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Federal Report on Alameda Point Contamination Challenged
April 28, 2025: Environmentalists held a press conference to express outrage at a recent Public Health Assessment produced by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) that presents a misleading impression of the hazards posed by the Navy's pollution of the former Naval Air Station Alameda, or Alameda Point. At stake is the public's fundamental confidence in environmental impact and health assessments produced under the Bush Administration.
On Wednesday, April 28, 2004, a coalition of environmental and public health organizations including the Sierra Club, Golden Gate Audubon Society, the Neighborhood Information on Chemical Hazards in the Environment Project, and Arc Ecology, held a press conference at the Seaplane Lagoon at Alameda Point to discuss the report and its flaws.
Arc Ecology, the region's leading environmental organization focused on the environmental and health impacts of military bases, released its comments on this document as a public report to allowing Alameda residents to see the depth to which the contents of the Agency's report are technically flawed.
"Overall, we were disappointed with the quality of report that was generated after spending nearly four years on the assessment. The general impression one receives from reading the document is that there is no threat to human health posed by Alameda Point. For those of us who have been working on the remediation of this NPL site for many years, it is hard to understand how ATSDR comes to this conclusion."- Arc Ecology Report
"The conclusions provided in this report stand in marked contrast to those produced by the State regarding the risks from consuming fish in the San Francisco Bay," said Lea Loizos, Arc Ecology's staff environmental scientist assigned to the Alameda Point cleanup.
"The ATSDR draft report was a misuse of taxpayers money for marketing a minimal-cost cleanup at Alameda Point to the citizens of Alameda, rather than a professional health assessment." said Bill Smith, Chair of the Sierra Club's Northern Alameda County Regional Group, an environmental scientist and resident of Alameda. "Unless corrected in the final report, the ATSDR report will be toxic to the health of our Alameda community. The draft fails to disclose the very real risks posed to our low-income residents by a minimal cleanup at Alameda Point."
A Contrast in Comments:
From ATSDR 1994 Report on the Hunters Point Shipyard:
“There is a bay wide fishing advisory for striped bass due to high mercury levels; the source is unknown. The California Department of Fish and Game has suggested that because of elevated mercury levels, no one should eat more than four meals per month of striped bass from the San Francisco Bay Delta region. Women who are pregnant or may soon become pregnant, nursing mothers, and children under age six should not eat any striped bass from the area (47). The RWCQB has advised against placing a commercial herring hatchery off the HPA coast (87). In addition, the state has issued fish and shellfish advisories for PCBs (67).”
From ATSDR 2004 Report on Alameda Point:
“ATSDR’s evaluation differs from the Navy’s in that we look beyond theoretical risk calculations that over estimate and therefore are most protective of human health in order to advise people if they are likely to get sick from their exposure. ATSDR used the maximum exposure dose for these contaminants. Even with these protectively conservative assumptions, ATSDR found no evidence of cancer or non-cancer health effects at these over-estimated exposure levels for people who eat contaminated fish and shellfish from Seaplane Lagoon on NAS Alameda.”
From Arc Ecology Report on ATSDR's Comments on Seaplane Lagoon:
The [ATSDR’s] conclusion that adverse affects are not likely to result from eating fish caught from Seaplane Lagoon is in direct contradiction with all reports written by California state agencies regarding eating fish from San Francisco Bay, assuming the “standard daily ingestion rate” and “standard body weight” used are similar. According to the latest sport fish consumption advisory guide published by the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, a 70kg adult should eat no more than two meals per month of San Francisco Bay sport fish. A meal for a 70kg adult is defined as 8 ounces, or 227 grams. It also recommends that women who are pregnant or may become pregnant, nursing mothers, and children under age six should not eat more than one meal of fish per month.
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Arc Ecology
4634 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94124
ph: 415.643.1190 | fax: 415.643.1142 | info at arcecology.org
http://www.arcecology.org/
http://www.communitywindowontheshipyard.org/
Last modified: Monday, 03-May-2004 11:28:52 PDT