View from a playground in Hunters Point, 2025

Findings of HP Biomonitoring’s field survey, Jan. 18, 2025

 by Ahimsa Porter Sumchai MD

The Hunters Point Biomonitoring Foundation has conducted field surveys of the one mile perimeter of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard for five years. The intent of the field surveys is to aid in interpreting geospatial mappings and online environmental geographic information systems that rely on a basic understanding of the geography and layout of a vulnerable exposed community. 

The major finding of HP Biomonitoring’s field surveys is that extreme chronic illegal dumping is so prevalent that, with 100% confidence, it can be expected to be found along the Shipyard’s western perimeter. Because dumping occurs so predictably along the perimeter of the federal Superfund site there is no logical reason or excuse not to assign weekly DPW patrols.

The significance of these dumping displays is that they include industrial solid waste and toxic chemicals,  petroleum products, detergents and a suffocating abundance of “forever chemicals” in plastic bags.

The Parcel E-2 Industrial Landfill has become increasingly more dangerous as a source of human exposure to environmental toxins.

The perimeter of the landfill along San Francisco city streets has worsened. Chronic illegal dumping of industrial grade solid waste here is criminal. The radioactive landfill and panhandle region soil pile is  twice as high as the unfortified and broken chain metal fence.

Homeless encampments, inoperable vehicles and human activity are documented within 10 feet of the fence line at https://youtu.be/nSqswLoncJY?si+fqm3k6cTwDxo68n.

There has been interval improvement in maintenance of dust barriers enforced by Proposition 65 for fugitive dust emissions emanating from the fence line, including radionuclides, cancer causing PCBs and asbestos.

Mayors clean up – that’s what mayors do!

History of the Environmental Justice Movement in BVHP: Mayor Art Agnos administration, 1988-1992 Listen to Claude Everhart, known as “The Last Great Deputy Mayor of San Francisco” and founder of Friends of Candlestick, as he describes the public process that led to the Candlestick Point State Recreation Area, created by community input and control: Claude Everhart on Candlestick Point State Recreation Area: Shaping San Francisco.

“With Everhart at his side, Mayor Agnos was forced to make unpopular decisions in order to help San Francisco’s  marginalized residents. When the USS Missouri battleship was going to be resurrected in Bayview Hunters Point, both Agnos and Everhart vehemently protested. Even though the resurrection was projected to increase employment in the area and increase revenues by about $2.2 million annually, the duo joined the community in expressing concerns about gentrification.

“They also demanded the Hunters Point Shipyard be thoroughly cleaned of toxins and other health hazards at the site. They wanted to look at the investment more scrupulously to understand its impact on the community of Bayview Hunters Point.” – Claude T. Everhart, Changemakers: https://usfblogs.usfcaa.edu/sfchangemakers/2020/07/04/claude-t-everhart/.

In addition to serving as the 39th mayor of San Francisco, Agnos served as regional head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1993 to 2001. He left a comfortable seat in the state Legislature to run for mayor, bringing along as his executive deputy and chief of staff Claude T. Everhart.

HP Biomonitoring Field Survey – Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Federal Superfund Parcel E-2 Landfill

SF Bay View Health and Environmental Science Editor Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, MD, PD, founder and principal investigator for the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Foundation, founding chair of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Restoration Advisory Board’s Radiological Subcommittee and contributor to the 2005 Draft Historical Radiological Assessment, can be reached at [email protected]. Dr. Sumchai is medical director of Golden State MD Health & Wellness, a UCSF and Stanford trained author and researcher, and a member of the UCSF Medical Alumni Association Board of Directors.

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Source: https://sfbayview.com/2025/02/view-from-a-playground-in-hunters-point-2025/