nuclear-news

Navy sought to stifle concerns of radiation on S.F. Bay island, emails show

By Matt Smith and Katharine Mieszkowski The Bay Citizen, 30 Aug 12, As U.S. Navy officials readied a report this summer acknowledging a broader history of radioactive contamination at Treasure Island, they also sought to prevent California health officials from adding to the written record their concerns that the cleanup had been mishandled, according to internal emails.  

The Navy acknowledged for the first time on Aug. 6 that the former Treasure Island Naval Station, where San Francisco plans to build a 20,000-resident high-rise community, was home to a repair and salvage operation for the Pacific fleet and that some of those ships could have been contaminated with radiation.
The draft report also said that a school preparing sailors for nuclear
warfare might have left behind radioactive residue.  The study came in
response to regulators with the California Department of Public
Health, who since 2010 have pressed for details after cleanup workers
found radioactive waste in unexpected locations.
Internal emails show that health officials asked the military as
recently as mid-May to step up radiation testing efforts. Military
officials, meanwhile, pressed for health regulators not to present
their concerns in writing. …..
Saul Bloom, head of the base-cleanup watchdog Arc Ecology, said the
Navy’s base cleanup program has a history of seeking the most lenient
regulator. …..
Bloom, along with former San Francisco Board of Supervisors President
Aaron Peskin, has sued the Navy for allegedly conducting an inadequate
Treasure Island environmental review.
“The top Navy cleanup officials are not merely burying their head in
the sand,” Peskin said after reviewing the Navy messages. “They’re
writing emails that say they don’t want to know the truth about
radioactive waste.” ….
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/28/13531823-navy-sought-to-stifle-concerns-of-radiation-on-sf-bay-island-emails-show?lite

August 30, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA