SAN FRANCISCO / Shipping out the tenants / Artists, others must leave before toxic cleanup at Hunters Point
SAN FRANCISCO / Shipping out the tenants / Artists, others must leave before toxic cleanup at Hunters Point
From train buffs and artists to skateboard-makers and the police SWAT team, the eclectic mix that shares space at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco has one thing in common: Their landlord, the Navy, wants them out.
The tenants learned last week that they have six months before their leases expire and the Navy embarks on a $80 million cleanup of the toxic site that since 1991 has been on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List.
...
An artist community of 300 to 400 painters, sculptors, woodworkers and the like have made their studios in old Navy buildings at the shipyard.
It also is home to such tenants as the San Francisco Police Department's crime lab and SWAT team, the Golden Gate Railroad Museum, cabinetmakers, storage facilities and a company that makes skateboard parts.
The Navy, required by federal law to clean up the property before it can be transferred to the city, says it plans to excavate and test every sewer and storm line for contamination, and has no choice but to make the renters leave.
...
In the late 1940s, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was the country's leading location for the decontamination of ships that had been exposed to atomic weapons. It also was home to the country's foremost laboratory that studied atomic weapons and safety.
The shipyard was deactivated in 1974, but by that time, radioactive materials had seeped into the land and had been discharged into the bay, the Navy said. Tests and cleanups have been conducted over the years; the EPA says that, to date, only low levels of radioactive materials have been found.
The complex cleanup that would require everyone to be out of the shipyard by Feb. 15 involves shutting off the water, removing a sewage system that is more than 60 years old and testing the lines.
"Our main concern was safety," Gilkey said. "These lines go under the roads. They go under buildings. When we start digging them up, we're going to have trenches all over the base. Because of the safety, we needed to terminate those leases."
Michael Work, project manager with the EPA, said there would be no significant health risks for people who may move back after the cleanup.
"What we've found is some low-level radioactive waste or spills that would only pose an unacceptable risk if somebody was living with it on a day-to-day basis for a lifetime," he said.
The Navy handed over the first 75 acres of shipyard land to the city, which plans to turn the valuable real estate into commercial and retail space, parks, open space and housing, much of it for low-income families, in January.
After the cleanup, the Navy expects to transfer two more portions of the shipyard to the city in 2007 and 2008.
City officials say that while not everyone who wants to stay will be able to, the artists are guaranteed a place in the new community.
"There's a very strong commitment to this art community," said Michael Cohen, city director of base reuse and development, "not just in the short term, but they will be a permanent part of the redevelopment of the shipyard."
E-mail Cecilia M. Vega at cvega@sfchronicle.com"
From train buffs and artists to skateboard-makers and the police SWAT team, the eclectic mix that shares space at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco has one thing in common: Their landlord, the Navy, wants them out.
The tenants learned last week that they have six months before their leases expire and the Navy embarks on a $80 million cleanup of the toxic site that since 1991 has been on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List.
...
An artist community of 300 to 400 painters, sculptors, woodworkers and the like have made their studios in old Navy buildings at the shipyard.
It also is home to such tenants as the San Francisco Police Department's crime lab and SWAT team, the Golden Gate Railroad Museum, cabinetmakers, storage facilities and a company that makes skateboard parts.
The Navy, required by federal law to clean up the property before it can be transferred to the city, says it plans to excavate and test every sewer and storm line for contamination, and has no choice but to make the renters leave.
...
In the late 1940s, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was the country's leading location for the decontamination of ships that had been exposed to atomic weapons. It also was home to the country's foremost laboratory that studied atomic weapons and safety.
The shipyard was deactivated in 1974, but by that time, radioactive materials had seeped into the land and had been discharged into the bay, the Navy said. Tests and cleanups have been conducted over the years; the EPA says that, to date, only low levels of radioactive materials have been found.
The complex cleanup that would require everyone to be out of the shipyard by Feb. 15 involves shutting off the water, removing a sewage system that is more than 60 years old and testing the lines.
"Our main concern was safety," Gilkey said. "These lines go under the roads. They go under buildings. When we start digging them up, we're going to have trenches all over the base. Because of the safety, we needed to terminate those leases."
Michael Work, project manager with the EPA, said there would be no significant health risks for people who may move back after the cleanup.
"What we've found is some low-level radioactive waste or spills that would only pose an unacceptable risk if somebody was living with it on a day-to-day basis for a lifetime," he said.
The Navy handed over the first 75 acres of shipyard land to the city, which plans to turn the valuable real estate into commercial and retail space, parks, open space and housing, much of it for low-income families, in January.
After the cleanup, the Navy expects to transfer two more portions of the shipyard to the city in 2007 and 2008.
City officials say that while not everyone who wants to stay will be able to, the artists are guaranteed a place in the new community.
"There's a very strong commitment to this art community," said Michael Cohen, city director of base reuse and development, "not just in the short term, but they will be a permanent part of the redevelopment of the shipyard."
E-mail Cecilia M. Vega at cvega@sfchronicle.com"
posted by Greta Jane at Monday, August 22, 2005
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