If you weren’t from around here, or hadn’t been here in a while, you’d never know. There’s  construction of new, lovely docks, there’s a new fuel and pumpout dock, new shower and laundry facility, and some pretty good stuff in the impromptu library in the laundry room.

It’s subtler than that. Little stuff. Like, the guys who think it’s funny to take a dump in the toilets and not flush. Like the person who was so enraged that I’d taken their dry clothes out of the dryer to make room for my own stuff, that they opened both my dryers and threw my wet stuff out onto the floor. Like the people who don’t believe their dogs should be on leashes, so they let them run, and don’t understand how hard it is to really clean dogshit off the docks, so they just sort of leave it there. Like the neighbor of mine who is slowly losing his mind, probably due to too many drugs, and has taken to verbally attacking everyone around him for everything and nothing.

My neighbor Beverly, who’s been here longer than me, and I, were talking about it this morning. And we decided that the answer was elephants.

See, if juvenile elephants are left alone, they start engaging in thuggery. They rip up trees, they stomp on houses, they generally create havoc. And if you put just one mature male elephant in their territory, they suddenly mellow out, as if someone was there holding them accountable.

There are a lot of fabulous characters here, don’t get me wrong. But all of the larger-than-life, alpha-male types have moved on. The guys who would charge in and set things right, the guys who knew everyone, the guys who were capable of sitting on the troublesome, the guys who knew when to call the cops, and when to call the hospital. They’ve all gone, leaving us with a lot of very quiet, but not very dominating, guys. And that’s leaving a vacuum socially, that’s allowing the mice to act like rats.

I’m sure a new social order will reassert itself. I’m just hoping that it’s cordial. And, y’know, involves elephants.

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Baykeeper’s Legal Action to End Sewage Spills

Baykeeper Secures Agreement from Millbrae to Reduce Sewage Spills

July 2010 – San Francisco Baykeeper has successfully secured an agreement with the City of Millbrae to dramatically reduce the number sewage spills from Millbrae’s sewer lines. Baykeeper sued the City in December 2009 after the City’s records revealed that thousands of gallons of raw sewage had been spilled into creeks and the Bay in violation of the Clean Water Act.

Under our agreement, the City of Millbrae will make substantial improvements to its aging infrastructure over the next six years and perform regular maintenance to reduce sewage spills. The City has also agreed to invest $525,000 in projects to help restore the health of the Bay watershed, including offering financial support for property owners to replace broken private sewer lines and to implement low impact development features – such as collecting rainwater for reuse and replacing concrete with permeable surfaces – in order to reduce the flow of storm water runoff to storm drains and sewer pipes.

We’re pleased to have reached a strong settlement that will significantly reduce sewage contamination to the Bay. Read the press release here (pdf).

San Carlos Agrees to Reduce Sewage Spills Under Baykeeper Settlement

February 2010 – Baykeeper successfully settled our lawsuit against the City of San Carlos for its thousands of gallons of raw sewage spills in violation of the Clean Water Act. The City has agreed to spend tens of millions of dollars to make collection system improvements and undertake a study to identify capacity problems. The City will also invest $200,000 in funding for projects to help restore the water quality of the San Francisco Bay watershed. Read the press release here (pdf).

Above: Kayaks at Bair Island, a popular recreational area for kayakers paddling Corkscrew Slough.

Baykeeper’s Recent Legal Actions to Cut Sewage Spills in San Mateo County

Beginning in December 2009, Baykeeper filed a new series of lawsuits in San Mateo County, the latest in our ten-year effort to clean up sewage contamination in the Bay.

Baykeeper filed suit to prevent sewage spills from the Cities of Millbrae and San Carlos and the West Bay sanitary district, three areas with dilapidated sewage collection systems that have spilled thousands of gallons of sewage over the past five years – threatening the health of the Bay and its wildlife, as well as recreational users of popular South Bay spots like Bair Island and Corkscrew Slough. Read the press release (pdf) and the notices of violations and intent to file suit under the federal Clean Water Act for Millbrae, San Carlos and West Bay (pdfs).

In February 2010, Baykeeper brought suit against the City of San Bruno for its significant sewage spill problem. The Regional Water Quality Control Board recently issued a significant penalty to San Bruno for its violations but sought no repairs or upgrades to the City’s sewage system. We intend to compel the City to undertake aggressive repairs to reduce sewage spills to local neighborhoods and the Bay. Read the press release (pdf).

In March, Baykeeper also filed suit against the City of South San Francisco for its high sewage spill rate. We are in productive talks with the City and are optimistic that the City will agree to take critical improvements to its sewer systems, including replacing its many sewage lines constructed from cardboard and tarpaper.

Baykeeper Joins EPA Legal Action Against Seven East Bay Polluters

In January 2010, Baykeeper moved to intervene in the Environmental Protection Agency’s action against seven satellite facilities of the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD). The cities of Alameda, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, Oakland, Piedmont and the Stege Sanitary District suffer from high rates of sewage spills and contribute to EBMUD’s sewage overflows during rainy months. Baykeeper intends to play a substantive role in future negotiations between these satellite facilities and EPA. Read the press release (pdf).

Baykeeper’s Previous Victories to Prevent Sewage Spills in San Mateo County

In 2008 and 2009, Baykeeper successfully settled lawsuits against the City of Burlingame and its satellite cities of Hillsborough and Burlingame Hills for sewage spills in violation of the Clean Water Act.

