Like most metropolitan areas, San Diego has its share of environmentalists or at least people who consider themselves environmentalists. But are they active environmentalists? With such great weather and so much fun stuff to do all over town, it’s pretty easy to just pay a membership fee to an environmental group and try really hard to recycle and, of course, buy organic. The San Diego Bay Council is a coalition of environmental organizations, led by some truly extraordinary people, dedicated to the protection and restoration of regional coastal waters in the San Diego.
While some members of the Bay Council drive hybrid cars, volunteer after work and on the weekends to benefit the environment (including work with the League of Conservation Voters San Diego), and consistently work more than 40 hours a week in their regular jobs related to environmental protection, once a month they all come together to discuss how their collective efforts can be maximized to ensure protection and restoration of the region's coastal waters. You could say they are the most efficient, hard working, and successful group of environmentalists that San Diego has to offer.
By targeting policy issues that benefit from collaborative efforts, each organization participating in the Bay Council increases its capacity and effectiveness, which in a very short time has really come to the attention of local regulators and decision makers. The San Diego Bay Council represents all San Diegans by acting through community involvement, regulatory participation, and legal action.
Core member organizations of the Bay Council include:
Some of the issues currently targeted by the San Diego Bay Council include:
- Convincing the City of San Diego to maximize its use of recycled and reclaimed water, including for potable reuse, rather than just for irrigation purposes.
Also known as “reservoir augmentation,” the idea is to pump highly treated sewage into one or more drinking water reservoirs, treat the water again and then pipe it throughout the city. San Diego needs this additional source of clean water as overall water demand is expected to rise 25% by 2030, and as we all know, the “pristine” water we get from the Colorado River and Northern California contains treated sewage from literally hundreds of upstream cities.
- Ensuring that toxic sediments from San Diego shipyards are removed from San Diego Bay.
Although the Bay Council has been successful in convincing regulators to make San Diego shipyards collect and treat wastewater from their facilities, pollutants in the Bay from years past continue to threaten marine life and human health. At a potential cost of more than $100 million, polluters statewide are watching to see what kind of precedent this cleanup sets.
- Protecting marine life in San Diego Bay from discharges from the South Bay power plant by supporting its replacement with a more efficient, dry cooled plant that would not use seawater for cooling.
Power plants along California’s coast use ocean water to help cool the systems that generate electricity, however this process kills many types of adult, juvenile, and even larvae-stage marine life. The damage to coastal ecosystems, especially at bays and estuaries, which are critical nursery habitats for fish, is a problem statewide.
- Advocating for more stringent stormwater regulations for San Diego County.
The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board has proposed an updated stormwater permit that requires governments and others to control stormwater runoff to unprecedented levels. Some local government officials and developers are urging the Regional Board to ensure that the new permit is not too stringent, while the Bay Council seeks to build on its amazing successes with the current permit (passed in 2001).
These are a few of the San Diego Bay Council’s issues of concern. The group’s representatives continue to attend city council, Regional Water Quality Control Board, and Coastal Commission meetings, as well as meet with local politicians to educate them and get their support. As they create community support for these issues, there is also the threat that some or all of them will file lawsuits when necessary. The Bay Council’s work is never done, as there will always be developers and politicians who want to put personal profit above the collective good.
It’s great to know there are warriors out there fighting for our causes, but are you doing your part?
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