New Executive Director to Lead San Diego Coastkeeper

Gale Filter, a former environmental attorney, is now executive director for San Diego Coastkeeper, an organization dedicated to protecting San Diego's inland and coastal waters for the communities and wildlife that depend upon them. Patch got to talk with Filter to find out about him and what he plans to bring to Coastkeeper.

Patch: Tell me a little bit about your family and your neighborhood.

Gale Filter: I have a wife, two grown daughters living in Oregon, and two dogs. Currently I’m living in Point Loma during the workweek, and my wife and I still have our house up in Northern California.

Patch: Do you have any favorite spots in San Diego?

Filter: Put me on a bike along the coast, it’s all good. I especially like the bike ride where you take the ferry to Coronado.

Patch: Why did you want to join San Diego Coastkeeper and take on this leadership position?

Filter: San Diego Coastkeeper is a premier environmental organization in San Diego, and this is an opportunity for me to go back to working at the local level where environmental issues can best be addressed.

Patch: What is your educational background?

Filter: I graduated law school from USD in ‘89 and went to Imperial County where I was a prosecutor for 10 years. I’ve been working doing environmental cases since around ’91, and San Diego was where I got to do all my training. I also worked up in Sacramento for seven years as the deputy executive director for consumer, environmental and legal services at the California District Attorneys Association and as deputy director of enforcement and emergency response for the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Patch: What are some key environmental issues you feel need to be addressed in San Diego?

Filter: It’s all about our coastal waters. San Diego, in the next 10 years, is going to have more serious issues with water supply. We need to be constantly conserving and recycling our water. Also, the sediment at the bottom of the bay is big; the toxins have a huge impact on aquatic life. I predict in the next 10 years we will see two things: With the state of the economy, government services will contract because of budget restraints, and because of that there will be a lot more community involvement in organizations like Coastkeeper as issues become more pressing.

Patch: What is the first goal you would like to achieve with Coastkeeper?

Filter: The first goal is working with the community to identify water problems. We need to tap into that and get the community more involved, which will give us more resources.

Patch: What is a more long-term goal you’d like to see reached in San Diego?

Filter: Water supply is humongous. … The community and government have to find a way to address this issue; with the population continuing to grow, we need to be rethinking what can be done with our water supply.

Patch: How can people help protect San Diego’s waters?

Filter: We all have to step back and think about, how much water am I using? Am I washing my car every other day? That’s probably too much water. We have to find the wisest use of the water we have.

Patch: Any upcoming events people can get involved in?

Filter: Sept. 17, Coastal Cleanup Day, is a tremendous opportunity for people to get involved and work with Coastkeeper. The entire coastline will have people out, pulling out of the water what others put into it.  You can go to the Coastkeeper website, sdcoastkeeper.org, for more information on this event and others to get involved in.