11 Jun Jennifer Recommends: San Francisco Estuary Institute
Pop quiz! True or False: The majority of the sediments and associated pollutants reaching the San Francisco Bay come from runoff from the vast Central Valley Watershed.
Answer: False. Surprised? I certainly was. New estimates from leading scientists indicate that about 56% of storm water loads are from small tributaries, not the enormous Central Valley Watershed. This has big implications for how to remove pollutants from the ecosystem and prevent more pollutants from entering.
Now, how do I happen to know this statistic? These scientists lead the San Francisco Estuary Institute, a Selby Group client. The Institute is making the world a better place through their methodical environmental studies.
If you’d like to learn more about this fascinating ecosystem and the work underway, check out their reports at http://sfei.org/. The data for our pop quiz came from The Pulse of the Estuary: Linking the Watersheds and the Bay at http://www.sfei.org/news_items/2010-pulse-estuary-linking-watersheds-and-bay.