[CPEO-MEF] Build stadium, homes on deadly dump?

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California
Build stadium, homes on deadly dump?
Showdown at the Shipyard!
by Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, M.D.

?This conduct by the Defense Department clearly violates the campaign
promise made by President Bush on April 3, 2000, at Pittsburgh, Pa.,
that he would ?direct active federal facilities to comply with all
environmental protection laws and hold them accountable.? At the same
time, the President noted that ?the federal government is considered the
nation?s worst polluter.? Certainly, the Defense Department, with 137
Superfund sites, qualifies as one of the nation?s worst polluters.?

- Congressman John D. Dingell, ranking member, Committee on Energy and
Commerce

A storm of outraged and incredulous email messages was generated in
response to an article appearing in the Nov. 22 edition of the San
Francisco Business Times announcing the transfer of the Hunters Point
Shipyard to the City and County of San Francisco.

?San Francisco?s Redevelopment Agency, the U.S. Navy and developer
Lennar Communities have reached an agreement to begin the redevelopment
of the former Hunters Point Shipyard,? the Business Times reported. ?The
transfer of the property to the city and the agreement on Phase I,
covering 100 of the shipyard?s 500 acres, was announced Nov. 19.?

The news of the transfer was particularly startling to insiders in light
of the fact that a document required under both the federal Superfund
Act and under the legal conditions set forth by the Conveyance Agreement
has not been finalized by the Navy or signed off by environmental
regulators, including the EPA and the Base Closure Team. The document is
called the Finding of Suitability to Transfer, or FOST, for Parcel A.

?(T)he Draft Final FOST for Parcel A has not been issued and therefore
not submitted to the regulators for concurrence,? wrote Claire
Trombadore, project manager for the EPA Region IX Superfund Program, by
email. ?(W)e have asked the Navy to ensure that the landfill gas
emergency removal action is in place and that they can demonstrate it is
effective and that Parcel A is not threatened. The Navy recently
proposed a revised FFA (Federal Facilities Agreement) schedule, which is
still under regulatory review. This draft FFA has the Navy issuing the
Final FOST for Parcel A on 2/10/03. The Navy requests regulatory
concurrence by 2/28/03. Again, this is a draft FFA schedule and has not
been approved,? she concluded.

Chein Kao, project manager for the California Department of Toxic
Substances Control, asked the Navy to provide four months of data to
verify that the Parcel A landfill gas extraction and treatment system
that began operation at the first two of 10 extraction wells on Oct. 3
will lower the concentration of methane gas detected within 100 feet of
Parcel A. That suffocating, explosive gas was measured in concentrations
as high as 80 percent this fall and must be reduced to below the state
law cleanup goal of less than 5 percent.

Completion of the first round of methane gas extraction for all 10 wells
is not expected until the end of December. According to the Navy?s
September 2002 Environmental Cleanup newsletter, ?The system will
continue to be operated rotating between the extraction wells until the
cleanup goal of less than 5 percent methane ? is reached. The Navy
anticipates reaching this goal within 6 months.?

According to the Business Times, ?The Board of Supervisors must still
approve the agreement (to transfer 100 acres of the Shipyard from the
Navy to the City). A series of public hearings will be held leading up
to the supervisors? vote on the plan, expected to take place next
spring.?

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.sfbayview.com/121102/deadlydump121102.shtml

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