Tag: serpentine

“It is ‘normal,’ he said, for a child to have nosebleeds and asthma.”

The United States Navy has spent over $600 million trying to clean up the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. Most of the money was wasted - more then $300 million by International Technologies - with little supervision by the United States Navy Base Closure Team in past years.

For over a year, Lennar polluted the Bayview with dangerous levels of asbestos particulate, churning poisonous dust clouds over community homes, schools and churches.

Prop G is not about development – it’s about land banking for the future. Lennar will sell off its affordable housing obligations to nonprofits, then hold out to maximize its return.

Due to the toxicity of the land, Lennar is able to acquire land in poor areas, such as the Bayview, for next to nothing. Lennar then develops the area, building market value homes that current residents cannot afford, driving them out of their neighborhood.

Efforts to “dirty transfer” uncleaned shipyard parcels as proposed in the conceptual plan and the June 2008 ballot measure represent a direct violation of a city ordinance.

Despite Lennar’s claims that grading was completed in September in 2007, community air monitors continue to document elevations in asbestos levels.

Now that we know how that negligence has endangered an upscale white neighborhood in Florida, will anyone in Hunters Point stand up in Lennar’s defense?

The resolution does not compel any action but calls upon the city to halt construction, order health assessments and communicate these reports to the district and the public.

It would be a liability to accelerate the transfer of a federal Superfund site from the National Priority List with the data gaps that exist in the characterization of this property. The city admits it cannot clean up the Shipyard’s radiation-contaminated sites, which comprise the bulk of Parcels D and E. Parcel F, the Shipyard’s underwater region, has not been adequately studied.

On Friday, Sept. 21, 2007, Mayor Gavin Newsom claimed “the CDC and the California Department of Public Health agree with the San Francisco Department of Public Health that there was no significant health risk created by the grading activities at the shipyard.”

Nevertheless, recent news articles have discussed plans to speed up the pace of the cleanup and possible use of the Shipyard to house a new 49ers stadium.

“I have several friends who have died from asbestos, died from inhaling asbestos. Don’t let any of these people tell you it’s not toxic. I have complained about all those trucks with all that dust. They bring it through our neighborhood with no cover.”

I found out that Lennar pays for the studies conducted by the SFDPH. Dr. Bhatia told me that there is nothing wrong with the air or the dust and that people couldn’t possibly be experiencing health care problems.

“We have been living the Lennar nightmare for seven years. We are original owners with perpetual water intrusion. I am trying to organize my neighbors (168 defective homes) and share information in hopes that together we can make a difference ... We are absolutely devastated. I am writing from Novato, California.” — Tamara

“Last week a reading was over 21,000 particulates; 16,000 is an acceptable amount of dust you can breathe.”

“My son is sick and my grandchildren are sick. I could hope that someone would have said ‘Hold it.’ We know that there is environmental racism.”

“Bayview residents have been living with asthma way longer than the 49ers have been living with a third-rate stadium.”

The proposed dirty transfer of property from the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List would hasten development of the toxic property by removing federal, state and local government regulatory oversight.

“There’s asbestos everywhere on the base …” – Wayne Lee, inspector, Bay Area Air Quality Management District