By Morgan M. Hurley | Editor

… making our water more swimmable, fishable and drinkable for 20 years

Twenty years ago, San Diego Baykeeper was launched as part of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an international network of nonprofit organizations that protect the world’s waterways — to address the industrial pollution of San Diego Bay. Soon the small organization was entrusted with a 20-year agreement and a $1 billion commitment from the City of San Diego, to fix the city’s sewage infrastructure.

“At that time it averaged one sewage spill per day,” said San Diego Coastkeeper Executive Director Megan Baehrens. “It was a problem for the fish, tourism and kids splashing in the ocean, but for whatever reason, it was a really unacceptable status quo.”

While that agreement recently ended, San Diego Coastkeeper is stronger than ever, not only financially, but also collaboratively and with regards to policy. The organization’s stability is thanks in large part to the focus and collaborative management style of Baehrens, who said she “seeks to be genuine and trustworthy” in everything she does.

“I believe your reputation is your currency, and that puts something meaningful on the line and helps to build the trust,” she said. “And that’s what it’s about at the end of the day, to be able to trust one another; to be transparent and honest.”

Building relationships is one of the things Baehrens is most proud of as she looks back on the three and a half years she has been at the helm of San Diego Coastkeeper.

“My goal — and I think successfully we’ve done this — was to connect with all of the groups, whether we are friends, foes, or somewhere in between,” she said. “So now we are able to talk to the building industry association and the Port Tenant’s Association and the Industrial Environmental Association, and have relationships with them as groups and the members individually, so that while we may not always agree and we may disagree vehemently, there is an opportunity to talk about where do we do agree.”

Baehrens — a San Diego native who received her MBA at Yale’s School of Management — is stepping down as head of the environmental nonprofit on Oct. 2 to accept a position created just for her with San Diego Grant Makers, as senior director of collaborative philanthropy.

While the board searches for someone to take her place, the seven-person staff she leaves behind will keep right on trucking like a well-oiled machine — not only keeping up with the normal things Coastkeeper does every day, but also planning their 20-year anniversary “Soiree” at the end of the month — and that, too, is a testament to Baehrens.

“I feel very comfortable that my transitioning out of my role at Coastkeeper is not going to have any sort of dire impacts here,” Baehrens said. “The staff is so knowledgeable and they work really, really well together. We are financially sound and connected to the community in a way that we have perhaps not been for many years. So the organization itself is in a really good place.

“My departure, I think, will just open up a springboard for the next person to take it to the next level,” she continued, adding that San Diego Coastkeeper is a very “unique organization,” doing everything from education to science, advocacy and legal work.

“Every job here is a unique opportunity for somebody who wants to do work in water quality and water protection.”

In addition to her small staff of administrators, scientists, environmentalists, educators and attorneys, San Diego Coastkeeper can also boast a 5,000-strong volunteer force. The bulk of those show up between 30 and 40 times per year to do beach and inland clean ups.

Baehrens said that approximately 250 of those 5,000 are what she calls “core volunteers,” those who work on more involved and/or ongoing projects and are made up of interns, board members, and grad students.

“It is really a neat way to capitalize on the skills of people in the community to expand our staff,” she said. “The ability to do the work we do rests in large part in the fact that we have very wonderful volunteers.”

Together they all work to do what Baehrens believes that San Diego County needs, an organization that is willing to go the extra mile to effect change and protect the water that is so integrated into everything that everyone who lives here does, every day.

One program that is especially important to her is the fresh water quality testing program. Started 12 years ago, staff members teach and then monitor teams who do the work on a monthly basis.

“It’s a really cool program because it is all volunteer-driven,” she said. “We have a couple of staff who organize and manage the program and provide the training and expertise, but the people who actually go out in the field — about 100 per year are trained — and they learn so much, not just about their own back yard but the science behind it and the policy behind it and how it affects all of San Diego County.”

Another effort she is proud of is the redesign of the internal infrastructure of Coastkeeper, which changed how each of the departments that work to protect San Diego’s water interacted; they are now more integrated and support each other with the work that they do, instead of acting independently.

“As small as it is a highly functional team of people rather than a group of individuals,” Baehrens said. “To us internally, it’s made a palpable difference in how affective we are and the depth to which we can approach an issue.”

Though her staff is certain to miss the impact she has made, others outside of Coastkeeper will notice a void upon her departure, too.

“Megan and her team helped turn around a very negative relationship to a synergistic relationship,” said Kathy O’Brien of Sun Harbor Marina. “We are sad to see her leave. But we hope to meet the new director and develop the same supportive relationship.”

On Oct. 28, San Diego Coastkeeper will celebrate the 20 years that it has been protecting the oceans, rivers and creeks of San Diego County with a “Seaside Soiree” at the Bali Hai Restaurant on Shelter Island. A start time of 4:30 p.m. for VIPs will include special entertainment and rides on the Coastkeeper’s patrol boat, Clean Sweep.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, will be the Keynote Speaker and Baehrens said there will be lots to keep everyone busy, with six interactive stations that will impart important information, including bioassessment, water quality monitoring, water education kits, water conservation, industrial stormwater, and beach cleanups.

Tickets can be found at tinyurl.com/p7fkzz2

“One of the things that I treasure most about my involvement with San Diego Coastkeeper is the opportunity it has given me to see how much people care about clean water and other social issues and the thousand unheralded times they quietly make a difference,” Baehrens said.

—Morgan M. Hurley can be reached at [email protected].