Under the Wire: Oyster and Sierra Points

March 2005

At 7am in late January, 2001, the day just begins to break. The sun pushes the cloud cover westward, creating a sharp line between night and day. A little spit of landfill, Oyster Point seems a place out of time, it is so quiet and serene. A distant rumble of traffic blends in with the lapping of the water and the calling of the gulls. Altogether, it makes the sound of silence, a perfect lullaby for the unquiet mind.

One early morning visit, I am followed all over the Point in my car by a shaven-headed, pasty-faced young man in a dented Ford Escort. He finally honks and honks his horn at me to get my attention and then holds up a little something between thumb and forefinger while flashing me a most inviting look. Medicine of a different kind, it would appear.

Oyster Point is named for the oyster beds that were once cultivated here, and the shells are still in evidence in certain places. The USGS map of 1956 still shows Oyster Point as a graceful arrowhead. Sierra Point is nothing but a little nub on the same map. By 1968, the Oyster Point shoreline has been been pushed out and squared off. The marina shows up at the same time, presumably taking the place of the oyster fisheries. Sierra Point has bulked up to two unequal squares, the larger one belonging to San Francisco and the smaller one falling into South San Francisco territory.

The area bristles with waste disposal sites. The Solid Waste Information System lists the following:

• the Sierra Point Disposal Site, which, by its coordinates, appears to be just west of the Brisbane lagoon
• the South San Francisco Municipal Dump, all the way out by the bayshore
• lthe Blue Line Transfer Processing Facility on Oyster Point Boulevard, just off the freeway
• the new Blue Line dump, transfer processing and recycling center at East Jamie Court
• the O'Brian Corporation site, the dumping ground of an old paint factory

Both of the Blue Line facilities are still active, but all the other sites have been closed.

I haven't been able to find any official histories that will allow me to relate these points of interest to the actual landscape, but Luman Drake, one of the movers and shakers in Brisbane Citizens for Civic Progress that eventually persuaded Sanitary Fill to stop dumping garbage at Brisbane and the author of the immortal phrase "organized garbage," recalls a breakneck dike-building project in 1965. Save the Bay legislation prohibiting filling any areas subject to tidal action went into effect by May 31, 1965. According to Drake, the garbage companies were trucking dirt and rock from Candestick Point night and day to close the levees around Sierra Point to beat the clock. While the outer ring is solid fill, the rest is all garbage, 60 feet down into the bay.

Now Oyster Point is mostly known for the biotech industry. Genentech got started just a little south, toward Point San Bruno and still maintains a campus here. And then there is a host of startups of various sizes with names like Cellegy and ViroLogic.

On nice weekends, there's bound to be quite a bit of traffic to the marina, but on the average weekday, the park is virtually deserted. There are some solitary walkers, a few fishermen on the fishing pier after shark, striped bass, and sturgeon, and the anti-lunch crowd—people who find a quiet place to park their car, eat their lunch behind the wheel, and take a nap. Refugees from the urban jungle.

Marijke Rijsberman

More Information
Historic Topographic Maps of California—San Francisco Bay Area
California Integrated Waste Management Board
Solid Waste Information System
Herstory: Luman C. Drake
Oyster Point Fishing Pier
Oyster Point Marina/Park