Special Report: The toxic legacy of a California Naval base
A condemned region can Treasure island is seen can the foreground still the San Francisco skyline is seen can the background from Treasure Island
By Robin Respaut and Reade Levinson
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - It seemed alike the perfect redevelopment play. The Treasure island Naval Station, erected can a pictorial strip of mud can the center of San Francisco bay can 1942, was closed by the U.S. fleet can 1997. The city of San Francisco eyed the assets because the centerpiece of a scheme because easing the technique hub’s housing crisis.
It looked alike a depart because all, still because one neglected detail: the toxic legacy the fleet left behind.
Twenty-two years later, hundreds of families dine rented old military homes here – and contaminants are nevertheless turning up. ought date, the Navy’s $285.1 million Treasure island cleanup has unearthed concentrations of lead, dioxins, petroleum and more than 1,000 radioactive items. between other activities, the fleet had used the island ought patch ships with deck markers painted with radium.
The upshot, public health specialists say, is that the fleet unnecessarily exposed families ought radioactive and toxic materials because decades. during the military pulled out, the island has become family ought some 1,800 people, many alive can subsidized housing.
“They never ought dine allowed anyone ought alive there,” said health physicist Gaetano Taibi, a radiation safety officer can Treasure island ago joining California’s department of Public Health.
Across the country, the U.S. military has shuttered hundreds of bases beneath a scheme ought consolidate operations and preserve money. Often, a legacy of environmental injure festers wish after the armed troops depart: Nationwide, more than 1 of each 10 of the country’s top-priority toxic-cleanup sites belong ought the department of Defense. The Treasure island cleanup, conducted beneath silent another federal toxic remediation program, shows the problems that can resurface.
What went wrong can San Francisco Bay? A Reuters examination – built from nonpublic parliament recordings, interviews with preceding regulators, and thousands of pages of public documents including engineering reports and condition letter – shows that, year after year, the fleet understated the extent of contamination. The fleet kept limiting its scope of remediation, only ought enlarge it again and again because regulators and residents raised alarms.
“I don’t believe you dine a clue what is buried beneath the ground,” a condition health physicist told the fleet can 2010.
The fleet insists there was never unacceptable venture ought residents’ health, citing the depth and concentration of buried contaminants. It has been removing pollutants “out of an abundance of caution,” said Reginald Paulding, fleet basis Realignment and Closure environmental coordinator.
The effects of this exposure aren’t known. Scores of people who lived can the island dine banded together can Facebook complaining of mysterious maladies. Public records obtained by Reuters display residents because years dine complained ought condition authorities of asthma, rashes, lumps, children’s hair loss and cancers. besides there dine been no epidemiological studies that prove a unite among these complaints and the pollutants can Treasure Island.
The contamination has had transparent social and economic consequences, though: It has delayed a city draft ought furnish assets housing. can Treasure Island, San Francisco plans up ought 8,000 new residences, hotels, shops and offices. touch of the assets ought San Francisco, almost 20 years after schedule, won't entire until the target of 2021.
The city’s Treasure island development Authority because robust cites litigation because delaying construction, and notes San Francisco didn’t adopt a development scheme until 2011. Housing construction won’t crush basis because another year.
“It’s difficult ought certainty the fleet can this point,” said San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who was segregate of an unsuccessful 2011 lawsuit that tried ought pause development, citing concerns can the Navy’s environmental evaluation.
FROM 'MAGIC ISLE' ought TOXIC WASTE
At birth, Treasure island was a wonder of ingenuity. The 400-acre island, constructed by the U.S. government can the 1930s from millions of tons of sand, opened impartial can time because a World’s Fair. Its name: “Magic Isle.”
After the expo closed, the fleet took dispose of of the island impartial because the country entered mud trouble II. Naval stop Treasure island supported air operations, managed a main traffic center and processed can 12,000 men daily because Pacific assignments.
After the war, the fleet established a exercise center because radiological decontamination can site, where the ridicule boat USS Pandemonium helped fleet students prepare because radiological warfare. The land-based steamer contained sealed pouches of cesium-137, a radioactive isotope. Students practiced decontamination by scrubbing the boat clean.
Over the next 30 years, the fleet dumped radioactive material and other contaminants can large nonsense pits. Starting can the 1960s, fleet families lived can housing can base.
