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CREATED:20191024T134800Z
DESCRIPTION:6/25  Press Conference SF Treasure Island-DANGER TO THE STUDENTS, RESIDENTS 
 & WORKERS At San Francisco Treasure Island & Hunters Point  
 Shipyard\n\nFriday October 25, 2019    11:00 AM \n\nPress Conference SF 
 Treasure Island Life Learning Academy \n651 8th St. Bld 229 near Avenue H 
 St\nTreasure island San 
 Francisco\nhttps://www.google.com/maps/place/Life+Learning+Academy+Building+229/@37.8241255,-122.3686487,17.4z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xe28fa4be23274f92!8m2!3d37.8249596!4d-122.3691404?hl=en\n\nEndorsed 
 by\nUnited Public Workers For Action\nwww.info.upwa\nDefend Public 
 Education Now\nhttps://www.facebook.com/DefendPublicEducationNOW/\nFor more 
 info:\ninfo@upwa.info\n\nWHAT: \nPress Conference At Charter School  On 
 Dangerous Radioactive Contamination At Treasure Island & Threat To 
 Children, Students and Worker\n\nWHERE:\nLife Learning Academy \n651 8th 
 St. Bld 229 Near H St.\nTreasure Island San Francisco\n\nInitial 
 Speakers:\nFrancisco Da costa Director of Environmental Justice 
 Advocacy\nCarlos Taboada,  Defend Public Education NOW\nJoel  Ventressca, 
 Candidate For San Francisco Mayor \nSteve  Zeltzer United Public Workers 
 For Action\nDr. Larry Rose Former Medical Director Cal-OSHA\nBob Coleman, 
 Candidate For SFUSD Board of Education, Artist & Editor\n\nISSUE:\nWithout 
 any health and safety oversight, the San Francisco Unified School District 
 has allowed the construction of a charter school Life Learning Academy on 
 Treasure Island which is a Superfund site. The students and staff have been 
 contaminated by radioactive contaminants, massive amounts of peeling lead 
 paint which is only a short distance from the school and uncovered removal 
 of contaminated Treasure Isand earth next to the school without any 
 coverage of the soil for protection.\n\nThe “clean-up” by Tetra Tech 
 and Test America of San Francisco's Treasure Island has found to be 
 fraudulent and faked by these companies. Tetra Tech workers like Robert 
 McLean discovered significant highly radioactive contamination in the 
 former US Navy Testing and Training Center for dealing with radioactive 
 contamination from nuclear radioactive material. Thousands of sailors were 
 contaminated as well as their families who lived on the Island the 
 residents of Treasure Island.\nTetra Tech presently has two managers in 
 prison for coercing Tetra Tech workers to falsify information at the 
 testing at Hunters Point. Tetra Tech along with the Navy has publicly 
 argued that the Island is now “safe”. Participants in the press 
 conference will discuss the continued health and safety dangers including 
 at the charter school Life Learning Academy where young students have been 
 subject to contamination from the shipyard radioactivity and the toxins 
 being released in the present redevelopment plans.\n\nMayor London Breed, 
 Governor Gavin Newsom, Senator Kamala Harris, Senator Dianne Feinstein and 
 Nancy Pelosi have all been involved in support of  the development of 
 Treasure Island along with Hunters Point Shipyard and are aware of growing 
 number of residents and workers who have become sickened with cancer and 
 other illnesses caused  from contamination. Tetra Tech and Test America 
 Whistleblowers who protested the failure to properly clean up the shipyard 
 have also been bullied and fired. Mayor London Breed and other politicians 
 continue to support the billion dollar Eco-fraud. development of the 
 Hunters Point shipyard with City, State and Federal funds including the 
 over $300 million of US Navy funds spent on the supposed cleanup at  San 
 Francisco Treasure Island. There is still radioactive material on the site 
 despite  the supposed the remediation and approvals by  the State of 
 California agencies which are in charge of doing the oversight. of the 
 clean-up.\n\nCal-OSHA. other state agencies along with.  Federal OSHA at 
 present has also refused to do any investigation of the health and safety 
 problems for workers, residents, and students despite their legal 
 responsibilities at this Superfund site. They have also refused to 
 investigate the illegal retaliation of Tetra Tech whistleblowers.  This 
 will also be illuminated at the press conference.\nThe California 
 Department of Education which has oversight of this charter school has also 
 failed to investigate the dangers to the students as a result of the 
 serious health and safety problems at the charter school which is funded by 
