Across the Bay, residents are doing their part to reduce the impact they have on the environment.
The search to erase our environmental footprints has sparked a new independent movement to “go green,” with the primary goal being to keep trash and other pollutants. From picking up after neighborhood dogs, to banning plastic bags, even keeping personal rain gardens, many East Bay residents keep the environment at the front of their daily routines.
Hayward resident April Yoo helps while she walks her dog, picking up trash along the way.
“It’s the least inconvenient way to help. It may not help much, but it’s something,” she said.
In fact, it is something. The garbage program is a constant struggle, as millions of pounds of trash wash up on local shorelines.
“If you see it [trash] and pick it up, great.” But garbage is still a concern.
“All the trash in the streets ends up in the Bay,” said Lisa Owens, public outreach coordinator for the San Francisco Estuary Partnership.
Several citywide programs have helped this problem. There is a ban on plastic bags in San Francisco, and a new measure by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board will cut the amount of trash in storm drains across the region by 40 percent.
However, activists say there is still more to be done. This can be seen in the local Hayward community of Skyview. Several residents mentioned some of the ways the community has helped the environment, including the use of goats to clean up hillside brush, the installation of dog waste bag dispensers in the park, and the adjustments to sprinkler systems water output at night.
Despite the combined effort of Bay Area residents, and legislation laws like the Clean Water Act of 1970 that set a federal mandate on water quality, pollution continues to creep into the Bay.
“Pollution in San Francisco Bay has increased significantly in the last 30 to 40 years. Approximately 90 percent of the pesticides that reach the Bay originate from urban areas,” said San Francisco Baykeeper Scientist Ian Wren.
In order to combat the rising pollution levels, some residents have also pursued a greener approach in their homes. Skyview resident Tristan Sergent, 25, recently installed a compost bin and is looking into planting a rain garden. Growing in popularity in the Pacific Northwest, the rain garden is a depressed plot of land designed to capture rain runoff from surrounding areas. These tools have helped Sergent not only save money, but also the environment.