Page One

UC Berkeley Monday asked the Richmond City Council to derail a proposed council resolution that calls for stricter oversight of the ongoing toxic waste cleanup at the Richmond Field Station (RFS). 

Irene Hegarty, campus director of community relations, dispatched an e-mail Monday afternoon to the full City Council objecting to provisions in a measure on Tuesday night’s agenda. 

The resolution by Councilmember Gayle McLaughlin calls for a transfer of full oversight of both the RFS and adjoining Campus Bay site into the hands of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control. 

“We believe the university’s field station property is listed in the draft resolution as a result of confusion with the neighboring ‘Campus Bay’ (Zeneca) site—a separate and distinct site remediation project being conducted by others,” Hegarty wrote. “We request that the draft resolution be modified to remove the field station from its scope.” 

But it’s no mistake, said McLaughlin, whose resolution comes up for consideration at Tuesday’s council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in Richmond City Council chambers, 1401 Marina Way South. 

McLaughlin said she intends to push for the more stringent control which the DTSC can provide over the cleanup at both the university-owned field station and at Campus Bay. 

Both sites were under the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board until critics of activities at Campus Bay triggered a state legislative hearing called by East Bay Assemblymember Loni Hancock that resulted in the water board ceding control of the upland portion of Campus Bay to the DTSC in December. 

The water board has limited scientific expertise because of funding cuts and the agency has no toxicologists on staff. The DTSC, on the other hand, is well staffed with toxics experts. 

Hegarty told the councilmembers that the university “is conducting an aggressive and closely monitored cleanup of contamination caused by historic industrial activities.” 

To date, UC Berkeley has spent $15 million on cleaning up RFS pollution, some of which stems from a century of chemical manufacturing at the Campus Bay site and some from the field station’s earlier incarnation as a manufacturing plant for blasting caps made of fulminate of mercury. 

Mercury is a dangerous pollutant linked to severe nerve and brain damage in fetuses and insanity in adults. 

“Our concern is that a change in the lead agency for this project could cause a significant delay in the remaining cleanup and eventual development of the field station with no added benefit to the university or community,” Hegarty said. 

She said the university will send an official to testify at the meetings, and offered to make officials available to councilmembers before the meeting. 

Richmond Councilmember Tom Butt issued his own reply to Hegarty, noting that the city has repeatedly attempted to open talks with the university about the future of the field station. 

“Unfortunately,” he wrote, “these discussions have met with little or no interest from UC Berkeley. 

“Now we have a major problem with our constituents who have uncovered negligence by the (San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board) in managing the cleanup of the Zeneca/Campus Bay site, and they are interested in not only Campus Bay but also the Field Station, since the two sites have much in common. 

“Perhaps this is a good time to reopen the discussions. . .about the Field Station so that there is some consideration of mutual interests.” 

Sherry Padgett, the most vocal critic of cleanup operations at the two sites, praised McLaughlin’s resolution. 

“We want DTSC to determine what the UC Field Station can or cannot be used for,” she said. “DTSC is the appropriate agency to determine if areas of the property should never have buildings constructed because the hazardous waste will never reach full remediation. DTSC is the agency to continue multiple lifetime monitoring. 

“UC will be better served over the long run if they welcome the top toxic cop to oversee their cleanup operations.” 

Just last week, DTSC issued a new order governing the Campus Bay site, ordering a new survey of toxins on site, removal of excavated soils dredged from a shoreline marsh and installation of a fence surrounding most of the property, replete with hazardous waste warning signs. 

Padgett and other members of Bay Area Residents for Responsible Development say they are also concerned that both sites are slated for development by the same firm, Cherokee-Simeon Ventures. 

UC Berkeley plans to turn the field station into a corporate/academic research park, to be known as Bayside Research Campus, while Cherokee-Simeon hopes to turn Campus Bay into a 1,330-unit housing project. 

›