Bayview-Hunters Point residents and environmental advocates are calling on San Francisco to do more to address radioactive contamination at the Hunters Point Shipyard.
Protesters gathered at the steps of San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday. People held large, vivid signs with messages like “Bayview-Hunters Point Can’t Breathe." Several older women operated a large puppet of a grandmother holding the earth in one hand and a peace sign in the other, wearing a shirt that says, “Protect the Earth, Prevent Climate Chaos.”
The rally was organized by the Marie Harrison Community Foundation and Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice. Among several demands, they want the city to delay new developments in Bayview-Hunters Point until the site is decontaminated. Protestors pointed to a megaproject in the works at Candlestick Point.
"This development supersedes or takes precedence over any conversation surrounding radiation, toxic heavy metals, higher instances of cancer rates in Bayview Hunters Point," said Malik Washington of the Marie Harrison Community Foundation.
"We're being gaslighted. We have a body of evidence that shows that the radiation and toxic metals are in the bodies of the people," Washington said, referring to research conducted by Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai who found radiological chemicals in the blood and urine of residents from the neighborhood.
There’s a reason why the site is so contaminated:
From the 1940s to the 1970s, the U.S. Navy operated a shipyard in the neighborhood, which included the Naval Radiological Defense Lab. Years later, the Environmental Protection Agency labeled it a superfund site. This designation is for severely contaminated areas that put people and natural resources at risk. It allows for the EPA and other agencies to clean up the areas.
But the superfund site has been plagued by controversies.
In 2018, engineers contracted by the Navy pleaded guilty to falsifying soil samples to make contaminated areas of the shipyard look unpolluted.
Last October, the Navy revealed that 11 months earlier, it had found airborne plutonium–a highly radioactive material–at the site.
Most recently, the Navy reported it found a locked cabinet at the shipyard containing hundreds of radiological items – mostly small samples of uranium and thorium. It attributed the chemicals to a rogue employee working for a subcontracted company, but did not name the person responsible.
DJ Brookter, who’s running to represent the district as Supervisor, said trust is fractured in the community. " After decades of promises, residents are still being asked to trust a system that has repeatedly failed them. And it is a reminder that the people of Bayview Hunters Point are still paying the price for decades of negligence."
Among their demands, ralliers called for health reparations to impacted residents, community-supervised re-testing of the shipyard, and no transfer or development on contaminated land.
KALW reached out to Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office and the EPA. Neither responded in time to our request for comment.
