[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATER QUALITY - 4/15/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

April 15, 2008

 

4. Water Quality

 

Whale of a mural brings attention to Bay pollution; Life-size wall painting of two humpbacks adorns side of treatment facility

Inside Bay Area – 4/15/08

By Martin Ricard, staff writer

 

SAN LEANDRO — The San Leandro Marina has never before seen a whale, let alone two.

 

But just south of the Monarch Bay Golf Course, there they are, staring back at the hundreds of onlookers who visit the marina every day.

 

From a wall, that is.

 

Ripon-based artist Darren Greenwood has painted a mural there, which he says is meant to create awareness about water pollution and its effects on the ocean.

 

"It's to let the public know that water gets discharged into the Bay, out to the Farallones and eventually out to the whales," Greenwood said Friday as he stood in front of his work.

 

Greenwood painted the mural on the East Bay Dischargers Authority marina dechlorination facility over the course of a weekend a couple of weeks ago.

 

He is known for painting marine-life-inspired murals, most notably one on the Livermore Water Reclamation plant featuring life-size humpback whales, which can be seen from Interstate 580.

 

His reputation for creating these murals is what caught the attention of Karl Royer, the operations and maintenance manager at the East Bay Dischargers Authority, better known as EBDA.

 

Royer said he first contacted Greenwood hoping he would paint a mural inside the dechlorination facility. But when Greenwood made a visit and saw the 20-foot-high brick wall facing the marina, he had a much larger vision in mind.

 

"I didn't even think it could be painted on that tapestry," Royer said. "I think it's gorgeous. It's pretty much exactly what we had hoped for."

 

Royer added that the mural already has started to catch the eye of the public. He said someone recently asked EBDA whether a bench could be put in front of the mural so folks can sit down and look at it.

 

That's the kind of response Greenwood hopes to duplicate.

 

The mural, which features two humpback whales ascending from the deep blue ocean floor, not only is a labor of love, it also ties in with what he does for a living — he also is the water resources manager for the city of Livermore. The wastewater from Livermore gets discharged out of the end of the pipe at the EBDA facility into the marina, which makes the mural that much more special to him.

 

"It's just cool for people to understand that, hey, if you throw something down the drain, think about it," he said.

 

For the EBDA folks, the mural creates an opportunity to let the public get a glimpse of what they do every day.

 

Royer said wastewater treatment managers sometimes catch a bad rap, but the mural now makes it possible to put a public face on how they try to help the Bay — and keep pollution out of it.

 

"We are charged to be stewards of protecting the Bay, and everybody in the field is environmentally conscious to the extreme degree," he said. "So if we can help broaden people's awareness of what we do ... that's great."  #

http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_8929836?IADID=Search-www.insidebayarea.com-www.insidebayarea.com

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