[CPEO-BIF] "Residents say a state proposal to clean up the toxic Zeneca site on the Richmond [California] shoreline doesn't go far enough"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

The Fight to Clean Up Another Richmond Brownfield 
Residents say a state proposal to clean up the toxic Zeneca site on the Richmond shoreline doesn't go far enough.

By Janis Hashe
East Bay Express (CA)
July 25, 2018

If you've walked your dog at Point Isabel, shopped at the Costco next door, or watched a great blue heron wade into the nearby Stege Marsh wetlands, you were right next to a toxic stew that has been the subject of controversy for decades.

Now, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is proposing to continue to cap part of the 86-acre Zeneca site on the Richmond shoreline. But residents are concerned that the effort doesn't go far enough to protect the environment and human health.

Contamination of the site began in 1887, when the Stauffer Chemical Company began trucking in pyrite (fool's gold) from a Sierra mine, "roasting" it on-site to make sulfuric acid, and allowing the highly toxic cinders to pile up. By the 1950s, the company was manufacturing and storing pesticides and herbicides, allowing runoff to accumulate in "chemical ponds." By 1997, after multiple mergers, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca closed the site, and from 1999 to 2002, "cleanup" began. This included demolishing site structures, digging up toxic soil, mixing it with limestone to neutralize it, spreading it over 30 acres, and capping it with a thin concrete cap, which was intended to be temporary. In 2009, the DTSC fined Zeneca and the University of California for several violations related to the cleanup effort, and fined them $510,000 as part of a settlement agreement.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/the-fight-to-clean-up-another-richmond-brownfield/Content?oid=18390371

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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