Baykeeper filed suit against Burlingame In February 2008 after discovering that the City had a very high sewage spill rate and during large storms was illegally discharging wastewater at Coyote Point, a popular windsurfing area.

In August 2008, Baykeeper reached a successful settlement with the City of Burlingame to reduce sewage spills to the Bay. Burlingame agreed to substantially improve its sewage infrastructure over the next ten years, including stopping all spills during normal storm events, spending tens of millions of dollars to make collection system improvements and undertaking a study to identify capacity problems and eliminate near-shore discharges. The City will also invest $250,000 to fund projects that will help restore the San Mateo County watershed. Read the press release (pdf).

At the same time, Baykeeper brought suit against Hillsborough and Burlingame Hills for sewage spills that violate the Clean Water Act. Hillsborough and Burlingame Hills are “satellite” sewage collection systems that send sewage to the City of Burlingame for treatment. The poor maintenance of the satellite systems contributes to problems downstream at the Burlingame plant.

Baykeeper successfully settled with Hillsborough and Burlingame Hills in July 2009. Under our settlement agreements, Hillsborough and Burlingame Hills will dramatically curb sewage spills by 2014. Hillsborough will also contribute $50,000 to projects that help protect the San Francisco Bay and its watershed, including a program to provide low-cost loans for residents to replace failing sewer pipes; Burlingame Hills will invest $15,000 in watershed protection projects, including efforts to educate residents about how they can help reduce sewage spills.

Our citizen enforcement actions against Burlingame, Hillsborough and Burlingame Hills will help bring about a comprehensive solution for sewage pollution from the San Mateo Peninsula.

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The Steve Irwin Visits Italy

The Steve Irwin arrived today in La Spezia, Italy, for a brief visit and a fundraising event.  The crew were greeted with a huge welcoming banner.

This marks the first time that a Sea Shepherd ship has docked in Italy. Our Italian support base is growing and Sea Shepherd welcomes this opportunity to meet our supporters and to introduce the ship and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to Italy.

The Steve Irwin is scheduled to depart from La Spezia on July 19th for Monaco and will sail on to Barcelona, Spain, on July 23rd.

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So here’s one marine expression of this; Great Whites on the Jersey Shore:

Summer of sharks at Jersey Shore likely due to warm water

U.S. Coast Guard has issued warning for Northeast after great white caught earlier this year

‘Sharks at New Jersey beaches’ rings of a sensational headline meant to scare. Florida, California, Australia maybe, but here… no way, right? Wrong — after sharks were sighted at the Jersey Shore for the third time this week, the public was left baffled.

Those enormous, mystical creatures that roam sleekly through the ocean and breathe through multiple gill slits have been hovering near our coastline likely because of the soaring temperatures and profusion of fish.

Nice, huh? Get ready to get flexible. It’s all changing.

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So when Kristof addresses climate change, I listen. (Course, I listen about it anyway, but Kristof is so far beyond reproach…). And this article was utterly chilling. Just the image at the top of the article is worth the clickthrough.

Our Beaker is Starting to Boil

Some research in social psychology suggests that our brains are not well adapted to protect ourselves from gradually encroaching harms. We evolved to be wary of saber-toothed tigers and blizzards, but not of climate change — and maybe that’s also why we in the news media tend to cover weather but not climate. The upshot is that we’re horrifyingly nonchalant at the prospect that rising carbon emissions may devastate our favorite planet.

And there you have it. Go read.

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The story goes like this. A year or so ago, someone on Freecycle was giving away a windsurf board. Board, booms, sail, harness, the works. It’s a beginner’s board, so it’s huge and flat and stable and not at all sexy, but totally functional. We keep it in the water in front of our boat, due to lack of space. I have a friend who puts containers of vegetables on his, so I was thinking of doing that, eventually.

A bunch of our marina neighbors keep their kayaks up there too. It’s a really convenient place to launch from, and a place to keep the boats that the marina doesn’t mind, that makes for super easy launching (because you’re already in the water). It’s a little tricky getting from the dock into the boat and then back out again, but totally doable.

The other night, one of my neighbors got really drunk. This is not a surprise; a fairly large number of my neighbors should probably consider rehab, but that’s another discussion entirely. This neighbor decided, while utterly inebriated, that going kayaking, at night, was a great idea, and so into his boat he went.

Apparently the paddle itself went fine. The problem was in exiting the craft. His boat is super tippy and wide, and in overcorrecting, he sloshed the opening of the boat into the water, and the boat filled in seconds, leaving him submerged to the waist, and utterly unable to get out of the boat onto the dock.

This is San Francisco Bay. Sitting in Bay water is not only grotty, it’s really, really cold. If your bloodstream is already seriously full of alcohol, your chances of becoming dangerously hypothermic skyrocket.

And our marina does not have exit ladders. You are either large and strong enough to pull yourself onto the dock, or you’re screwed. A few boats (like ours) have steps that you can use to get yourself out, but when you’re really drunk, you don’t exactly remember that.

Our friend ended up hauling himself onto the windsurf board, and then onto the dock from there. I have no idea how we didn’t hear any of this in the echo chamber that is our boat, but we didn’t.

He’s OK. He’s learned a lesson about being an idiot, that hopefully will stick. And God forgive me for being selfish, but because that board was there, my children did not have to wake up to seeing the dead body of someone they really like floating in front of our boat.

It is astonishing to me how little things change the course of lives. So thank you, Freecycle Benefactress, for the board. Bet you never knew it was a piece of lifesaving equipment, did you?

And oh yeah, we’re going to start agitating for dock ladders.

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