San Bruno fire....toxins into bay at Haskins

[DonORiordan]

http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/15/3032826/san-bruno-fire-debris-brings-health.html

I believe SB creek flows into the bay at Haskins...see "empties into bay and marshlands" arrow in map at
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_16089214?source=rss&nclick_check=1

and now see map of Tigers/Haskins at URL below:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&t=h&om=1&msid=114977606501292807250.00000112a0f58147bfe39&ll=37.644379,-122.384155&spn=0.011961,0.020084&z=16

Don't think I'd want to risk sailing there now esp if it rains this weekend...

[DonORiordan]

See prior post...warnings from cleanup crew for the San Bruno fire, including their attempts to avoid/minimize the nasty stuff getting into the San Bruno creek....and the maps which seem to indicate this creek flows into the bay, right at the Haskins's launch basically.... am I being paranoid, or does it make sense to skip this spot until say next year when hopefully some/most of the toxins have been flushed (and hopefully not deposited into the mud where they may remain forever).

Probably that mud (and most bay area mud) full of toxins already anyway, not that that has ever stopped us sailing.

Thoughts/comments?

[carl]

You're worried about what's in the mud and you regularly sail PA?
Don't be drinking that muddy water Don!!

It looks like they're most concerned with the ash dust at the burn site.

[mac]

Don--while that was a really big fire, fires happen all of the time all around the Bay. And illegal dumping happens all the time around the Bay and up the watersheds. So the fire departments work really hard to try to block drains and recover what they can. The difference here is the size and the concentration of contaminants in one watershed rather than generally spread.

The second thing to think about is the kind of contaminants. Partly burned hydrocarbons, called collectively PAH's, or poly cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. At high enough concentrations these are acutely toxic, and at lower levels are carcinogenic. But we love the test of some of these compounds in barbecue. The risk is repeated exposure, over a number of years, and even then the cancer risk is relatively low. The big problems with the Bay are that this stuff comes from everywhere--car exhaust, truck exhaust (in particular), weathered tires, household fireplace fires, etc.

So I wouldn't worry about occasional contact. The real threat is to wildlife that has to eat marine food--the foodchain starts at the mud.

[nw30]

I'd be more concerned about always sailing either up wind or even more downwind of SFO, that place is a constant contributer of all kinds of crap with every takeoff and landing. The break dust is most flavorful, my favorite,,,,,, not.
It's constant!
The San Bruno fire is/was not a constant.

I'll sail around the GG, Rio Vista, or anywhere along the coast (my favorite), but I stopped sailing anywhere near SFO a good 15-20 years ago, for that reason mostly.
And I'll take sand over mud anyday.

[mac]

I thought you all might like to know what is going on with the clean-up to protect the Bay. Here are notes I got from the Executive OFficer of the Regional Board about clean-up efforts.

[Epenrose]

I work in Burlingame and we have a dumping problem on our block.

A couple of RV's park on the street and open their tanks right into the drains that flow straight to Coyote Point.

Constantly call the BPD to stop but a never ending battle.