Aeration basins at the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility use microorganisms and an oxygenation process to turn the excess nitrogen in wastewater into a gas. Circular tanks, called clarifiers, allow particles to settle out. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

The largest sources of nutrient pollution and algae blooms in the San Francisco Bay — 37 different sewage treatment plants — are cleaning up their act.

Faced with two blooms called “red tides,” deadly to marine life, officials will soon recommend the first-ever restrictions on the release of the nutrients, such as nitrogen, into the Bay, a vast body of water that has long seemed resilient to trouble.

Nitrogen is not a toxin; it is necessary for a healthy ecosystem. But too much of it, discharged in wastewater from human urine, sets off a complex series of events that causes too much algae to grow, which depletes oxygen and kills marine life. Last year, a harmful bloom caused piles of stinking fish corpses to wash ashore. This summer, a smaller bloom appeared and then vanished.

Thousands of dead fish, killed by an algae bloom, float around Lake Merritt in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022.  (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) 

“The science is telling us that we need to reduce nutrient loads as quickly as possible,” said Eileen White, executive officer for the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which regulates sewage treatment plants. “What has happened is a game-changer.”

More than two-thirds of the region’s nitrogen comes from sewage treatment plants, which collectively dump about 50,000 kilograms into Bay waters every day. While many natural factors create a red tide, named for the discolored water, these nutrient releases are manmade — and can be controlled, experts say.

About 14 of the Bay Area’s treatment plants have already modernized their facilities to clean up their chocolate-colored sludge, harnessing bacteria and aeration techniques to turn nitrogen from a liquid to a gas, then safely releasing it into the air. Several more have planned upgrades, and are studying treatment wetlands.

But others are lagging behind.

A thorough cleanup will be very pricy, boosting costs for ratepayers. To cut nitrogen releases in half, the total price tag could reach $11.5 billion; more modest reductions of 7% to 20% would cost $220 million to $870 million, respectively. The most aggressive reduction — 82% — could cost nearly $15 billion.

And the payoff may not be immediately obvious. Until last year, the Bay had no dramatic red tide die-offs of marine life. Scientists are trying to learn whether these are very rare events or the beginning of a trend. There are hints, yet no proof, that climate change could trigger repeated outbreaks.

“It’s a huge challenge … with a lot of uncertainty,” said Lorien Fono, executive director of the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies, whose members provide sewer services to more than 7.1 million residents. “But, working together, we have the possibility of creating a regionwide approach for nutrient reduction.”

July’s red tide algae bloom faded without a repeat of last summer’s toll of thousands of dead fish and other marine creatures, according to an analysis by scientists at San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental group that monitors water conditions in the Bay.

But summer is not yet over. Increased algae concentrations in the 2000s, combined with these recent outbreaks, are causing authorities to take a harder look.

Discharge limits have helped reverse ecological disasters in Tampa Bay, the Long Island Sound and other estuaries around the nation. In the Chesapeake Bay, which once seemed unsavable, key fish species have rebounded, more seagrass is growing and the water holds more life-giving oxygen.

Historically, limits have not been required in San Francisco Bay. It has fierce tides, which reduce concentrations of nitrogen. It has cloudy water, due to millions of tons of mud, gravel and sand from Gold Rush mining. And it has a large population of organisms, such as clams, that feed on algae.

“The key factors that can trigger harmful algae blooms have rarely all lined up to allow for a very, very large problem to actually occur,” said David Senn of the San Francisco Estuary Institute, who leads the San Francisco Bay Nutrient Management Strategy, a regional initiative for developing the science needed for informed decisions about managing nitrogen loads.

• Nearly all of the nitrogen has been removed from wastewater before it is released into the sensitive southern San Francisco Bay at the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

• Aerators in the outfall channel, where treated low-nitrogen water is discharged into the lower South Bay, at the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

• A fish swims in an outfall channel where low-nitrogen water is discharged into the sensitive South Bay at the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

• Nearly all of the nitrogen has been removed from wastewater before it is released through the outfall channel into the sensitive southern San Francisco Bay at the San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2023. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

But that resiliency may be fading. Water clarity is increasing due to upstream dams capturing sediment. Clam populations are declining. Climate change may cause waters to warm.

The region’s 50-year-old treatment facilities are also aging, creating opportunities for upgrades, Fono said.

Limits will be placed on nitrogen discharges, said White. The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board issues new permits — with new regulatory requirements — every five years. The existing permits will expire next year.

“We tried to be a progressive thinker,” said Jimmy Dang of Oro Loma/Castro Valley Sanitary Districts, which upgraded its decades-old facility to remove nearly 95% of nitrogen from its discharge flow, contributing to a 7% price hike for ratepayers. “It was a conscious decision to look at the environment of the Bay, ahead of any limits that were coming down the pipeline.”

In its new $25 million facility, he said, “the nitrogen becomes gas, and disappears.”

• Jimmy Dang, general manager of the Oro Loma Sanitary District, surveys the aeration process in use at the new $25 million wastewater facility that removes nearly all of the nitrogen from water released into San Francisco Bay, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023, in San Lorenzo, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

• Jimmy Dang, general manager of the Oro Loma Sanitary District, walks past the aeration hardware in use at the new $25 million wastewater facility that removes nearly all of the nitrogen from water released into San Francisco Bay, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2023, in San Lorenzo, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

San Jose-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility, which sits on the edge of the shallow and slow-moving South Bay, started to remove nitrogen discharges about two decades ago.  With more recent innovations, about 85% of the nitrogen is gone.

