Model and Strategy
San Francisco Baykeeper defends the health of San Francisco Bay, its watershed, and Bay Area residents. Baykeeper patrols on the water, investigates pollution, holds polluters accountable, and strengthens the laws that protect the Bay.
The health and productivity of the San Francisco Bay-Delta depends on inflow of fresh water from the rivers of California’s Central Valley. But water in these rivers has for decades been diverted to supply industrial agriculture and cities. The current levels of freshwater flow reaching San Francisco Bay are woefully inadequate, resulting in stagnant rivers, degraded water quality, dwindling fish populations, and collapsing fisheries. Even so, industrial agriculture is attempting to divert more water to produce unsustainable crops. State policies are failing to require river flows that protect native wildlife species and sustainable fisheries. And some big cities aren’t reducing water consumption through basic conservation and recycling.
Baykeeper utilizes a combination of investigations, scientific expertise, legal action, and close collaboration with partner groups to make an impact on the freshwater flows needed to sustain the Bay-Delta ecosystem. In the next two years, their priority strategies include:
- Increase River Flows in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers. Baykeeper advocates for improved river flows and vibrant fisheries in the Bay-Delta, and develops much of the science that underpins coalition advocacy and litigation. Near-term advocacy priorities include adoption of river flow standards in the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan; preventing preventing increased diversions of Sacramento River water; increasing freshwater flows from the San Joaquin River to San Francisco Bay via legal action against the State Water Board; and strengthening the California Endangered Species Act through litigation.
- Pressure San Francisco to Reduce River Diversions. Baykeeper will advocate for San Francisco to make infrastructure upgrades, adopt water resilience measures, and reduce freshwater diversions that harm the health of Bay-Delta watershed.
- Develop Novel Legal Strategies to Secure Freshwater Flows. Baykeeper is pursuing novel legal action to improve freshwater flows to San Francisco Bay using the California Fish and Game Code section 5937, which requires dam operators to ensure sufficient water flows to “maintain fish stocks in good condition.” This statute could provide the legal basis to significantly improve freshwater flows in the Bay-Delta watershed.
Impact
For 34 years, San Francisco Baykeeper's lawyers, scientists, and advocates have taken on the biggest threats to the Bay and its watershed -- and won. They have logged tens of thousands of hours patrolling the Bay for pollution violations, won hundreds of legal actions to protect the bay from polluting activities and harmful actions, and they are advocating to preserve the freshwater flows needed to sustain the Bay-Delta ecosystem. Some of Baykeeper's recent victories have made an impact, including: :
- Stopping Toxic Coal Pollution in the Bay. Over the last decade, Baykeeper's legal team has worked with community partners to stop the expansion of 3 coal facilities around the Bay. Baykeeper recently worked with Richmond city leaders and local activists to pass a city ban on coal storage. And in a major legal victory in 2021, after legally challenging the ban, the coal industry agreed to phase out coal storage in Richmond by the end of 2026. This settlement will finally end the massive export of coal from Richmond, protecting the Bay, wildlife, and local communities from this toxic exposure.
- Preventing Future Bay Algal Blooms. Last summer, San Francisco Bay was hit with an unprecedented harmful algal bloom that turned Bay waters brown. Baykeeper responded to dozens of calls to their hotline, monitored the rapid spread with boat and drone patrols, collected samples, and documented dead fish. Now Baykeeper is leading the charge for regulators to adopt the first-ever permit to regulate nitrogen and phosphorus pollution in the Bay. Their scientists are advocating for nature-based solutions such as filtering wastewater through wetlands. This will result in stronger pollution controls and climate resilience strategies to prevent future algal blooms and protect the Bay.
- Patrolling the Bay to Catch Big Polluters.Baykeeper is the only organization that patrols San Francisco Bay to find and stop pollution – no other nonprofit or government agency watchdogs pollution threats in the Bay. For example, they received a pollution hotline tip about a dirty shoreline shipping facility in Benicia. Baykeeper volunteer skippers and field investigators patrolled by boat and drone and caught the company dumping petroleum coke (a toxic byproduct of oil refining) in the water while loading ships. Their drone captured big black plumes of pollution floating in the air and trailing in the water. So they took legal action against both the facility operator and the oil refinery. Baykeeper’s attorneys are now working in court to hold these polluters accountable and protect the health of the Bay and nearby residents from the impacts of toxic petroleum coke pollution.
Leadership
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Sejal Choksi-Chugh
Executive Director
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Jon Rosenfield
Science Director
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Eric Buescher
Managing Attorney
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Mark Westlund
Communications Director
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Amy Donovan
Finance Director
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Eliet Henderson
Development Director