Request to US Department of Defense

Sunday 11 September 2016 11:56:48 AM

Location: Hunter's Point Shipyard, San Francisco, CA, United States

Category: Toxic Substances

Description:

To: The United States of America Department of Defense Regards: The reestablishment of Remediation Advisory Board at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard: We are requesting that the Department of Defense intervene in the process here at hunters point shipyard and reestablish the RAB. The current process for informing the public is unsatisfactory in many questions that residents have go on answered. In my personal participation in some of these meetings is been a one way only presentation. Very little time is given to the public for answering any questions. Many times I've been limited to only one question using time as an excuse. In any scientific inquiry there are several questions to be addressed. In this cleanup there are several questions is as I've outlined below that needs to be addressed. The Navy's representatives at the shipyard are refusing to meet with the community and representatives from the University of California at Santa Cruz on their report concerning radiation background radiation levels in the standards that are being applied at the hunters point shipyard. We are concerned that a 42-year-old standard is being applied at the shipyard leaving our community at risk. We are already and impacted community of other environmental hazards. The most concerning findings of the UC Santa Cruz Environmental Nuclear Policy College. Is the current standard of the Atomic Energy Commission which no longer exists in the United States Federal Government. This standards allows the equivalency of 12 x-rays a year for an adult. Rather than the current EPA regulations. When the RAB was in existence I participated in all of the meetings and this particular topic was coming under consideration and criticism by community members. Members of our committee who chaired I radiation committee and was the community chair of the RAB wore college graduates from distinguish universities such as Stanford University. Another member chaired I radiation committee was a licensed physician who also grew up in this community. The chair of our technical committee had taught at UC Berkeley environmental chemistry and engineering for five years and taught at other universities. This community was concerned over the radiation levels over 10 years ago. And as of today has been reinforced by the findings from the University of California at Santa Cruz. We are requesting that meaningful citizen participation as defined by Department of Defense protocols for the establishment of the Remediation Advisory Board and the Federal Department of Environmental Protection for Environmental Justice philosophy. I am a former member of the Navy's Remediation Advisory Board (RAB) at Hunters Point Shipyard and Navy Radiological Defense Laboratory facility at Bayview Hunters Point in San Francisco California, for 12 years. I chair the Technical Advisory Committee (Chemical Analysis) for six years and administrator for the Federal Environmental Protection Agency Technical Assistance Grant (TAG). I am currently a retired professor from several different universities and colleges in the Bay Area. I give you a brief Bio. on myself so that you may understand that I have some working knowledge of the conditions out there at Hunters Point. I personally have been on a bus tour of the Navy base at Hunters Point. I have seen uncovered unscreened potential radioactive soil, the height of the soil was approximately 25 feet plus. There was no dust suppression system in place with water. Three months later I was informed that an organic material had been sprayed on this pile of potential radioactive soil. It is been past practice of the Navy to have a color applied to the organic material either green or orange die informing the workers and the public that the soil is properly handle. In the practice of screening the potential radioactive soil on the pads there is no water suppression system in use in the last seven years. No direct water hosing down of the soil or passive atomization of water suppression system in place. Therefore strong possibility of Fugitive Dust escaping the work area is a strong reality. I have inquired at the San Francisco Bay Area Air Quality Management District, if there are any standards for radioactive fugitive dusts leaving the work site? The response is that they do not have any standards apply radioactive dust the only have standards for visible fugitive dust leaving the work site. We are asking that the state of California intervene in this serious matter. We are asking that a comparative analysis be conducted on background radiation levels between the neighborhood known as Russian Hill in San Francisco and the adjacent neighborhood to the shipyard Bayview Hunters Point. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District released a report in April of 2014 on care zone neighborhoods. The life expectancy for residents living in the Bayview Hunters Point (94124 zip code) neighborhood is 14 years less than a person living in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. According to the San Francisco public health department Dr. Thomas Aragon, the 94124 District 10 has the highest pulmonary and cardiovascular disease out of the 11 districts in the city and County of San Francisco. With this overwhelming evidence it is safe to say that the Bayview Hunters Point community under all of the operational definitions used by the different agencies can be defined as a heavily impacted community with adverse health outcomes. The added burden of potential radio radiation exposure can only add to the short and life expectancy in this community. We are asking for definitive study for background levels not just at the property line of the shipyard but in the surrounding community which may possibly contributed to the adverse health outcomes. We also are curious as to find out in the disclosure documents of the sales of the property on the current housing development at the shipyard, are residents being informed of the potential radiation levels being employed? In the KRON TV interview a former worker of Tetra Tech clearly stated to the reporter that contaminated radioactive soil was relocated on the shipyard in trenches that war 3 feet deep and had been declared radioactive free the contaminated soil was placed and buried. Given that surface scans only can detect radiation below the surface only from 6 inches to 12 inches from the surface. What methodology is being employed throughout the base to discover where they piles of illegally dumped radiated soil were located. As the Step Out Method with core samples for confirmation being employed? How many feet are being utilized for the step out method before an additional core sample is acquired? Or if there is another method that could give the same reliable confirmation on radioactivity in the soil being employed. Without question surface scanning is not an acceptable method. Thank you so very much for your follow-up call in our request for help. It is our hope that the state of California will intervene and protect human lives of residents in this sector of San Francisco California. We believe we have a right to a healthy and long life, which has been denied to us over the decades through government and private industry's neglect. Sincerely Dr. Raymond Tompkins