Last year, South San Francisco and San Bruno completed the construction of a technology that has also reduced nutrients by 85%.

According to the Bay Area Clean Water Agencies’ most recent report, Palo Alto and its partners are embarking on a major $200 million makeover of its Regional Water Quality Control Plant. West County Wastewater, which serves San Pablo, Richmond and Pinole, has already completed plant improvements. The Dublin San Ramon District is solving its problem through a recycled water program, which uses nitrogen to fertilize fields and landscaping. San Leandro’s project, under construction, should be finished this year. San Mateo began its upgrade in 2021.

The two largest dischargers — East Bay Municipal Utility District and San Francisco PUC — are off to a slower start, according to the report. EBMUD is now pilot testing treatment of about 10% of its flow, which should result in some reductions.

“It is very expensive,” said Fono. “But the community, as a whole, takes this very seriously.”

Given the enormous cost, how much reduction is needed? That is what Senn and his partners with the Nutrient Management Strategy are studying. They are developing computer simulations of a gradual decline in the ecosystem’s health, as well as more catastrophic red tides to better understand whether massive die-offs will be rare events, or something more frequent. The goal is to generate the data needed to support major management decisions.

“What are the best investments for the region to make,” Senn asked, “to try to get the biggest improvements?”

“How do we think through something that’s never happened before — that would cost $10 billion or more to prevent from happening again?” Senn asked. “And what pace do we need to get there?”

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The San Francisco Bay Area will experience exceptionally high tides and minor flooding along the bay’s shoreline on Saturday and Sunday mornings, the National Weather Service said. Extremely low tides will occur on Saturday and Sunday evening.

“Tide poolers and beachgoers should be familiar with the times and heights of local tidal levels to avoid hazards that may arise from rapidly shifting water levels,” the weather service warned.

David King, a forecaster with the weather service, warned that people at the beach can get into trouble by walking out to exposed tide pools during low tide and not returning to shore before the tide comes back in.

Water from San Francisco Bay spills onto the Embarcadero on the morning of Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, during the week of the King Tide.

Courtesy of Twitter user @Burritojustice

The astronomical tides, or king tides, usually occur in December and January, when the sun and moon reach their closest points to Earth, aligning the celestial bodies like a perfect cue shot to create maximum gravitation pull.

“We usually get two rounds of king tides in the winter time,” said King. “There’s usually one that happens in December. This is happening pretty much generally speaking when we expect.”

King Tides will impact the area the next 3 days & bring some of the highest & lowest tides of the year.

These tides will bring localized flooding to several low lying areas along the SF bayshore during high tide during the mid to late morning each day. https://t.co/TZ4mWUYPEf pic.twitter.com/jC4kQWSZVF

— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) December 2, 2021

The high tides will be on Saturday at 10:30 am (7.13 feet) and Sunday at 11:16 am (7.11 feet), while low tides will occur Saturday at 5:23 pm (-1.7 feet) and Sunday at 6:13 pm (-1.76 feet). The level of the sea will shift some eight feet in a little over seven hours each day.

King tides are a preview of how sea level rise will affect coastal places in the future, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Ready Estuaries program said.

“As time goes by, the water level reached now during a king tide will be the water level reached at high tide on an average day,” the program said.

The California King Tides Project is encouraging anyone near the coast to send in photos of the high tides, as part of its effort to increase understanding of what the state will experience as climate change causes sea level to rise.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – BART officials said Wednesday climate change and sea level rise will pose a growing threat to the transit system in the coming decades.

The ailing transport company is trying to find money to combat the long-term but looming threat.

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“One of the predictions is that by mid-century we might see tides a foot higher than they are now. So that’s 2050, ”said BART spokesman Jim Allison.

BART engineers say sea level rise could have a number of potential effects. For example, the Embarcadero train station in San Francisco could occasionally be inundated by floods.

Other stations could be threatened by rising groundwater, which would strain the existing pumps and the aging infrastructure of the system.

“The thing for me is that we’re at the height of technology and innovation in the Bay Area, but this is an old system that is really shabby,” said BART driver Jason Caballero.

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BART has identified many of the potential problem areas, but the agency relies on injections of money from the federal government just to keep trains running.

“The devastating effects of the pandemic and the dramatic decrease in the number of passengers paying for their tickets have really turned our funding plan upside down,” Allison said.

BART drivers say they understand the transportation company’s financial plight but are concerned about the long-term costs of inaction.

“It might be better to say, ‘Let’s pretend it’ll happen in 10 years.’ And what could the BART system do in 10 years to avoid being caught wading in the BART system with pants down and knee-deep water? ”Asked rider Bianca Espinoza.

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BART officials noted that several vulnerable stations are connected to other important pieces of infrastructure in the Bay Area, such as the airports in San Francisco and Oakland. Any plan to mitigate this impact would necessarily have to be regional and collaborative.

The post BART Official Warn of Local weather Change Bringing Larger Tides, Threatening Some Stations in Future – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.