Few Defend UC Lab in Heated Meeting on EIR

But other speakers, including many long-time Berkeley land use activists, questioned the wisdom of building anything on an environmentally sensitive earthquake-, landslide- and fire-prone hillside still contaminated by past projects conducted under the aegis of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Helios, EBI

Wednesday night’s hearings focused on the Helios building and the Computational Research and Theory (CRT) building, a $90.4 million, 140,000-square-foot, 300-office state-of-the art computing research center.

Between them, the structures will house facilities for 800 researchers housed at either end of the 203-acre LBNL campus—the Helios building to the east, the CRT facility to the west.

While Terry Powell—who runs community relations for the lab—said Wednesday night’s meeting would focus on environmental issues, and not the science conducted in the buildings, the lab’s first speaker sailed straight into scientific waters.