The following originally aired on KCBS.

By Anna Pieri and Megan Maerz

Our San Francisco Bay is known across the globe for its iconic beauty, but it may not be so for long. Bay monitoring shows that contaminants are slowly increasing.

The first time I volunteered at the annual Coastal Cleanup, I was shocked by the amount of trash that ends up in our bay. Combing through the grass, we found plastic bags, bottle caps, and beer cans as far as 10 feet off the road.

I wondered how anyone could be thoughtless enough to litter and put marine animals in danger. I found out that even in “green” Marin, water pollutants can be found everywhere.

Fertilizers cause algae blooms that suffocate fish. Shampoo and other cleaning products can contain neurotoxic ingredients. Dumping car oil down the sewer can cause the same kind of problems as an oil tanker spill, since a single gallon of oil can spread to contaminate a million gallons of water.

But oil isn’t the only thing that spreads – since finding out about these pollution problems, my friends and I have been spreading the word about our everyday impact on the Bay.

Here are ten tips worth sharing about how to reduce water pollution in the bay.

1. Use household products that are all-natural and non-toxic.

2. Don’t overuse pesticides and fertilizers on your lawn or garden. Plain apple vinegar can be used as an effective weed killer in your home garden!

3. Check your car regularly for oil or antifreeze leaks.

4. Dispose of motor oil properly. The Jiffy Lube in San Rafael recycles used motor oil into lubricating oil!

5. Don’t litter.

6. Participate in the annual Coastal Cleanup at Rodeo Beach to pick up litter before it harms ocean wildlife.

7. Wash your car at commercial car washes. They use less water than is typically used at home, and the soapy water is treated.

8. Dispose of hazardous waste like paint and appliances correctly.

9. Do not overwater lawns and gardens. Overwatering can flush large quantities of pesticides and fertilizer directly into storm drains.

10. Compost garden and kitchen waste. Compost can be used as a fertilizer, reducing nitrate runoff from artificial fertilizers.

Previously:

• The Oceans Are Dying
• Toxic Schools: The Video
• Toxic Schooling: The Story Behind the Scoop

It’s midday on Howard University’s campus, and as students bustle from class to class, Gregory Jenkins stands in a courtyard preparing to launch a 6-foot red balloon. A couple of students stand near him, holding miscellaneous equipment, expectant.

Jenkins, a Howard University professor of atmospheric science, has made a career studying large-scale climate models for the atmosphere above vast regions of the planet’s surface, like the way monsoons form over West Africa or how ozone is released into the sky above the tropics. His red balloon, on the other hand, represents a more modest project: monitoring chemical in the air just above Washington, D.C.

Attached to the balloon is a device called a Radiosonde that takes readings of air pressure, temperature and chemical composition as the balloon floats through the sky. It transmits the data via radio waves back to Jenkins and his students on the ground.

I grew up in Venice Beach, California. I love the beach; it is one of my favorite places to be. The boardwalk always was packed with people leisurely strolling along, looking at the cheesy souvenir shops, the tattoo and piercing parlors, and the snack shops filled with all sorts of deep-fried delights. When I was younger, when we'd go to the beach, my cousins and I would run straight into the ocean and stay in there playing for a long time. And it's no surprise that we hung out there for as long as we did, because I remember that the water felt really clean and looked really blue.