Castro Cove facts for kids
Castro Cove is a small bay in Richmond, California. It's part of the larger San Pablo Bay. You can find it between Point San Pablo and where Wildcat Creek flows into Castro Creek.
What is Castro Cove?
This special area is made up of mudflats, soft bay mud, and salt marshes. These are places where the land is often covered by water from the bay. Chevron USA owns much of this land.
Castro Cove is a very important estuary. An estuary is a place where fresh water from rivers mixes with salty ocean water. This mix creates a unique home for many animals.
Some of the animals living here are endangered, meaning they are at risk of disappearing forever. These include the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, the Ridgway's rail, steelhead fish, and the Olympia Oyster. Many other animals like fish, birds, and tiny creatures that live in the mud also call this cove home. Sadly, pollution has harmed many of these animals, both the endangered ones and those that are not.
The cove is named after Don Víctor Castro. He was a rancher and politician from California's early history.
Pollution in the Cove
People enjoy Castro Cove for fun activities like fishing, boating, and collecting shellfish. The Richmond Rod & Gun Club Yacht Harbor is also located here.
However, the Chevron Richmond Refinery is near the cove. For many years, from 1902 until 1987, the refinery released wastewater and other runoff into the cove, Castro Creek, and San Pablo Bay. This caused a lot of pollution in the bay mud.
The pollution included high levels of harmful chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and mercury. These chemicals can be very dangerous for the animals and plants living in the cove.
In 1998, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board started working to clean up the area. They asked Chevron to create a plan to test the mud for pollution.
Cleaning Up Castro Cove
Tests done between 1999 and 2001 showed high levels of PAHs and mercury in the mud. Because of this, a 20-acre part of the cove was marked as a "concern area" (AOC). This area was closest to where the wastewater used to flow out.
A plan was made to clean up this polluted area. The cleanup project involved putting up steel walls to block off the most polluted part. Then, the contaminated mud and dirt were carefully removed. This mud was pumped into an old treatment pond.
In the pond, the toxic waste was dried out. Then, it was mixed with special materials like fly ash or cement to make it safe. After that, the pond area was smoothed out and covered with plants. This big cleanup project was planned for the summer of 2007.