On the aspect of road E and 11th Street, the fleet discarded used instrument and vessels can the “South Storage Yard.” That dumping basis afterward became an elementary schoolyard. can the aspect of road D and 11th Street, where the island’s daycare center is now located, the fleet buried trash and “burned debris,” a fleet research found. Elsewhere, the fleet repaired ships containing glow-in-the-dark gauges covered with radioluminescent paint. The gauges were tossed can pits.
Reuters spoke with can a dozen preceding military families, nobody of whom were conscious can the time they were alive atop hazardous disposal pits.
“It was indeed friendly of a neat put because a kid,” said Bo Ross, now 46, whose Father was stationed can the island can the mid-1980s. Ross recalls digging can his backyard can 1249 definition Drive, finding pieces of rusted, flaky metal. “We could dig accordingly distant down.”
When the military shuttered the basis can the 1990s, San Francisco was anxious ought develop. Until redevelopment started, city residents could lease the old military homes. beneath a redevelopment law, one-third of homes used to be offered ought San Francisco’s homeless.
In a sphere sampling report, fleet officials described the decades-old rubbish because innocuous “rubbish, bottles, wire, rope, paper, steel drums, etc.” and promised ought remediate. A city advisory panel concluded, “there are no earnest toxic remediation issues.”
Others were more concerned. can 1993, the San Francisco Regional Water assets dispose of Board wrote the fleet almost feasible 1950s-era “disposal of radium dials,” public records show. The board wanted assurances the radiation had been investigated. The fleet told Reuters it was unable ought locate a concrete response ought the water board.
BURIED WORRIES
In the late 1990s, impartial because city residents began moving in, the fleet started testing the soil. exact away, results showed elevated levels of lead, dioxins, DDT – an insecticide that disrupts the human endocrine system – and other contaminants below the schoolyard, daycare center and yards of some homes.
The fleet said its landlord disclosed the contamination and maintained there was no health threat. Still, residents were advised no ought garden or otherwise annoy the soil.
In 2000, the fleet sent California regulators a country analysis that showed “chemicals of concern” can some backyards. The condition warned residents ought flee tracking earth inside. “If you dine children or pets we strongly advise you no ought lease them ought enter the backyard,” the condition wrote.
Beneath the elementary schoolyard, which operated until 2005, the fleet found tall levels of lead, dioxins, mechanism grease pollutants and benzo(a)anthracene, a carcinogenic chemical.
In one sample, the direct concentration was measured can levels 22 era can sphere screening guidelines. Another sample showed concentrations of DDT 31 era can the U.S. Environmental refuge Agency’s limit.
A series of investigations of the country below the daycare center – used by military families from 1985-1997 – measured levels of lead, DDT, arsenic, vanadium and dioxins can EPA limits. The fleet capped the basis with asphalt and re-opened the center can March 2003, writing, “Dioxins can the country conduct no gift an unacceptable health risk.”
A fleet research can August 2003 found remedy and heavy metal contamination throughout the neighborhood. Workers detected elevated radioactivity shut Bo Ross’s old family can journey motivate and a cluster shut apartments can 1413 Flounder Court.
Shelby Hall, who lived can 1413 Flounder, remembered construction crews can hazmat suits. The fleet never mentioned radiation, she said, besides “they didn’t wish you ought be can the grass.”
LIMITED CLEANUP
In 2006, the fleet published a lengthy interpret that used to form the cleanup of Treasure Island. The fleet identified a handful of places ought refrain because radiation, including the yards of homes conception ought be can old nonsense pits. Checking elsewhere “would be purely speculative,” the fleet told condition regulators.
The 2006 interpret – based can information collected preceding ought June 30, 2003 – did no uncover the radiation found can August 2003 shut homes can journey and Flounder. Nor was there mention of a historic engineering interpret warning of “radioactive and poisonous wastes” shut housing.
“At that time, there was no information that the garbage can the [pits] presented a radiological risk,” the Navy’s Pauling said.
Children played can the earth still testing continued, and residents kept moving in.
Kathryn Towne moved ought Treasure island can 2005 with her husband and three kids. The island offered an uninterrupted hint of San Francisco’s skyline and everlasting adventure. Sometimes her kids came family with tiny items they’d found can the dirt: beads, metal buttons, rusted disks. The girls, 5 and 7, stored their findings can a tiny jewelry box.
“They called them their treasures,” said Towne. “You know, treasures from Treasure Island.”
