Features

Metals, petroleum found near burning landfill

The Associated Press
Thursday September 14, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO — The Navy announced Tuesday that metals and petroleum have been found in the ground and benzene in the air around a landfill which has been burning underground for four weeks. 

It was not immediately known whether those materials found at Hunter’s Point Shipyard were present at levels harmful to the public and the Navy continued to evaluate the results. 

Navy officials also announced they had hired a landfill expert in hopes of finding a way to put out the smoldering fire that has troubled residents in the Hunter’s Point area of the city and frustrated the Environmental Protection Agency which maintains that the military waited too long, more than three weeks, to tell anyone about the problem.