Ten years ago, on November 7, 2007, the Cosco Busan container ship hit a support tower on the Bay Bridge and spilled more than 53,500 gallons of dense bunker oil into the San Francisco Bay.

Due to miscommunication, responders didn’t know how big the spill was and initially reported that only about 400 gallons had spilled into the bay. As a result, the response was slow and crucial time was lost. The oil eventually spread as far south as Redwood City and reached northward to Point Reyes.

Days after the spill, crews cleaned beaches around the Bay Area. (Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Jonathan R. Cilley)

In the last ten years, environmental groups have worked to evolve from these errors, striving to more effectively stop spills from happening, halt spills before they spread and restore damaged ecosystems and recreational spaces. It is a surprising and hopeful silver lining to what was one of the worst environmental disasters in Bay Area history.

Sejal Choksi-Chugh, Executive Director of pollution watchdog San Francisco Baykeeper, pointed to the Cosco Busan incident as a critical wake-up call for her organization and many others like it. “Baykeeper had always had a finger in the pot as a watchdog for oil spill and response,” she said. “The 2007 oil spill really kicked us into gear to put both hands in.”

Ten years later — amazingly — the San Francisco Bay Area has benefitted in tangible ways from the progress made by groups such as Baykeeper in the wake of the Cosco Busan incident.