Enviro-friendly efforts to be awarded

Pacifica's new Camera Creek wastewater treatment plant was chosen for its design — which made the state-of-the-art facility nearly invisible by setting it most underground — as well as its restoration of a degraded creek and 30 acres of habitat for endangered species.

In Redwood City, a transit-oriented downtown development called the Civi Center Plaza, created 81 apartments for low-income residents within walking distance of stores, library, and City Hall. On-site child care and job training further enhance amenities at the Civic Center Plaza.

A Peninsula resident who alerted city governments six years ago that San Francisquito Creek south of Menlo Park should be cleaned up to save steelhead trout, a threaded species, was also chosen for an award. Jim Johnson's efforts led to a recovery plan for the creek involving 30 government and private organizations. Audrey Rust, as head of the Peninsula Open Space Trust, has raised tens of mullions in recent years to buy Bair Island in Redwood City so it could become part of a national wildlife refuge, purchase a coastal tract near Pigeon Point where a view-blocking bed-and-breakfast inn was going up, and add hundreds of acres of open space to ridgeline and coastal areas in the county.

The fifth honoree, Westin San Fransisco Airport Hotel, was chosen for its effectiveness at bringing recycling practices and energy efficiency into its business operation.