Coming to terms with toxic site

Francisco property such as Mission Rock, Pier 70 and the former PG&E power plant, toxic soil is rarely discussed in environmental impact reports. Instead, officials defer to the city’s Maher Ordinance, which relies on the Department of Public Health to review and accept cleanup plans for potentially contaminated sites. But there are no public hearings for Maher Ordinance plans. Neighbors have had to search for, review and fight flawed soil mitigation plans, while city bureaucrats repeatedly shrug their shoulders or look to state agencies to actually enforce local laws.

Southeast San Francisco is home to cancer clusters, high rates of asthma and heart attacks, and toxic hot spots. The Bayview Mothers and Fathers Committee for Environmental Justice, along with Greenaction, published a “Toxic Inventory of Bayview Hunters Point” in 2004. Sadly, almost the entire inventory is still present today.

We need to see some immediate and specific actions to protect the communities of Bayview-Hunters Point and its neighbors along the eastern waterfront of San Francisco:

Re-establish and empower a civilian oversight committee to oversee the shipyard project.

Bring the shipyard development back under the direct oversight of the city Department of Public Health, the City Planning Department, and the Board of Supervisors, instead of the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure, a separate and state-authorized local entity.

Upgrade the Maher Ordinance to include public hearings for soil mitigation plans for potentially toxic areas.

Study, as do other counties, the substantial evidence of health and social inequalities plaguing San Francisco’s District 10 and recommend solutions to improve the health of all our residents and workers. Tens of thousands of homes and offices are projected to be built along the city’s eastern waterfront on top of toxic and contaminated soil. Why is there almost no public oversight of pollution cleanup on this side of town? Our next development boom runs the risk of being San Francisco’s biggest medical experiment, with potentially dire consequences for southeastern residents and workers.

Photos by Noah Berger / Special to The Chronicle A crane stands at the radiologically contaminated San Francisco Shipyard development at Hunters Point. Southeast San Francisco is home to cancer clusters, high rates of asthma and heart attacks, and toxic hot spots.

Derek Robinson, an environmental coordinator for the U.S. Navy, discusses potentially falsified or questionable soil samples at the shipyard project site.