Tag: Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates

Dr. Kim Rhoads, MD, MS, MPH, is an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF); director of the Office of Community Engagement at UCSF; and member of the COVID-19 Equity Task Forces in both San Francisco and Alameda County.

Driving the environmental health movement in southeast San Francisco is a clear sense of urgency and duty to protect current and future generations from an avalanche of toxic chemicals linked to cardiopulmonary diseases, cancers, neurological and immune diseases, behavioral disorders, birth defects and infant mortality rates. The investigative team included myself and pioneering community scientist Raymond Tompkins. Offering academic leadership were San Francisco State University chemistry professor Dr. Peter Palmer and UCSF School of Medicine Clinical Professor of Pediatrics Carol Miller, MD. Dr. Kim Hooper of the State of California Toxic Laboratories assisted in submission of the proposal.

One photo in particular caught my attention. It’s simplicity and composition stand out when viewed from the eye of the photographer…a man dedicated to his work and loyal to his purpose as a longshore worker. Taken in the mid 1960’s, it depicts an isolated freighter ship offshore from a pier at the Hunters Point Shipyard. I call it “View from the Shipyard.” I don’t know why that cargo ship was so important it became the centerpiece of a technicolor photo. My Dad was probably the shipping clerk responsible for accounting its cargo.

On behalf of our many members and constituents in Bayview Hunters Point, we thank you for holding a hearing in response to Tetra Tech’s fraud at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund site. During the hearing, the Board of Supervisors sent a loud and clear message to the Navy, its contractors, state and federal regulatory agencies, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Now it is imperative that we do everything in our collective power to ensure the Hunters Point Superfund site remediation is comprehensive, transparent and trustworthy.

After years of ignoring the well documented allegations of fraud and improper cleanup of the radioactive and toxic contaminated Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund site, the Board of Supervisors will finally hold a public hearing on the issue. The Board’s Land Use and Transportation Committee hearing will be Monday, May 14, at 1:30 p.m. Everyone is encouraged to attend this important hearing.