Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
pears to be a hotspot of PBDE contamination. Concentrations of this contaminant
in bay fish are 10-100 times higher than found in Japan and Europe; likewise, lev-
els in local bivalves are among the highest reported worldwide. A recent study
found that PBDE concentrations in bay Harbor Seals have doubled every 1.8 years
throughout the 1990s. The same study found elevated PBDE concentrations in the
breast milk of Bay Area women.
In the laboratory, high doses of PBDEs cause reduced learning and memory
capacities for young animals, disrupted endocrine functions, and decreased mus-
cle control, and they led to abnormal responses to fearful situations. Though
PBDEs were banned in 2003, new flame retardants designed to replace them may
be equally troublesome.
concerned parties are ensuring that environmental protection laws are
being implemented. Today, the bay and its watershed come largely under
the purview of two regional water quality control boards. These boards,
which answer to the state, issue and approve discharge permits as well as
manage large-scale pollution control programs. In 1993, industry and dis-
chargers joined with environmental interests and government to create a
Regional Monitoring Program. The program conducts ongoing assess-
ments of whether local and national water-quality objectives are being met
for the bay. The San Francisco Estuary Institute runs this program, evalu-
ating pollution in water and sediment at about 40 locations around the bay
on an annual basis. Citizen groups such as BayKeeper, DeltaKeeper, and
Communities for a Better Environment also keep a keen eye on pollutant
issues. The state Coastal Commission conducts beach cleanups, and a
number of Bay Area pollution-prevention groups collect used medica-
tions, dental mercury, thermometers, and motor oil, as well as recycle
paints, chemicals, and fluorescent lightbulbs (for more information, see
p. 320, “Learning More, Helping Out”).
Looking back on his time as a regulator with the San Francisco Bay
Regional Water Quality Control Board, former director Steve Ritchie says
the bay is slowly and surely growing cleaner. “The first decades after the
Clean Water Act were the era of command and control environmental
protection, and we made great strides in cleaning up conventional pollu-
tion. Next we started to deal with toxics, which had more diffuse sources
than sewage, which made it tough to create useful water quality standards
or discharge permits. Now we're getting close to the end of what we can do
with command and control, both in water quality and on the endangered
species front, and more is being accomplished for the health of the estuary
outside the regulatory arena than within.”
The region has long moved on from viewing bay waters as a dumping
ground for all things unwanted and dangerous. More and more residents
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