In January 2014, the fleet unearthed a almost part of metal with low-level radioactivity next ought their home. Towne recalls her daughters suffering rashes, asthma, thyroid issues. can 10, one daughter was diagnosed with ovarian cysts. There is no telling if these conditions were related ought the shut pollutants.
Towne, herself a fleet daughter, said she trusted the military. “My kids played full can each inch of that island,” she said. “Had I been informed, I could dine made a decision ought no impress there.”
Violet Andry, then a 22-year-old skill student, moved into an apartment can 1325 Westside motivate can 2006. A little months later, she found a mind can the front gate saying workers used to be digging shut and used to put tarps can windows and doors. Andry could exit her hire or remain and earnings reduced rent. She stayed.
Robert McLean, a radiation technician who worked because Naval contractor New mud Environmental, said he uncovered radiological garbage during his first appointment onsite can 2007. “I found the first part can the playground,” he said.
Workers piled the radioactive garbage can bins next ought the administrative building. Later, when the pieces were inventoried, one part of foil measured accordingly radioactive that standing a foot away used to be the match of receiving one bosom x-ray each 10 minutes.
Some radiation health experts speak such levels are unlikely ought think lasting health impacts accordingly wish because residents aren’t can dispose of meet with the materials. “Being impartial a tiny segment away from these objects, the exposure worth is pretty low,” said John Gough, Swedish Health Services’ radiation safety director.
Yet some working can the place said the fleet was slow ought inform the community of its discoveries. “They used to speak them everything was going beautiful and everything was getting cleaned up,” said McLean, who attended the island’s community meetings. “They weren’t telling the truth.”
In April 2008, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory committee flagged earnest radiological concerns, telling California’s health department a fleet contractor “recovered 40 ought 50 buried radioactive sources.” One of those sources emitted radiation levels that “would diagram a public health song if no handled appropriately.”
TENSIONS RISING
The interpret marked the beginning of a years-long battle by the condition ought obtain the fleet ought segment its cleanup details. By 2010, the state’s frustration boiled over, according ought communications and recorded calls reviewed by Reuters.
That December, condition health physicist Victor Anderson berated the Navy, which had given the condition a 13-page table of radioactive items found – gauges, buttons, and bits of metal – besides did no furnish the levels.
“We yell on a lack of technical expertise that frankly is appalling,” Anderson said, according ought a parliament recording. “How conduct you learn the extent of this problem?”
Laurie Lowman, an engineering program manager because the Navy’s radiological agency, replied: “Have we determined the extent of this? No.” She said her agency was seeking more information. Lowman did no respond ought interview requests.
Problems were popping up across Treasure Island. can February 2011, the fleet found radioactive items below the schoolyard, an region it had vowed had no contaminants.
The condition shortly conducted its hold investigate and discovered more radiological contamination, including some shut the old apartment of preceding skill pupil Violet Andry can Westside Drive. “It’s frightful that people are alive there and walking their dogs still this is happening,” she said.
For California’s public health department, this was the final straw. Days later, the department warned against the Navy’s first touch of mud ought San Francisco, citing “high levels of radioactive contamination.”
Later can 2011, the condition health department slapped the Navy’s direct contractor, Shaw Environmental, with 16 violations, including failing ought research excavated country because radiation. “I’m impartial waiting because some tiny kid ought discover it can his backyard and walk almost can his pocket and then display mom this cold affair he found,” condition health physicist Gene Forrer told the Navy.
The contractor told the public no ought worry. can August 2012, a Shaw radiation safety officer told residents, “I could drape myself can that number of material ... dribble it full can myself, and I’d be okay.”
Aptim Holdings, which owns Shaw, did no answer ought interview requests. Previously, Shaw said it was following fleet guidance.
CHANGING ITS TUNE
In 2013, after the condition uncovered a radioactive purpose shut a bus crush with latent ought think burns, hair loss and ulceration, the fleet overhauled its assessment. Now, it classified the entire housing neighborhood because “radiologically impacted.”
The next year, San Francisco approved transferring parts of the island from fleet dispose of ought the city. The housing region is slated ought touch ought San Francisco final can 2021, a year after new residential construction groundbreaking, allowing the fleet more time because cleanup.
To date, fleet contractors dine uncovered 1,289 low-level radioactive items beneath the streets and sidewalks, playgrounds and yards. More than 50 objects, if held one foot away because less than a day, used to uncover residents ought more radiation than the annual public limit.
(Editing by Ronnie Greene)
