Baykeeper Updates Related to Coal
Blog Post: November 8, 2019
The Bay Area's only active coal export company operates in the city of Richmond, right on the Bay's shoreline. The Levin terminal moves a million tons of coal every year from uncovered trains onto ships that travel across San Francisco Bay.
These coal shipments spread toxic dust throughout local...
Blog Post: August 13, 2019
In a surprising move, the oil industry recently muscled its way into the battle over toxic coal exports around San Francisco Bay.
Richmond city leaders have been considering an ordinance that would prohibit companies from storing coal along train tracks in neighborhoods and commercial areas....
Blog Post: June 10, 2019
In 2013, the Vallejo Marine Terminal (VMT) and Orcem Cement company proposed to build a bulk shipping terminal and cement plant along the shores of Mare Island Strait, in northern San Francisco Bay.
But that’s not all. In addition to handling polluting cement materials, the terminal also could be...
BK In The News: March 20, 2019
After withdrawal of a 2018 proposal to regulate the dirty fuel, city councilmember proposes an eventual export ban... And the nonprofit Baykeeper sent speakers to the Richmond City Council and signed letters supporting the move to ban coal and petcoke. In settlement of a Baykeeper lawsuit, the...
Blog Post: February 7, 2019
In 2011, Baykeeper staff members were conducting a regular patrol on the Bay and came across a highly toxic polluting activity. A shipping terminal on the Richmond shoreline had put large piles of coal at the edge of the water, and wind was blowing black dust from the piles directly into the Bay....
BK In The News: January 6, 2019
As we have unequivocally stated for more than three years, the Orcem/VMT project will have severe negative impacts on the local environment... The Sierra Club, along with our allies San Francisco Baykeeper, first commented on the possibility of coal shipments during the original circulation of the...
BK In The News: December 3, 2018
For decades, residents of the Bay Area who live near industrial areas and transportation corridors have battled particulate matter, the microscopic grains of dust and soot that can lodge deep in the body and trigger asthma and other ailments... In 2014 the environmental advocacy nonprofit San...
BK In The News: September 12, 2018
Anti-coal activists protested outside a "responsible investment" panel discussion in San Francisco today... Oakland is currently appealing the decision and briefs in the case are due at the end of October, according to Erica Maharg, an attorney with San Francisco Baykeeper who is working on the...
Monthly Column: July 3, 2018
We were on the Baykeeper boat for a pollution patrol recently when I noticed something surprising. The stockpiles of toxic black coal that usually tower along the Richmond shoreline were the smallest I’d seen in my 15 years on patrol.
I’d expected coal stockpiles to be even higher than in the past...
Blog Post: June 19, 2018
Baykeeper is heading back to court to prevent coal pollution in San Francisco Bay. We're filing a court appeal in support of Oakland's ban on coal storage and handling.
A US District court judge recently upheld a plan to export coal through a new terminal on the Oakland shoreline. Our appeal of...