(Nov 28, 2020)
Cancellation is a Win for the Bay’s Health, for local Drinking Water, and will Save Taxpayers Millions of Dollars
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates as part of the Department of Defense, announced via public notice that it’s withdrawing plans to dredge the shipping channel connecting San Francisco Bay to Stockton deeper. The scheme was a favor to the Bay Area’s...
(Nov 20, 2020) Oakland, California—Just weeks after Contra Costa County’s Board of Supervisors declared a climate emergency in their county, a diverse group of environmental and public health advocates sent a letter to the Board calling for a planned and equitable transition away from fossil fuels to a clean energy economy, in what many are calling a “just transition” that supports refinery...
(Oct 16, 2020) Oakland, CA — Baykeeper and the US Coast Guard reached an agreement today that requires the federal agency to make significant changes to reduce heavy metals and other pollutants from its Yerba Buena Island facility in San Francisco Bay. The agreement also requires the Coast Guard to put a civilian environmental specialist in place to oversee environmental compliance at the...
(Oct 14, 2020)
Oakland, CA — Today, Donald Trump signed an executive order to form a "subcabinet" office of water policy, with a mandate of meeting the water demands of industrial agriculture and fracking. An executive order from Trump put Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler in charge of the interagency body. Bernhardt is a former...
(Oct 6, 2020) Redwood City’s Salt Ponds are Protected by the Clean Water Act The historic salt ponds in Redwood City, owned by an affiliate of Cargill, Inc., are indeed waters of the United States and are protected by the Clean Water Act, according to a ruling by a federal court in San Francisco.
The court ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “misapplied the law” in deciding that...
(Oct 5, 2020)
Federal Judge Rules that Trump's EPA Cannot Declare South Bay Salt Ponds to be Land
Judge William Alsup of the US Northern District of California Court ruled today on the case Baykeeper vs EPA that Trump's EPA misapplied the Clean Water Act when it determined that the South Bay salt ponds, owned by Cargill, are in fact land. The ruling vacated the EPA's determination, and...
(Sep 1, 2020) REDWOOD CITY, California, September 1, 2020: Neighborhood groups, conservation, wildlife, and climate sustainability organizations, and even a public agency, joined forces today to issue an urgent and united call for Redwood City to include specific, actionable steps in their 2030 Climate Action Plan Update - not just to reduce emissions, but also toward adaptation to sea level rise...
(Aug 15, 2020) OAKLAND – An unexpected power outage on Friday included the West Oakland area where the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) Main Wastewater Treatment Plant is located, which caused failure of major equipment at the wastewater plant resulting in a sewer back-up and release of 50,000 gallons of raw and partially treated wastewater to the Oakland-Alameda Estuary.
In response,...
(Jul 9, 2020)
In May this year, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to block the City of Oakland's authority to stop coal pollution within its own city limits. Today, San Francisco Baykeeper and the Sierra Club -- through their attorneys at Earthjustice -- filed a request asking the court to reconsider its decision.
This request for a new hearing is being coordinated with a similar request...
(May 29, 2020)
Richmond, CA — Today, the Sierra Club and San Francisco Baykeeper moved to interevene as full parties in the lawsuits to defend the City of Richmond’s ordinance that phases out the storage and handling of coal and petroleum coke in the city, and also filed an accompanying motion to dismiss the lawsuits. The environmental legal organization Earthjustice is representing both the...