PG&E OKs millions for marina cleanup
Chemicals from old plant led S.F. to file suit in 2001
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. will pay as much as $190 million for the cleanup and rejuvenation of San Francisco’s oldest recreational marina to settle a decadesold legal dispute over pollution from a former coal gasification plant.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced the settlement Friday afternoon. San Francisco sued PG&E in 2001 over chemical compounds discovered in soils and sediments near the Marina Small Craft Harbor, not far from the site of the former gas plant, which closed nearly 90 years ago.
“I’m pleased that PG&E is finally doing the right thing in this instance and paying to clean up its pollution,” Herrera said in a statement. “It’s unfortunate we had to take them to court and then negotiate for years to get this outcome. But this settlement is going to benefit not only the residents of this area, but all San Franciscans, by increasing opportunities for waterfront recreation.”
The settlement calls for PG&E to clean up pollution in the East Harbor, located just west
of Fort Mason and commonly known as Gashouse Cove; replace failing docks; and help fund projects to improve public access there and at the West Harbor. PG&E will be responsible for up to $190 million of the cleanup and rehabilitation costs, according to the city attorney’s office. Depending on the final cost of the work, the city could have to repay a small portion of the overall cost over 30 years.
The project will be overseen by the city’s Recreation and Park Department. The settlement still needs to be approved by the the city’s Recreation and Park Commission and the Board of Supervisors.
A PG&E spokesman said the settlement was part of an ongoing discussion with the city to remediate environmental damage and improve recreation and public access.
“As part of PG&E’s commitment to environmental responsibility and public safety, PG&E worked together with city departments and regulatory agencies to address our historical impacts as part of the City’s marina improvement project in the East Harbor,” said spokesman Jeff Smith.
In the early 1900s, PG&E generated gas for San Francisco customers from coal and oil plants in the Marina and Fisherman’s Wharf that deposited their waste into the ground and in waters that flowed into San Francisco Bay.
The last plants closed at least 89 years ago. But in 2010, two large black rocks in a Marina resident’s yard were tested by PG&E and found to contain toxic levels of hydrocarbons — the type once generated by the power plants. Around the same time, members of the commercial herring fleet were drawing a connection between pollutants from the plants and the decline in the local herring population.
In 2018, PG&E settled a lawsuit with the San Francisco Herring Association, which claimed that carbon gases and coal tars from the longshuttered plants were seeping into the bay and killing herring. The settlement included $4.9 million in payments as well as required monitoring and cleanup.