BY DAN ROSENHEIM No one is selling ride tickets yet, but the cause of hovercraft ferry boats is attracting growing support around the Bay, having gone in the course of a year from little more than a gleam in the eye of aficionados to a substantive topic of study, planning and negotiation. The flat-bottomed boats […]
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 […]
BY SEJAL CHOKSI-CHUGH Every year, seven trillion tiny pieces of plastic—microplastics—flow into San Francisco Bay. Once these tiny pieces are in the water, they never go away. They just break into smaller and smaller pieces. Microplastics range from the size of a popcorn kernel to smaller than a grain of salt. Some plastic particles sink […]
BC STAFF REPORT The San Francisco Bay Conserva-tion and Development Com-mission (BCDC) voted last month to amend its plan to support more just and equitable management of the San Francisco Bay. Environmental justice and social equity policies were developed in close collaboration with five Bay Area community groups that formed the Environmental Justice Review Team […]
BY DAN ROSENHEIM “We’ve got some reserves but not enough to fund everything.” Those words, spoken last month by Water Emergency Transit Authority (WETA) Executive Director Nina Rannells, reflect the agency’s predicament as it reevaluates a five-year spending plan in the face of a freeze on funds it had expected to receive from Regional Measure […]
BY PATRICK BURNSON In February 2019, Port of San Francisco Executive Director Elaine Forbes announced the appointment of Andre Coleman as the new maritime director for the port. In his current position, Coleman is responsible for strategic oversight and implementation of the port’s maritime portfolio, which includes assets, services, operations and labor and client relations […]
Ground was broken last month for Alameda’s third ferry terminal, the Seaplane Lagoon dock at Alameda Point. A group of builders, Alameda government officials and WETA staff gathered for the ceremony on the southern side of Alameda’s former naval air station. The terminal site, which will include a 400-vehicle parking lot, is expected to be […]
First there was one, then three, then five, and now more than 70 harbor seals a week are “hauling-out” on the floating concrete dock built especially for them in Alameda Point Harbor. Located a few hundred yards off WETA’s glistening new Central Bay Maintenance and Operations Facility, inaugurated just last December, the dock represents a […]
Bay Planning Coalition (BPC) hosted its annual Resources & Infrastructure Expert Briefing at East Bay Municipal Utility District’s (EBMUD) Oakland headquarters last month. The panel of environmental experts, local policymakers, regulatory agencies and utility company representatives attempted to address the risks posed to Bay Area communities by growing climate-related dangers such as wildfires and heavy […]
The Trump administration has reached a new low in its assault on clean water. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is claiming that San Francisco Bay water isn’t water. The agency recently decided that the South Bay salt ponds are land and don’t need Clean Water Act protection. This bizarre decision is dangerous for San Francisco Bay. […]