Baykeeper Oil Spill Update

Thanks to all of you once again for all of your support for the Bay over the last three weeks. Baykeeper volunteers like have made an incredible difference in our offices and out on the shorelines.  More than 2,000 citizens were trained and sent out to beaches around the Bay to remove oil and tar. Our office was packed with new faces willing to share an hour or a day to help us with administrative tasks. Dozens of supporters walked marina docks throughout the Bay Area to distribute our boat cleaning guidelines. We are grateful for all of your efforts.

Baykeeper’s Oil Response Activities Update
Baykeeper is participating in the US Coast Guard’s internal investigation of the effectiveness of the Agency's oil spill response.  Baykeeper will be representing you in this important analysis to make sure that future spills are prevented and that when spills do happen, the Coast Guard’s response is fast and effective. 

Baykeeper testified in Sacramento at a State Senate hearing on Friday on our on-the-scene observations of how coordination and communication broke down among the agencies responsible for responding to and cleaning up the spill.  At today's City of San Francisco’s public safety hearing into the oil spill we shared our concerns about the environmental impacts of toxic bunker fuel. We appeared today on State Senator Simitian’s Capitol Focus program to urge for full staffing and expenditure of funds directed to California’s Oil Spill Prevention and Response program. We also raised questions about the polluter’s conflict of interest in managing much of the oil spill cleanup.

Natural Resources Damage Assessment
Since we last wrote, we’ve learned about another example of shocking government action. Most Bay Area shorelines have been opened because the largest blobs of oil have been removed. However, rocky shorelines and tidal pools remain particularly hard hit and many are still closed due to oil contamination. Now we are entering a critical phase in any oil spill response: the Natural Resources Damage Assessment, which inventories the damages to specific areas so the polluter can be held financially accountable.

Scientists working officially on the assessment are being kept off of the shorelines because of alleged liability concerns, even when they possess their own professional liability insurance.  The same agencies tasked with safeguarding the Bay waters and shorelines are preventing the scientists from documenting the damage caused by the oil spill. Once again, bureaucratic ineptitude seems to be trumping common sense. Baykeeper is working to get the researchers access to these important areas so the polluter can be held accountable for damages.  We will keep you up to date.

How You Can Help
We need your help to document oil sightings in your area so that we can get contractors and volunteers out to clean up every drop of oil. If you see oil, first, call the oil reporting hotline at 415-398-9617. Second, send accounts and photos of what you see (what, how much, where, and when) to volunteer@baykeeper.org so we can follow up on cleanup efforts.  Areas that are hard to see from flyovers or motor boats are of particular importance. Please be cautious of harming marine habitat during low tide and keep a distance from distressed birds to avoid scaring them. Please do not walk your dog along the shoreline.

You can also help directly by making a donation to Baykeeper on our website at http://www.baykeeper.org/donate/index.html. Responding to the oil spill is not something we planned for in this year’s budget, so your financial contribution helps us pay for the thousand plus hours of staff time we have already spent  and will continue to spend reacting to this emergency to our waters and wildlife. A contribution of $15 or more makes you a Baykeeper member which gives our legal actions greater standing. You'll also receive our print newsletter and invitations to special member events such as our annual Baykeeper Gala.

Please consider hosting a fundraising event for Baykeeper to introduce your friends and colleagues to our critical campaigns to keep pollution such as oil out of the Bay. Recent fundraisers sponsored by Doc’s Clock, Knitters for Critters, and the California Culinary Academy raised not only $3,000 for our work, but our spirits to see so many new faces out to help the Bay. Email us at volunteer@baykeeper.org if you want to sponsor a fundraiser!