Richmond’s approval of 4,000 homes at a site contaminated for decades through chemicals and other pollutants was questioned Tuesday in a lawsuit through environmental and network groups, who said the city of East Bay is unaware of clinical evidence of risks to residents.
The 86-acre allocation at the Zeneca site south of Richmond, just east of Marina Bay and west of Interstate 580, was rejected in 2018 through Richmond City Council, which instead called for a complete cleanup of the infected soil. The Department of Toxic Substances Control opted in 2019 for a partial cleaning plan that included a groundwater remedy and barriers to prevent it from escaping contamination of the remaining soil, the council voted 4-2 last month to approve development.
Opponents said the so-called cleanup plan would remove less than 2% of the infected land. Due to the dangers, schools, kindergartens, fitness facilities or nursing facilities in the area will not be allowed, but “everyone who lives there will be threatened by living in a poisonous site, while the effects on fitness and the environment will worsen with the rise of the sea point,” the whistleblowers said in a statement.
The lawsuit, filed in opposition to the city in the Superior Court of Contra Costa County, said the city’s environmental assessment of the allocation was published in 2016 and did not address the latest evidence of poisonous and carcinogenic homes of contaminants on site, adding some radioactive ones. The lawsuit said Richmond also ignored state rules updated in January 2020 that predicted an increase in sea point across the state during the century, making groundwater contamination more likely.
“By not updating its old environmental review, the city has never addressed maximum harmful impacts,” Stuart Flashman said, suggesting to plaintiffs, which includes Richmond Shoreline Alliance, Sustainability, Parks, Recycling and Wildlife Legal Defense Fund, and other groups.
A member of the Richmond Shoreline Alliance is Sherry Padgett, an electricity contractor with a store across the street from the planned allocation and a space a block away. Padgett has been fighting for deep soil cleansing since being diagnosed with rib and thyroid cancers in 2003 and 2004. Cancers are now in remission.
“After my two cancers, I made the decision, whether this site is guilty of it or not, to long-term generations of all evils,” Padgett said Wednesday. She said the state firm had selected “the least five of all cleanings. “plans “and that site” continues to drip and pollute the bay and houses to the east and west. “
Mayor Tom Butt, who voted crucially in favor of the Zeneca project, said Tuesday that he trusted the state’s clean-up plan and favorable environmental review, and said the progression would provide much-needed housing.
“All bay area towns are required to provide housing,” Butt said in an interview. “In Richmond, we do our part. “
Unions supported the project.
The city council starts a new mandate next week. Norman La Force, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said they hoped the new councillors, adding former Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, would convince their colleagues to reconsider the project.
Butt said Tuesday that the city had granted “rights” to developers, who have contractual rights to proceed.
The history of pollutants dates back to 1897, when Stauffer Chemical Co. built a factory to produce sulfuric acid. The company threw iron pyrite cylinders into the swamp and then manufactured fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.
The plant was purchased in the 1980s through Zeneca Corp. , a British company now called AstraZeneca. The company closed the plant in 1997, but a year later called a poisonous “hot spot” through the California Water Board and was included in the U. S. Department of Environment. But it’s not the first time List of infected Sites of the Protection Agency. Chemicals come with benzene, arsenic and polychlorinated biphenyls.
AstraZeneca spent $20 million on soil cleaning and removal in 2002, but was fined approximately $250,000 through the Department of Toxic Substances Control in 2009 and another $25,000 in 2019.
He is now owned by Cherokee Simeon Venture I, a subsidiary of AstraZeneca. Developers, Shopoff Realty Investments and Hilco Redevelopment Partners, are making plans for a grocery store in addition to housing units.
Sarah Ravani, editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, contributed to the report.
Bob Egelko is editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: begelko@sfchronicle. com Twitter: @BobEgelko
Bob Egelko has been a journalist since June 1970. I spent 30 years with the Associated Press, covering news, politics and occasional sports in Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, and legal issues in San Francisco since 1984. He worked for San Francisco. Examiner for months in 2000, then joined The Chronicle in November 2000.
His speed includes California state and federal courts, the Supreme Court, and the state bar. He holds a law degree from McGeorge Law School in Sacramento and is a member of the bar. Coverage included the approval of Proposition Thirteen in 1978, Rose Bird’s nomination to the state Supreme Court and his political judgment through voters, the death penalty in California, and battles for gay rights and same-sex marriage.