Projects:

San Francisco Bay Area:

San Francisco
� Hunters Point Shipyard
�Shipyard Waterfront Park
� Yosemite Slough
� Treasure Island
� Presidio
Alameda
�Alameda Naval Air Station
�FISC Annex
East Bay Housing
Oakland
�Chinatown
Vallejo
�Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Contra Costa County
� Concord Naval Weapons Station
Suisun Bay
� Mothball Fleet

National:

Military & the Environment
RABS

International:

Philippines
Okinawa
Hidden Casualties of War

Program Areas:

Environment
Economics
Justice
Education
Public Partnership
War & the Environment

Project: Hunters Point Shipyard

Advocacy and Support for Environmental Justice

2004 U.S. Navy map of Hunters Point Shipyard showing parcel (A through F) locations and approximate boundaries.

Hunters Point Shipyard (HPS) is located along the San Francisco Bay in the Bayview Hunters Point (BVHP) neighborhood of southeastern San Francisco. HPS was once an active and thriving U.S. Navy base, employing thousands of people. The property is still owned by the U.S. Navy. In 1991 HPS was designated for closure under the U.S. Department of Defense's Base Realignment and Closure Program. The current plan is to transfer the property to the City and County of San Francisco for redevelopment. However, before the property can be transferred, it must be cleaned up enough to be considered "safe" for the planned reuse.

The Shipyard is currently undergoing cleanup as a Superfund-equivalent site, with the cleanup governed by the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response and Liability Act regulations.

The BVHP community of San Francisco is a low-income community comprised of mostly people of color. It is the home of over 100 brownfield sites. The Bayview community is disproportionately affected by cumulative air, land, and water pollution, and has some of the highest rates of breast cancer, cervical cancer, asthma, and other respiratory illnesses in California.

Arc Ecology began monitoring the environmental impacts of the Hunters Point Shipyard in 1984. In 1986 Hunters Point neighborhood groups asked Arc Ecology to provide the community with on-going technical support. Since that time, Arc Ecology has been actively involved with providing BVHP residents with information resources and technical support around the cleanup, transfer, and redevelopment of the Shipyard.

Cleanup

After providing the BVHP with technical support around the Shipyard cleanup for almost two decades, Arc Ecology opened the Community Window on the Hunters Point Shipyard Cleanup, a community information clearinghouse. The project is dedicated to empowering the Bayview community with the information and resources needed to become meaningfully involved in the cleanup of the Shipyard. Through the Community Window, Arc Ecology hosts regularly occurring environmental education discussions and community workshops. Arc Ecology also submits written comments to the U.S. Navy about the Navy'sactivities to identify and clean up contamination at Hunters Point Shipyard.

Once the Hunters Point Shipyard has been cleaned up, the property will be transferred to the City of San Francisco. Arc Ecology is working with the BVHP community to ensure that the transfer, redevelopment, and reuse are to the maximum benefit of the neighboring community. For example, Arc Ecology is involved in conceptual planning and alternatives for Candlestick-Hunters Point Waterfront area. Arc Ecology submits comments to the appropriate community agencies on the plans for the redevelopment and reuse of Hunters Point Shipyard. Some of the recent comments are available online:

• http://news.arcecology.org/search/label/HPS