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Health & Fitness

Former dumpsite on Nature Reserve gets facelift

Thirty-five years after the Navy stopped disposing of toxic waste in unlined pits next to San Francisco Bay on Alameda Point’s southwest shoreline, the final actions to comply with state and federal laws are finally being implemented this year. 

The Navy and regulatory agencies ironed out an action plan this spring over how to handle the West Beach Landfill, called cleanup Site 2.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board), and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) have agreed to a plan that calls for leaving the estimated 1.6 million tons of industrial waste in place and adding more soil to the existing soil cover.  Complete removal would have cost $900 million.  Regulatory agencies decided it could be safely contained at a fraction of the cost.

Controversy over this landfill is what led the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to balk at accepting the land that was to become the Alameda National Wildlife Refuge.  The land is now going to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which will manage the area as undeveloped open space.  The refuge area, including the landfill site, has been zoned as a Nature Reserve by the city council. 

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Site 2 landfill details:


  • A decade of groundwater monitoring shows that toxic chemicals are not leaching into the Bay. 
  • A maximum credible earthquake will severely damage the perimeter, but the contents will remain isolated from the Bay.
  • Soil will be scanned for radium-226 prior to adding the new soil cover, and remaining hotspots will be removed.  The site was scanned, and hotspots removed, several years ago.
  • Wetland area, which was not contaminated, will receive upgrades and permanent protection.
  • Culvert connecting the wetland to San Francisco Bay is undergoing special investigation to see if it needs replacing.  Recommendations expected this summer.
  • Soil cover will be seeded with 13 species of California native grasses this fall, mostly flowering, greatly improving the habitat value of the area.
  • Eastern embankment that was added in 1986 has been removed because it is no longer deemed necessary.  The grassland/wetland habitat will now be visible at distance.
  • Plans for a barbed wire security fence has been removed from final plans.   

Photo album and more of the story are on the Alameda Point Environmental Report.

Find out what's happening in Alamedawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Videos about Alameda Point environmental cleanup are on the TheRevitalization YouTube Channel.

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