A group of environmental activists and residents of San Francisco’s Bayview and Hunters Point neighborhood rallied outside of a federal courthouse Thursday ahead of a hearing on a lawsuit over radioactive waste cleanup at the shuttered Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.
Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for environmental justice in low-income communities, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Navy in June 2024 alleging inadequate cleanup of radioactive waste at the shipyard.
“I blame the Navy for all of this, every last bit of this, because they know how to clean up their own mess, and they refuse to do it,” said Leaotis Martin, a member of Greenaction and Bayview-Hunters Point resident, in a speech before the hearing.
The Hunters Point Naval Shipyard was occupied by the Navy from 1945 to 1974, during which the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory conducted research on the effects of radiation and atomic weapons. The site was also used to decommission radioactive ships, leading to the accumulation of radionuclides contaminating the surrounding soil and water.
In 1989, the shipyard was designated as a federal Superfund site, which are areas contaminated with hazardous materials that require long-term cleanup. The site now consists of abandoned buildings and a shoreline that is blocked off by fencing, with signs warning people of the hazardous contamination in portions of the land that have not been cleaned up.
The Navy is leading ongoing cleanup efforts with oversight from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency and the San Francisco Department of Public Health. The cleanup has been divided into multiple phases over multiple land parcels, with the area currently being developed for housing.
The cleanup devolved into controversy in 2012 when the federal EPA accused Tetra Tech EC, one of the Navy’s contractors for the cleanup, of falsifying radiological data of soil tests and misrepresenting soil samples. Several lawsuits against the company have so far resulted in a $97 million settlement and two engineers from the company being sentenced to prison.
The Navy has now been tasked with retesting some of the soil in the parcels that Tetra Tech EC oversaw, but delays in testing have raised concerns among Bayview-Hunters Point residents.
“The cleanup is botched. They are not cleaning it up properly,” said Greenaction executive director Bradley Angel in a speech. “One of the key things we’re talking about are sea levels rising and groundwater rising, and the Navy’s reckless plan to leave toxic and radioactive waste buried at the shoreline where it will eventually be flooded.”
Navy seeks to toss lawsuit
Thursday’s hearing focused on evaluating whether all or part of the suit could be decided without a trial. The attorneys for the Navy requested that U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria throw out the lawsuit.
Part of the lawsuit alleges that the cleanup has not met safety standards set for Superfund cleanups, or that the cleanup methods are not protective of human health and the environment.
“What we’re alleging is that the cleanup was not protective,” said Greenaction’s attorney Steven Castleman in an interview. “It doesn’t meet the protective standards set by the regulations.”
The other allegations, which Thursday’s hearing focused on, argue that the Navy failed to meet its mandated timelines of conducting five-year reviews of the site and that the Navy did not update its cleanup goals to account for the EPA’s new parameters for soil toxicity maximums required for residential sites.
“This lawsuit is about what needs to be done in the long-term to make sure that when the parcels start getting developed, that they’re going to be safe,” Chhabria said.
Chhabria appeared to agree with the frustration over the Navy’s delays.
David Mitchell, an attorney for the Navy, said that recent cleanup efforts did take into account the EPA’s new soil toxicity parameters, which were updated in 2023.
He also explained that while the Navy is making progress on retesting the soil, the magnitude of the process has contributed to delays.
“The Navy is working diligently to get this done,” Mitchell said. “This is a massive effort. It takes time, it’s very expensive.”
Mitchell also said that the site is already safe and that remediation methods are protective of human health.
After over an hour of back-and-forth with the attorneys trying to explain their arguments and counterarguments, Chhabria ended the hearing and said he would make a decision at a later date.
“I’ll give this all a further thought and issue a ruling,” Chhabria said.
Castleman is optimistic that Chhabria will agree that some of Greenaction’s claims against the Navy will move forward.
“I think the judge was very engaged and he understands the stakes of the lawsuit,” Castleman said. “I think we did the best we could.”
Regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome, Greenaction and Bayview-Hunters Point residents think it will put more pressure on the Navy to do a proper cleanup.
“If the government refuses to help, we have to help ourselves,” Martin said. “That’s what we’re doing.”