 public funds from the SFUSD.\nUnder CA proposition  39 funded  and written 
 by Netflix billionaire Reed Hastings charter schools are exempted  from the 
 Field Act which prevents public schools being built  in  toxic dumps or 
 superfund sites which is what Treasure Island is.\n\n*Speakers will only be 
 on the site for only 1.5 hours due the dangerous conditions of 
 contamination and dust from ongoing construction at Treasure Island, 
 Children should not be brought to this event.\n\nAdditional media:\n\nWhat 
 politicians, the Navy and the EPA don’t want you to know: Treasure Island 
 and Hunters Point are equally toxic Superfund 
 sites\nhttps://sfbayview.com/2018/10/what-politicians-the-navy-and-the-epa-dont-want-you-to-know-treasure-island-and-hunters-point-are-equally-toxic-superfund-sites/\n\n"Not 
 A Whisper" Questions Not Asked At Newsom Cox 2018 CA Gubernatorial Debate 
 At KQED\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXCXWV7Kfkk&t=41s\n\nMedia silent 
 as Navy digs 1,280 radiological objects from Treasure 
 Island\nhttps://sfbayview.com/2018/10/media-silent-as-navy-digs-1280-radiological-objects-from-treasure-island/\n\nTreasure 
 Island H&S Whistleblowers, Former TI Residents & Advocates Speak Out On 
 Cover-up\nhttps://youtu.be/rtuDlkvWJO8\n\nSF Hunters Point/Treasure Island 
 Radiation Whistleblower Speaks 
 Out\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htA8lqYc96Q\n\nNavy altered SF Hunters 
 Point cleanup to cover, not remove, toxic 
 soil\nhttps://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Report-Navy-altered-Hunters-Point-cleanup-to-14302320.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20&utm_source=share-by-email&utm_medium=email\n\nSan 
 Francisco irradiates the poor on Treasure 
 Island\nhttps://sfbayview.com/2019/01/san-francisco-irradiates-the-poor-on-treasure-island/\n\nSF 
 & CA Politicians and Developers Kept SF Treasure Island Off Superfund List 
 and Requirements\n\nSF’s Treasure Island, poised for building boom, 
 escaped listing as Superfund site\n\nJason Fagone and Cynthia Dizikes Sep. 
 19, 2019 Updated: Sep. 19, 2019 4 
 a.m.\nhttps://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/SF-s-Treasure-Island-poised-for-building-boom-14451339.php\n\nConstruction 
 equipment sits on Treasure Island in the shadow of the Bay Bridge tower. 
 The former naval base is bring transformed into a $6 billion development of 
 condos and shops.Photo: Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle\n\nConstruction on 
 Treasure Island in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday, September 18, 
 2019.Photo: Scott Strazzante / The Chronicle\n\nWorkers prepare soil for 
 radiation testing on Treasure Island on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019, in San 
 Francisco, Calif. The parcel, gated off with radiation warning signs, sits 
 near the Treasure Island Waste Water Treatment Plant along Avenue M.Photo: 
 Noah Berger / Special to The Chronicle\nSan Francisco’s Treasure Island, 
 the former naval base being transformed into a $6 billion development of 
 condos and shops, was once considered hazardous enough to be a federal 
 Superfund waste site but was never officially named one, newly disclosed 
 documents show.\n\nWhile it’s not clear why Treasure Island was never 
 named a Superfund site, a designation given to some of the most polluted 
 places in the country, the release of the records prompted calls Wednesday 
 from some environmentalists for more federal examination.\n\nHowever, the 
 island’s developers, who have plans to put more than 8,000 homes on the 
 site by 2035, said the cleanup has been heavily scrutinized and handled 
 effectively by multiple government agencies, dismissing any suggestion that 
 the area is not safe for habitation.\n\n\n\nThe U.S. Environmental 
 Protection Agency gives special attention to contaminated sites on the 
 National Priorities List, commonly known as Superfund sites. Cleanups 
 require extensive tests of soil and water and public documentation of those 
 efforts. The owners of the sites usually pay for the bulk of the cleanup 
 while the EPA looks over their shoulder.\n\n\nThe process of listing a 
 Superfund site begins with the EPA’s Hazard Ranking System, which 
 measures the threat to human health and the environment on a 100-point 
 scale. A score above 28.5 qualifies that place for a Superfund designation, 
 which would make cleanup a federal priority.\n\nIn 1991, the EPA calculated 
 a hazard score for Naval Station Treasure Island, the base that included 
 all of Treasure Island — the flat, artificial island stretching for 400 
