Hunters Point Naval Shipyard
In its heyday in the 1950s, Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, employed 8,500 civilians. It was originally established as a commercial shipyard in 1870, and acquired by the U.S. Navy shortly before the bombing at Pearl Harbor. In addition to the shipyard, the Hunters Point complex included the Pacific Reserve Fleet Units and the Navy's Radiation Defense Laboratory.
The shipyard was located on 638 acres in the southeast corner of the city. The docks at Hunters Point were built on solid rock, and were believed to be the longest docks in the world at the time. Their length of over 1000 feet was long enough to accommodate the largest passenger ships and warships afloat. Offshore soundings showed depths of about 65 feet. The shoreline was extended by landfills that extended into the San Francisco Bay.
The Navy began operations at Hunters Point Naval Yard at the start of World War II. As the war progressed, the Navy increased shipbuilding operations at the location in order to speed the building of Liberty Ships during the war.
When the war ended, the Navy located the Navy Radiological Defense Laboratory at Hunters Point. This division was charged with decontaminating ships that had been involved in nuclear testing at the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. In addition to the decontamination and cleaning, the NRDL's mission included studying the effects of nuclear weapons and developing counter measures. NRDL operated at Hunters Point from shortly after the war in 1946 until 1969. Many of the buildings at Hunters Point were used for also animal research studies, radioactive operations and materials storage, as well as processing by NRDL. A number of those areas are still contaminated with radioactive waste.
In 1974, the Navy made the decision to place the Hunters Point site on industrial reserve, decommissioning the site but retaining ownership of it. The base was leased to Triple A Machine Shop from 1976 to 1986, and the majority of the site was used again for ship repair. In addition, Triple A leased many of the buildings to small community businesses. In 1986, the San Francisco District Attorney responded to allegations that the site was practicing improper waste disposal by investigating twenty areas for contamination with toxic waste. Triple A, hence, was accused of dumping hazardous waste illegally at various areas on the site.
In 1986, the Navy decided to reopen the Naval Shipyard as the home port of the USS Missouri naval group. They reoccupied the land at Hunters Point, but were met with resentment by the community. The 900 or so small businesses located at Hunters Point refused to move and the Navy eventually gave up its plan to annex Hunters Point as a home port for the Missouri group.
In 1991, the Navy listed the Hunters Point Naval facility for closure. In 1992, the EPA signed a Federal Facilities Agreement with the State of California and the Navy in order to facilitate cleanup efforts at the site.
Currently, the Hunters Point area is extremely polluted and is currently San Francisco's only Superfund cleanup site. In addition, it has been designated one of the most polluted of all the Superfund sites. Among the pollutants found at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard are PCBs, solvents, pesticides, asbestos and heavy metals, including lead.
While exposure to any of the toxic wastes at the site presents a danger, the asbestos presents a particular concern, particularly for those who might have worked in the shipyard when it was at its height of operation. Asbestos was widely used in the construction, repair, conversion, and refitting of U.S. Naval ships and boats. As a superior insulator and fireproofing material, the Navy specified it as a component in many of the materials and supplies used at Navy shipyards. Hence, many individuals who worked at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard were exposed to high levels of asbestos fibers and have since developed asbestosis and mesothelioma, a rare but malignant form of cancer.
The EPA is currently in the midst of cleaning up the hazardous wastes and pollution left behind at the Hunters' Point Navy Ship Yard. The site has been divided into several parcels, each with significant pollutants and contamination. The eventual remediation plan is to clean each parcel, and as they are cleaned, deed them to the City of San Francisco, or sell the parcels to interested bidders.
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