Editing Emeryville, California (section)

===Mudflats and other environmental features===<!-- This section is linked from [[Wikipedia:Requested_pictures/Places#Places_in_North_America]] -->

{{Main|Emeryville Crescent State Marine Reserve}}

[[Image:Emeryville mudflats distant San Francisco.JPG|thumb|200px|right|Emeryville's mudflats]]

At one time, the Emeryville Mudflats were famous for their stench. In the 19th and early 20th century, this was caused by the effluent from the "Butchertown" area, where several meat-packing plants operated along the bayshore. They also dumped stripped carcasses in the bay here. Later, untreated [[sewage]] from Emeryville, Oakland, and Berkeley flowed directly into the bay over the mudflats, producing [[hydrogen sulfide]] gas, particularly noticeable on warm days. In the 1950s the [[East Bay Municipal Utility District]] constructed a regional sewage treatment plant near the eastern terminus of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, which, for the most part, cured the noxious problem.

The Emeryville Mudflats became notable in the 1960s and 1970s for [[Emeryville mudflat sculptures|public art]], erected (with neither permission nor compensation) from [[driftwood]] timbers and boards by professional and amateur artists and art students from local high schools, [[University of California, Berkeley|UC Berkeley]], the [[California College of Arts and Crafts]] and the [[Free University of Berkeley]]. The mudflats were even featured in the [[1971 in film|1971 film]] ''[[Harold and Maude]]''. These unsanctioned works were admired by some drivers heading westbound on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge from Interstate 80.

In the late 1990s, the sculptures and materials were removed in the interest of establishing a more natural and undisturbed marshland for the nurturing of wildlife.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} This process continues around the bay in many other wetlands, former diked grazing fields, and salt production evaporation ponds.

Historically, Emeryville had been the location of a number of heavy industrial uses such as Judson Steel, whose properties were developed by bringing in waste and [[construction waste|construction debris]] fill from San Francisco in the early 1900s.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}} Correspondingly much of the underlying soil contained [[heavy metals]], [[hydrocarbons]] and other soil contaminants. Much of this contamination was removed in the 1980s when the considerable wave of redevelopment occurred. The population had increased to almost 7,000 by the year 2000. Since then, the population has continued to grow and is estimated by General Plan projects a population of 16,600 by 2030. In addition, the city is home to about 20,000 current jobs; this number is projected to increase to about 30,000 by 2030.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}