Right Column

The Bay and BCDC

THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY ESTUARY

The Sacramento River begins its flow to the sea near Mount Shasta in the Cascade Mountain Range. Three hundred miles away in the snows of the Sierra Nevada, another great river, the San Joaquin, has its beginning. Until they were dammed and diverted, these two rivers carried about half of the precipitation that fell on California into the Delta where the rivers meet, about 40 miles northeast of San Francisco.

The water then flows into Suisun Bay, through the Carquinez Strait into San Pablo Bay, and finally into San Francisco Bay itself. These three bays and five others--Honker, Richardson, San Rafael, San Leandro, and Grizzly--make up the estuary known as San Francisco Bay. Like all estuaries, San Francisco Bay is a wide river mouth flooded by the sea which flows on ocean tides through the Golden Gate. The mixture of salt and fresh water is the foundation of the biological richness of estuaries. San Francisco Bay is the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast making it one of the world's great natural resources.

The marshes and mudflats along the shoreline of the Bay are sources of food and shelter for a wide variety of fish and wildlife. Hundreds of thousands of birds migrating between the Arctic and South America--fully 50 percent of the birds using the Pacific flyway--rest and feed on the Bay. Over a million birds visit the Bay each year. The Suisun Marsh, which alone comprises almost ten percent of the remaining natural wetlands in California, is a particularly valuable habitat and is critically important to waterfowl during droughts. The Bay supports over 130 species of fish, including salmon and other anadromous fish, which spend most of their lives in the ocean but return to fresh water to reproduce. Harbor seals, gulls, sea bass, geese, and thousands of other species of fish, plants, mammals, reptiles, and birds thrive in the San Francisco Bay estuary.

THE BAY'S IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS

San Francisco Bay makes many contributions to human welfare. The fish, whether caught in the Bay or harvested from the ocean after spending part of their lives in the Bay, provide food and recreation for some people and an economic livelihood for others. The salt harvested from the Bay waters is an important raw material for industry.

The vast enclosure of San Francisco Bay with its single narrow opening provides one of the world's great natural harbors. The Bay is the fifth largest U.S. port in crude oil handling and the fourth largest container port. The goods shipped to, from, and through Bay ports add to the Nation's economic well-being and cultural richness. The Bay has also served as an important base for America's military forces.

The Bay is essential to the many shorefront industries that receive raw materials or produce goods moved by ship, and the Bay is home to oil refineries and a variety of industries. Planes using airports along the Bay shoreline can arrive and depart over water, thus reducing the noise and danger to those on the ground.

Beyond its direct contribution to commerce, defense, transportation, and economic prosperity, San Francisco Bay plays other roles that are both more subtle and more valued. The consistent temperature of the Bay water cools the surrounding region in the summer and warms it in the winter, making the Bay area climate among the world's most enjoyable. The fish and wildlife that abound in the Bay and its marshes delight fishermen, hunters, and anyone out for a casual stroll. The Bay's thousand miles of shoreline provide stunning settings for diverse communities and offer spectacular views of the Bay's scenic splendors. The Bay's unparalleled beauty is the basis of the region's tourist industry which attracts millions of visitors from around the world. This beauty is also the underpinning of an elusive concept called quality of life, which is of such richness that the Bay region is one of the country's most desirable places to live.

THE FILLING OF SAN FRANCISCO BAY

Only recently have Americans begun to treat their natural resources with respect. Located in the middle of a large and growing metropolitan region, San Francisco Bay faces its share of threats. Municipal, industrial, and agricultural wastes are discharged into the Bay. A large amount of the fresh water that would naturally enter the Bay and flush out pollutants is diverted to other parts of California. As pressing as these water quality problems are, the greatest threat is that much of the Bay and the adjacent Suisun Marsh could be eliminated entirely by landfill operations.

Filling the Bay is one way to provide more space for ports, more area for industry, more runways for airports, more land for houses, and a place to get rid of the region's garbage. Other coastal areas share similar threats, but a unique combination of four factors make San Francisco Bay especially susceptible to being filled. First, much of the Bay is very shallow; about two thirds of it is less than 18 feet deep. Second, large portions of the Bay bottom along the shoreline are in private ownership. Third, political control of the Bay is fragmented among several federal, state, and regional agencies, and the nine counties and forty-one cities along the Bay's shoreline. Fourth, filling the Bay has been a long tradition. Diking and filling have reduced the size of the open Bay from 787 square miles at the time of the 1849 Gold Rush to 548 square miles today. Another 325 square miles have the potential of being filled which would reduce the Bay to being little more than a broad river.

