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THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA
www.cagreens.org
Monday, May 16, 2005
Contact: Sara Amir, spokesperson 310.270.7106 saraamir@earthlink.net
Kevin McKeown, spokesperson 310.393.3639 kevin@mckeown.net
Beth Moore Haines, spokesperson 530.277.0610 beth@ncws.com
Cal-EPA agrees to lead clean-up of highly toxic,
possibly lethal San Francisco Bay sites after pressure by Green city
council member.
RICHMOND (May 16, 2005) - The clean-up of two highly
toxic - and possibly lethal - shoreline sites on San Francisco Bay will
now be supervised by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC)
after a newly-elected Green Party city councilmember in Richmond led a
grassroots drive to force the state agency to take immediate action.
The sites are thought to be the source of many
life-threatening cancers and other ailments to people in the area,
according to doctors and local activists. Both sites are contaminated
with dangerous compounds, ranging from mercury and heavy metals to
pesticides, PCBs and other hazardous chemicals.
The California Environmental Protection Agency
(Cal-EPA) announced late last week that it has agreed to lead the
clean-up oversight at the University of California, Berkeley's Richmond
Field Station and adjacent Zeneca/Cherokee-Simeon Campus Bay after
demands by Richmond City Council member Gayle McLaughlin and area
progressives.
"This is a wonderful victory for the many
community groups and Richmond residents who mobilized to demand the
proper agency oversight for cleanup of these extremely toxic sites. It
is an incredible example of how a community rallying in its own interest
can accomplish a better and healthier Richmond," said McLaughlin,
who carried the unanimous resolution by the Richmond City Council
calling on Cal-EPA to act more rigorously in correcting problems in the
area.
Initially, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water
Quality Control Board had full jurisdiction over both sites. Community
mobilization late last year achieved a DTSC/Water Board split
jurisdiction over the Zeneca site with the Water Board retaining full
jurisdiction of the UC Field Station.
However, McLaughlin nd others called for a full
change in the oversight of these adjoining contamination sites to DTSC
because the Water Board did not have the "expertise or
experience" to handle the complex cleanup.
McLaughlin worked with Bay Area Residents for
Responsible Development (BARRD), West County Toxics Coalition and the
Richmond Progressive Alliance, which helped elect McLaughlin to the
Richmond City Council last November.
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