EPA Superfund Official to take 'Toxic Tour' of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard

Bayview community members are calling for complete, adequate, timely and on-going community oversight of the Superfund site remediation process.

(SAN FRANCISCO) - Community groups POWER, Greenaction, SLAM, and other Bayview community leaders are meeting Mathy Stanislaus, the Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response in Washington, DC and the official responsible for Superfund cleanup at the agency. Stanislaus will tour toxic waste sites at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, including areas contaminated with radiation that border family housing and neighborhood businesses.

Community involvement in remediation was severely undermined in January 2010, when the U.S. Navy dissolved the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) for the Shipyard. The RAB was the official community oversight body that allowed for full engagement of local residents in the remediation process at the Hunters Point Shipyard.

Nationally acclaimed scientist Wilma Subra agrees that the process lacks valid community participation. “Complete, adequate, timely and on-going community participation in the Superfund Remedial process is desperately needed.” According to Dr. Subra, “The current process exposes the community to unacceptable risks.” Subra is flying in from her lab in Louisiana to join the community on the tour and meeting with Stanislaus.

Community leaders went to EPA headquarters in Washington, DC for help after facing indifference from the Navy, Region IX EPA officials and the Mayor’s office Even though severe toxic contamination at the Shipyard is well documented, Lieutenant Governor-elect Gavin Newsom’s mayoral development advisor, Michael Cohen, recently dismissed community concerns at a July hearing, saying of Shipyard land “Materials that are allowed to be left behind can be touched, eaten and breathed every day for 30 years safely.”

“No one would want to touch, eat, or breathe arsenic every day, the mere idea is preposterous,” says Marie Harrison of Greenaction. “We need full and equitable community oversight and involvement in the remediation process to ensure our own health and protection.”

The Hunters Point Shipyard served as a working naval operation from 1941 to 1974. The site included the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, which was involved in the decontamination of ships exposed to atomic weapons testing and conducted experiments on radiological decontamination and the effects of radiation on living organisms and materials. The Shipyard was later leased to the Triple A Machine Shop, a company that was eventually charged with criminal violations for the illegal storage and disposal of hazardous waste on the property. In 1989, the Shipyard was designated as San Francisco’s only federal Superfund site under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

An independent analysis of the Shipyard site has shown the presence of extremely toxic contamination including radionuclides, VOCs (such as benzene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform, naphthalene, tetrachloroethane, and others), semi-volatile organic compounds, petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, PCBs, pesticides, heavy metals (arsenic, beryllium, chromium, chromium VI, lead, manganese, mercury, and nickel), and asbestos, or, at Candlestick Point, hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, semi-volatile organic compounds, PCBs, chlorinated pesticides, heavy metals (chromium VI, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, and zinc), and asbestos.

“We want economic prosperity and health, that is all we are fighting for,” says Vivien Donahue, a member of the community group POWER, who lives just a few yards from the radiologically contaminated Shipyard. “I lost my daughter-in-law at the age of 28 to stomach cancer. My grandchildren are sick, my neighbors are sick. We don’t want to see any workers or new residents get sick as a result of exposure to the toxic contamination in this area.” Asthma, breast cancer, respiratory illness are among the health impacts reported by Bayview residents living close to the Superfund site.