 acres at the midspan of the Bay Bridge — and portions of neighboring 
 Yerba Buena Island.\n\nThe base’s score was 51.78, the new documents 
 show, almost double the threshold for Superfund consideration and slightly 
 higher than the score for the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in the southeast 
 corner of San Francisco, which was named a Superfund site in 
 1989.\n\n\nCrowds arrive early on opening day of the Golden Gate 
 International Exposition. Feb. 18, 1939.\nBut Superfund listing is not 
 mandatory if the score exceeds 28.5, and Treasure Island was never stamped 
 with the classification. Instead of leading the cleanup, the EPA took a 
 back seat, allowing the California Department of Toxic Substances Control 
 to monitor the project.\n\n\nIn 1991, the EPA assessed Naval Station 
 Treasure Island for potential health and environmental hazards from its 
 soil and waste areas, giving it a hazard score of 51.78, almost double the 
 threshold for Superfund consideration.\nPhoto: The Chronicle\nEnvironmental 
 advocacy groups said the decision led to a dysfunctional and delayed 
 cleanup, making the process less transparent and leaving thousands of 
 Treasure Island residents in the dark for years about contamination near 
 their homes. In 2007, when Navy contractors started to discover radioactive 
 objects across the island that weren’t supposed to be there, the EPA 
 officially remained on the sidelines without ever fully explaining 
 why.\n\nFederal documents about the EPA and Treasure Island were released 
 to The Chronicle and a nonprofit environmental watchdog group, Public 
 Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), under separate Freedom 
 of Information Act requests. The Chronicle obtained related EPA emails and 
 documents through a different request.\n\n\nNavy used obsolete safety 
 standards in shipyard cleanup,...\n“Treasure Island is what we call a 
 ‘Shadow Superfund site’ — a toxic stain that has remained in the 
 shadows,” PEER’s Pacific director, Jeff Ruch, said in a statement 
 Wednesday.\n\nBradley Angel, executive director of the San Francisco 
 nonprofit group Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, called on 
 the EPA to reevaluate the risk of the site and investigate the work that 
 has been done so far. “Nobody’s minding the store,” Angel said. “It 
 is just another example of public agencies looking the other way.”\n\nThe 
 site’s private developer, Treasure Island Community Development, said in 
 a statement Wednesday that it was “flat wrong” to suggest that the 
 cleanup has been flawed, calling those claims “bogus.”\n\n“Over the 
 past three decades, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to 
 identify and remove contaminants per State of California standards in order 
 to ensure the island is safe for development,” the statement said. “The 
 work has been closely supervised by multiple public agencies and reviewed 
 by independent entities.” Treasure Island Community Development said it 
 was delivering “desperately needed housing within the City of San 
 Francisco.”\n\nThe records obtained by The Chronicle and PEER do not make 
 clear why Treasure Island never made the Superfund list. But in a 1998 
 document, the EPA listed opposition from the state as a “moderate 
 factor” for the island not being added to the list. A federal review of 
 the Superfund program later found that some state governors cited “the 
 perceived stigma of (National Priorities List) listing and potential 
 adverse economic effect” as reasons for not supporting listings of 
 eligible sites.\n\nThen-California Gov. Pete Wilson did not immediately 
 respond to a request for comment. The EPA did not answer specific questions 
 about why Treasure Island never made the list, and the Navy did not respond 
 to a request for comment.\n\nAn official with the state Department of Toxic 
 Substances Control said a hazard score is just the start of the listing 
 process.\n\n“Recognizing that the EPA implements the Superfund program, 
 the final number in the hazard ranking score system doesn’t mean that one 
 site is more hazardous than another,” said Grant Cope, the department’s 
 deputy director for site mitigation and restoration. “That requires a 
 more in-depth investigation.”\n\nRobert Beck, director of the city’s 
 Treasure Island Development Authority, defended the island’s cleanup and 
 oversight, which he called extensive.\n\n“The Treasure Island Development 
 Authority remains confident in the measures taken by the Navy to identify 
 and appropriately remediate environmental concerns on Yerba Buena Island 
