Michael Kiparsky and Max Gomberg write for San Francisco Chronicle, November 12, 2013
Every time it rains, San Francisco Bay gets a little sicker. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Asphalt streets collect pollutants from motor oil to metals from brake pads to nutrients from garden fertilizers. Rains quickly wash it all into storm drains, local streams and the bay. When combined with decades of industrial pollution, storm-water runoff damages marine life and kills fish, leaving those that survive too toxic to eat. We cannot completely repair the bay’s ecology, but we can improve its health and ours by changing the way we build city streets.