late last year the city passed an ordinance to ban the distribution of free plastic grocery bags by stores in the city. The plastic industry responded with protests and a lawsuit (only against Oakland, not against San Francisco or other cities with similar ordinances) complaining that the City Council did not consider potential environmental impacts, and enforcement has therefore been delayed. According to Councilmember Nancy Nadel (whom the Sierra Club has endorsed for re-election; see page 6), the city is still awaiting the judge's decision.

WhatYouCanDo

On March 11the Water Board held a hearing on the permit, and heard from a crowd of city representatives opposed to strict permit requirements. The Board needs to hear from members of the broader community who want trash kept out of our creeks and Bay. Write to John Muller, chair of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Control Board, at:

1515 Clay St., #1400
Oakland, CA 94612,

or through the web site of Save San Francisco Bay

Urge the Board to include strong limits on trash in the Municipal Regional Permit.

To be informed when the Oakland City Council is again discussing the plastic-bag ordinance, contact or call (510)848-0800, ext. 316

Kent Lewandowski, chair, Sierra Club Northern Alameda County Group; and Athena Honoré, Save San Francisco Bay