 and Treasure Island and the oversight of those measures provided by the 
 State of California,” Beck said in a statement.\n\nA state official said 
 in a 2017 email obtained by The Chronicle that although Treasure Island 
 isn’t on the Superfund list, “It is still treated like a Superfund site 
 in that it is going through the same stringent cleanup 
 requirements.”\n\nThe real estate project could bring thousands of new 
 homes and residents to the area. More than half of the island, now home to 
 about 1,800 people, has been declared free of radioactive hazards and 
 transferred from the Navy to the city. Much of the rest is still being 
 investigated for radioactivity and toxic substances.\n\nThe Army Corps of 
 Engineers built Treasure Island in 1936 to host the Golden Gate 
 International Exposition, a celebration of San Francisco’s iconic 
 bridges. Then, during World War II and throughout the Cold War, the Navy 
 transformed the island into a bustling base, where thousands of sailors and 
 civilians lived, worked, trained and repaired ships.\n\nThose activities 
 polluted the land with unknown quantities of metals, industrial chemicals 
 and radioactive substances, some used in training exercises to prepare for 
 possible nuclear bomb attacks.\n\nIn September 1991, an EPA employee filled 
 out an 18-page worksheet to determine Treasure Island’s hazard score of 
 51.78. Noting that the “types of wastes and contaminants deposited on 
 site are mostly unknown,” the staffer assumed that mercury and PCBs, 
 industrial chemicals banned in 1979, tainted some soil. The EPA reviewer 
 called this a “worst case situation,” but didn’t account for the 
 possibility of radioactive waste.\n\nAs Navy contractors began 
 investigating the island, according to Navy reports, they found “a broad 
 distribution of chemicals in soil and groundwater” at potentially harmful 
 levels, including PCBs, dioxin, lead and volatile organic compounds. The 
 Navy started to identify and remove tainted soil and sediment.\n\nLater, 
 after the Navy closed the base and the city began reusing some buildings 
 for housing, Navy contractors made a series of troubling discoveries, 
 finding and removing more than 600 individual radioactive objects, some in 
 housing areas.\n\nStill, the EPA kept Treasure Island off the Superfund 
 list. In a one-page 2008 document, an EPA staffer wrote that the cleanup 
 was “making good progress ... under state oversight” and that future 
 evaluations of Treasure Island’s status were a “lower” priority. 
 There are no records of EPA evaluations in the past 11 years.\n\nAn EPA 
 spokeswoman said in a statement Wednesday that the agency “regularly 
 checks in with its state and other federal agency partners on the status of 
 cleanup work at this site.”\n\nIn May 2014, Saul Bloom, the leader of San 
 Francisco environmental nonprofit group Arc Ecology, wrote in an email to 
 EPA leaders that the agency should re-score the site and potentially add it 
 to the Superfund list. He argued that the EPA was the only institution 
 powerful and neutral enough to find credible answers about 
 contamination.\n\n“The simple fact is we have learned more about TI 
 (Treasure Island) in the past three years than we have in all the preceding 
 ones since the (cleanup) began and the story is troubling,” Bloom wrote. 
 “Right now residents of TI do not know where in government they can go 
 for an unbiased point of view on their health and exposure.”\n\nBloom, 
 who died in 2016, also submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for 
 documents about the site, asking the EPA for details about its decision to 
 leave Treasure Island off the Superfund list. His questions initially 
 stumped some EPA officials.\n\n“No one is sure if it was ever scored and 
 ranked,” a regional project manager emailed to a colleague in 2014. After 
 doing some research, he added in another email, “The site exceeded the 
 score for listing. I don’t know the history as to why it was never 
 listed.”\n\nJason Fagone and Cynthia Dizikes are San Francisco Chronicle 
 staff writers. Email: jfagone@sfchronicle.com, cdizikes@sfchronicle.com\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/10/24/18827573.php
SUMMARY:Press Conf SF Treasure Island Danger To Students, Residents & Workers
LOCATION:SF Treasure Island Life Learning Academy \n651 8th St. Bld 229 near Avenue 
 H St\nTreasure island San Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2019/10/24/18827573.php
DTSTART:20191025T180000Z
DTEND:20191025T193000Z
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