Friends of Mission Creek
Friends of Mission Creek is a loosely organized group that supports and encourages public access, use and awareness of the natural and human history of Mission Creek and the Mission Bay waterfront of San Francisco, especially aquatic recreation. We advocate for maintaining a broad range of safe and clean water access options for San Francisco residents and visitors.
Creek Days
We will be having quarterly Creek Days to host social recreation on the Creek and waterfront, to help facilitate the public's use of the creek and waterfront.
Sun April 7th - Openning Day! Giants Vs. Pads 1:00. A bunch of us are going to get down there, let us know if you'd like to join (weather permitting, we're not going out to be miserable this year LOL)
May 19th - Bay to Breakers...yeah... we're NOT running, we're kayaking! OK, actually we figured parking would be good because everyone will be running. So, Rockies in Town, and we're going to paddle over the Crane Park and hang out. Maybe leave a car at Crane park so we don't have to paddle back.
Sat. June 17th - Islais paddle... we'll launch at Kayak's Unlimited's yard by 3rd st. Cranes head park and back.
Thur. July 4th - Big Party! cookout and hanging out. No Giants game
Aug : Family Day! check back for final dates and description
Sat Sept.21rd - The California Coastal Clean Up Day is Sat. Sept. 21, 2023. We are planning a Mission Creek social/clean up/boat day! Come join us for work AND fun
Nov: Annual Meeting... request invite! email info@friendsofmissioncreek.org for location, times, etc.
History
Mission Creek once flowed from the central Mission District of San Francisco, to the broad, shallow Mission Bay.
Since the earliest days of Europeans residing in SF, We have been modifying the landscape to accommodate the changing needs of San Francisco.
Start with this historical http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist5/vanish.html
Found SF - Chapters of Vanished Waters ( List of Chapters)
Nancy Olmstead and Chris Carlsson's Vanished Waters - Published by Mission Creek Conservancy
Friends of Mission Creek: History of SF Sewers
note: this section is a stub... our History Committee is working to get a couple local historians involved to get more info here!
email info@FriendsOfMissionCreek.org to get involved!
Access to Nature
Mission Creek is a beautiful resource all San Franciscans and Californians should be proud of. The ability to connect with nature within the dense urban setting gives us all an opportunity to expand our experience of nature and the waterfront. San Francisco can continue to enhance and protect the natural environment as well as maintain the public's ability to enjoy it. Friends of Mission Creek works with Mission Creek Conservancy to help enhance the natural beauty and to make it available to more San Franciscan's and our City's visitors.
Found SF - Mission Creek Wildlife by Ginny Stearns
Mission Creek Conservancy is a public benefit 501(c)(3) corporation founded in 1983 by members of Mission Creek Harbor, the Audubon Society, the Sierra Club, and other environmental activists dedicated to restoring, preserving, and enhancing the diverse wildlife and tidal community at Mission Creek.
note: this section is a stub... our Nature Committee is working with Mission Creek Conservancy to get more info here!
email info@FriendsOfMissionCreek.org to get involved!
Access to the Creek
Friends of Mission Creek advocates for ongoing creek access to everyone. When more San Francisco residents and visitors stop and visit and enjoy this natural jewel imbedded in the dense urban landscape, the safer Mission Creek will be from further urbananization.
Where and how do we get into Mission Creek????
note: this section is a stub... our Recreation Access Committee is working to get more info here! email info@FriendsOfMissionCreek.org to get involved!
kayak dock
waterfront edge - South side
Pollution - Nutrients
With gentle persuasion, we work with SFPUC to provide ongoing, common sense, inexpensive improvements to it's system
Nutrients: Harmful Algal Blooms are becoming a part of San Francisco Bay Life.... but they don't have to be!
Here is your weekly math quiz:
In the SF Bay Area, sewage treatment plants discharge over 60% of all nutrients in to the Bay.
SFPUC Southeast Plant currently represents 20% of the nutrients going into the Bay.
SFPUC Southeast Plant treats the sewage for the eastern part of San Francisco, about 700,000 people (plus or minus, depends on how many visitors are in the offices and hotels).
Human pee makes up 80% of the total nitrogen going to the plants!
So our pee is a major contributor to algal blooms. Quiz question:How much nutrients did you add yesterday?
Prizes awarded in 3 categories:
Humor (if you can't make a pee joke, why bother with the maths?)
Accuracy (2 sub categories, standing and sitting... since that is likely to affect accuracy)🚽
Special mention award: calculations done only while participating in sanitary activities.🚽🧻
Friends of Mission Creek will work with other NGOs to help improve SFPUC's performance, so that our pee doesn't kill fish. We encourage you to check out these pages, Petitions and contribute to our NGO partners:
Sierra Club (image below):https://act.sierraclub.org/actions/SanFranciscoBay?actionId=AR0396200
Baykeeper(image above):https://baykeeper.org/actionalert/algalbloom#
Nutrient Page coming soon!!!! yay! we have to find a pee emoji first though
More information coming!
email info@FriendsOfMissionCreek.org to get involved! And Send your favorite pee emoji.
Pollution - Combined Sewage Discharged into the creeks
With gentle persuasion, we work with SFPUC to provide ongoing, common sense, inexpensive improvements to it's system
Combined Sewage Discharge: According to SFPUC documents SF discharges approximately 1.2 billion gallons of combined sewage (mostly rain water) in an average year of which over 600 million gallons comes out of the Division St. outfall, at the western end of Mission Creek. Currently there are about 12 discharges here in an average year. This water is approximately 5% household sewage and 95% rainwater. That means there's 30 million gallons of raw sewage coming out of 1 outfall into Mission Creek every year. The combined sewage is held back by the large gates at the outfalls along Mission Creek, which open to prevent flooding when the sewer storage boxes are full.
For more information, see our Combined Sewer Overflow Page which is a constantly growing page of information about SF's combined sewage going into Mission Creek
More information coming!
email info@FriendsOfMissionCreek.org to get involved!
Are you a local water enthusiast? Have a water based business or host waterfront activities? Lets work together!
We'd be happy to help spread the word as well as collaborate to continue to improve San Francisco Waterfront access.
Contact us at info@friendsofmissioncreek.org to become involved!