August 26, 2005

Artists to Leave Work Spaces at Navy Toxic Waste Site

By Daniel Porras
Special to the Neighborhood Newswire

Artists and others enjoying cheap rent at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard were reminded recently that the site contains toxic and radioactive waste, and that their leases are about to expire. In August the Navy issued a six-month notice to shipyard tenants to evacuate certain structures so that sewer and storm lines can be checked for contamination.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the former shipyard, which housed the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory program from the 1940s to 1969, contains “various radionuclides”, primarily radium 226 and cesium 137. Asbestos, fuels, pesticides, heavy metals, PCBs, and volatile organic compounds have also been found at the sprawling water-front compound.

“We knew we were going to have to go before we got the eviction notice,” said Wolf Thurmeier, a blacksmith who’s worked for 8 years in a building on Parcel ‘D’ that’s scheduled to be destroyed. “They checked the building and there is radiation in the filtration system and in the sewer,” he said. While much of the site has been cleaned-up over the last couple of decades, federal law requires complete decontamination before all of the land can be turned over to the City. According to officials, current shipyard tenants face little or no health risk from the waste.

“What we've found is some low-level radioactive waste or spills that would only pose an unacceptable risk if somebody was living with it on a day- to-day basis for a lifetime,” Michael Work, a project manager with US EPA, recently told the San Francisco Chronicle.

But according to local environmental justice group Greenaction, parts of the shipyard are “unsafe for human use”. Greenaction also claims that the money allocated by the Navy for clean-up is less than the $100 million recently earmarked for decontamination work in the Presidio, a site with only a fraction of the toxins of the Hunters Point shipyard, but which is located in an area of the City that is “affluent and largely white.”

Since being deactivated in 1974, the shipyard has spawned a vibrant community of artists, musicians, and craftspeople known for their large bi-annual art festivals which draw thousands of people from around the Bay Area. “It’s the largest artist commune in the country,” said David Terzian, President of The Point, which leases space to 300 people in the old Navy buildings. The shipyard also houses the Golden Gate Railroad Museum, the San Francisco Police Department’s crime lab and SWAT team, and several small businesses.

Not everyone will be forced to leave the coveted and polluted property. Parcel ‘A’, a former barracks, was deemed clean and turned over to the City in December 2004. The main building on Parcel ‘A’ houses 175 artists and musicians who’ll be allowed to stay indefinitely. While the Navy’s initial letter called for everyone to vacate the premises, the City is working with the defense agency to devise a clean-up strategy that allows tenants to be moved around while different parcels are decontaminated. The 150 artists in Parcel ‘B’, said David Terzian, will have to leave their spaces for just three weeks while the sewer system in their building is checked for contamination. According to Terzian, City officials and U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi are working to make sure that all affected artists are provided with alternative art spaces either within the compound or elsewhere in San Francisco.

“I understand the artists’ feelings of uncertainty and am committed to ensuring that the work is carried out with the least possible disruption to the shipyard artist community and their health and safety are protected,” Pelosi said in a statement quoted in The Chronicle.

Blacksmith Wolf Thurmeier, however, isn’t putting any faith in the City to find him another space to work his craft. He and other metal sculptors in Parcel ‘D’ require special up-to-code buildings that he says are rare in other parts of San Francisco.

“They are telling us that they are looking at other options for us. I think it’s hard because we’re all smelters and welders in this building, and we have to work in a fire-proof building,” said Thurmeier. “I’m going to start looking with some other tenants to see if we can lease another building somewhere in the City.