SAVING SAN FRANCISCO BAY

Alarmed by the fact that between 1850 and 1960 an average of four square miles of the Bay were filled each year, in 1961 citizens in the Bay Area formed the Save San Francisco Bay Association, now called Save the Bay. At the urging of this organization, state legislation--the McAteer-Petris Act--was passed in 1965 to establish the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) as a temporary state agency. The Commission was charged with preparing a plan for the long-term use of the Bay and regulating development in and around the Bay while the plan was being prepared.

The [i]San Francisco Bay Plan[/i], which was completed in January 1969, includes policies on issues critical to the wise use of the Bay ranging from ports and public access to design and transportation. The Bay Plan also contains maps of the entire Bay which designate shoreline areas that should be reserved for water-related purposes like ports, industry, public recreation, airports, and wildlife refuges.

The Bay Plan has received wide acclaim for its clarity, concise style, and comprehensive coverage. In August 1969, the McAteer-Petris Act was amended to make BCDC a permanent agency and to incorporate the policies of the Bay Plan into state law. In 1977 the Commission's authority was expanded to provide special protection of the Suisun Marsh.

BCDC is the federally-designated state coastal management agency for the San Francisco Bay segment of the California coastal zone. This designation empowers the Commission to use the authority of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act to ensure that federal projects and activities are consistent with the policies of the Bay Plan and state law.

The Commission meetings, which are open to the public, are normally held the afternoon of the first and third Thursday of each month.

THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION

The Commission is composed of 27 members, appointed as follows:

• Five, including the chairman and vice-chairman, appointed by the Governor,
• One appointed by the Speaker of the State Assembly,
• One appointed by the State Senate Rules Committee,
• One each appointed by the boards of supervisors of each of the nine Bay Area counties,
• One each from a north, east, south, and west Bay city appointed by the Association of Bay Area Governments,
• One from the California Business and Transportation Agency,
• One from the California Department of Finance,
• One from the California Resources Agency,
• One from the California State Lands Commission,
• One from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Francisco Bay Region,
• One from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers,
• One from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

BCDC'S RECORD IN ACHIEVING ITS MISSION

BCDC has adopted a mission statement which reflects its two primary mandated responsibilities:

The Bay Conservation and Development Commission is dedicated to the protection and enhancement of San Francisco Bay and to the encouragement of the Bay's responsible use.

The Commission has been remarkably successful in achieving its mission. Before 1965, an average of about 2,300 acres were being filled each year. Now only a few acres are filled annually-all for critical water-oriented needs. Even this small loss of water area is being mitigated by opening diked areas. As a result, the Bay is now larger than it was when BCDC was established.

When BCDC was established, only four miles of the Bay shoreline were open to public access. By drawing attention to the Bay, the Commission has played a major role in making the Bay and its shoreline a national recreational treasure. The Golden Gate National Recreational Area and numerous local, regional, and state parks and recreation areas have been established around the Bay since the Commission was established. The Commission has also approved thousands of new boat berths and has required that public access be provided along 65 miles of the shoreline as part of new waterfront projects. Now over 200 miles of the Bay shoreline are open to the public.

In 1965 opponents of Bay protection argued that saving the Bay could only be achieved at the cost of sacrificing economic growth. Contrary to this fear, the Bay Area economy has continued to expand in part because the Commission has approved billions of dollars of construction and worked with local governments on special area plans to encourage new development.

By providing strong support for maritime development, BCDC has helped San Francisco Bay maintain its role as one of the great ship-ping centers of the world. The Commission has also prepared a regional seaport plan to guide port expansion so that it can be done in the way that is least damaging to the Bay's natural resources.

By preventing wetlands and mudflats from being filled, by encouraging restoration of degraded marshes, by supporting the continued and productive use of salt ponds, and by preserving the 85,000-acre Suisun Marsh for agricultural use, duck hunting clubs, and wildlife refuges, the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge and the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge have been established to further protect some portions of the Bay. BCDC has played an important role in supporting restoration of Bay wetlands.

