Tag: "pollution"
Reporter's Notes: Mercury in the Bay – Part 2
Last week on QUEST, we took a look at the history of the San Francisco Bay's most dangerous toxin: mercury. This week, now that the mercury is here in the bay, how is it affecting us? The obvious place to go was the Berkeley Marina, one of the bay's most popular fishing spots. On the [...]
Post on Apr 25, 2008 by Amy Standen
Reporter's Notes: Mercury in the Bay – Part 1
View Larger Map In honor of Earth Day, we wanted to take a big look at a chronic environmental issue in the Bay Area, tracing it from its origins to the contemporary strategies to solve it. Mercury was the obvious choice: It's been flowing into the Bay since before California joined the union, and it [...]
Post on Apr 18, 2008 by Amy Standen
Cement – A Dirty Business
Thought California has consigned coal-burning to the scrap bin? Think again! California has 11 coal-fired power plants, all used to heat limestone into cement — making us one of the biggest cement-producing states in the country. In addition to cement, these kilns produce 95% of the state's airborne mercury pollution and 2% of its greenhouse [...]
Post on Apr 04, 2008 by Amy Standen
Forgive Me Father, for I Have Polluted
Polluting Makes Vatican List of Grave Social Sins Over the course of a week of working with concrete, this landscaping job produced only one bucket of wastewater. Credit: Ann Hutcheson-WilcoxAs a lifelong Catholic and former Catholic priest, I often find myself wishing that the Church would stick to what it knows best: the Sacraments. I [...]
Post on Mar 21, 2008 by Jim Gunshinan
It's Not Easy Going Green
Image source: Michael PatrickMany Bay Area cities are trying to clean up their acts by putting in place new green initiatives. But from San Jose to Berkeley, some city leaders are finding out it's not always so easy to turn over a new leaf. QUEST looks at the challenges municipalities face with budget constraints, legal [...]
Post on Mar 13, 2008 by Andrea Kissack
Reporter's notes: Sewage Happens
photo courtesy of the San Francisco Public Utilities CommissionWe’d had "aging infrastructure" on our story lists for some time when we first heard about the sewage spills in Mill Valley. When news came in that not just one, but two sewage spills had poured five million gallons of partially treated wastewater into Richardson Bay, we [...]
Post on Feb 21, 2008 by Amy Standen
Cleaning Up Oil in the Bay
It has been nine days since a Chinese freighter hit the Bay Bridge spilling 58-thousand gallons of bunker fuel into the Bay. After a massive effort only 25 percent of the oil has been cleaned up. And experts say they may not be able to recover much more. As clean-up crews in hazmat suits scour [...]
Post on Nov 16, 2007 by Amy Standen
KQED extended coverage: SF Bay Oil Spill
Oil boom at Crab Cove. Credit: gwenOil Spill update: get KQED's news reports, interviews, analysis and photos as well as links to more coverage, photos from the community, and ways to help in the cleanup efforts. Includes coverage by QUEST radio reporter Amy Standen, and QUEST Managing Editor Paul Rogers. Go to: KQED | News: [...]
Post on Nov 15, 2007 by Craig Rosa
Below the surface of the spill
Oil booms at Crissy Field. Credit: fredsharplesJust two days before a container ship hit the Bay Bridge, spilling 58,000 gallons of oil into the waters of San Francisco Bay, QUEST web producer Craig Rosa and I were at Crissy Field beach. We were photographing pelicans and recording dogs playing in the sand for an upcoming [...]
Post on Nov 15, 2007 by Robin Marks from QUEST Northern California
Relaxing the rules on toxic reporting
For the past two decades, U.S. factories that put toxic chemicals into the air and water had to report them, in detail, to the federal government and the public. The Bush Administration recently lowered those requirements by rewriting Environmental Protection Agency rules. That means, in California alone, as much as 6-hundred thousand pounds of toxic [...]
Post on Apr 26, 2007 by David Gorn