Around the Bay, the visible results of Bay protection are apparent. Garbage dumps have been made into parks. Once neglected water-fronts are now heavily used and much enjoyed by the public. In a stark departure from the past when buildings were often faced away from the Bay in fear that a view of the Bay might become a view of a landfill, now many attractive restaurants, shops, residences, and other structures grace the Bay shoreline, taking full advantage of their scenic locations.

Almost every day, many of the people who live in the Bay region see the Bay. Whether from their homes, their places of work, or their travels in between, they can enjoy the visual magic and majesty of the Bay; they can watch the Bay being protected. This frequent visual evaluation of its work keeps the San Francisco Bay Commission diligent and makes it proud of what it has accomplished.

BCDC'S ROLE IN BAY GOVERNANCE

In the over third of a century since BCDC was established, a number of state and federal laws have been enacted which contribute to the protection of San Francisco Bay. Under the federal Clean Water Act the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board regulate discharges into the Bay and protect Bay Area wetlands. The National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act provide government agencies and members of the public with the critical information they need to evaluate whether development in and around the Bay should be authorized. The federal Coastal Zone Management Act established a voluntary partnership between coastal states and the federal government to protect the national interest in coastal resource management. And the California Coastal Act was passed to protect the state's Pacific Ocean coastal zone. BCDC was not made redundant by the passage of these laws nor does BCDC duplicate the roles of other agencies. Instead, the Commission plays a critical role in Bay governance, a role which complements the responsibilities and authorities of other public agencies involved in Bay protection and development.

The Commission's large and diverse membership--which includes representatives of virtually everyone who has an interest in the Bay--allows BCDC to serve as a forum where affected agencies and interests can gather to coordinate their perspectives. As a result, BCDC's decisions often represent a political consensus of what is in the best interest of the Bay.

BCDC has become an integral part of Bay governance by recognizing that local governments, acting alone, cannot fully address regional issues and by providing an effective mechanism to focus state and federal laws and policies on a regional resource of national significance.

THE CONTINUING BATTLE TO SAVE SAN FRANCISCO BAY

The Bay Commission has been successful in stopping the shrinkage of the Bay's size and dramatically increasing the opportunities for public access to the Bay's shoreline. But other problems continue to threaten the health of San Francisco Bay.

A vast network of dams, canals and pumps diverts much of the fresh water that would flow into the Bay under natural conditions. The diverted water is used to water crops and serve urban areas. Increasing the amount of fresh water being diverted from the Bay to meet the demands of agriculture and California's growing population would result in less water being available to the Bay and could endanger many species that rely on the delicate mixture of fresh and salt water that exists in the Bay estuary.

Polluted water flowing into the Bay also remains a problem. Although there has been considerable progress in improving the quality of the Bay's water through better treatment of sewage, the water that drains from agricultural lands into the rivers that empty into the Bay and from urban areas surrounding the Bay still carry contaminants which threaten Bay fish and wildlife.

Just inland of the Commission's jurisdiction, a vast mosaic of fresh water marshes, seasonal wetlands and agricultural lands is vulnerable to destruction. Much of this area was once part of the Bay, but was diked off for other uses. In addition to serving as a buffer between the Bay and urban areas, these diked historic baylands represent the last opportunity mankind has to increase the natural resource value of the Bay.

Because much of the Bay is shallow, it is necessary to dredge channels and berths to accommodate the large ships that call at the Bay's ports. But it is difficult to find a place to dispose of the great quantity of material, some of it polluted, that must be dredged. For many years, the dredged mud was dumped in the Bay near Alcatraz Island because it was believed that much of it would wash out to sea. However, the disposal site became a navigational hazard when too much material accumulated there. This led the public agencies responsible for managing dredging to draft a Long Term Management Strategy which calls for largely abandoning the practice of dumping dredge spoils as a waste and instead, reusing dredged material as a resource for repairing levees, capping landfills, restoring wetlands, and use in construction.

Traffic congestion in the Bay region has led to renewed proposals to build roads, bridges and runways on fill in the Bay, adjacent salt ponds and marshes. Although the Commission can authorize new bridges to be built to span the Bay as well as new runways to meet regional air transportation needs, BCDC cannot legally approve solid fill for roads.

These and other problems mean that the saving of San Francisco Bay is an unending battle. The effort to protect the Bay is a continuing struggle that requires public awareness and the hard work of many agencies and organizations who have joined BCDC in its commitment to make San Francisco Bay better.