By Audrey Mei Yi Brown

Headlines about falsified tests are just the latest development in a long history of frustrations for Hunters Point in San Francisco. Recently, the neighborhood has been in the news due to fraud in the cleanup of the former Navy shipyard, contaminated with radioactive waste from nuclear research. In what is now called by some the biggest case of eco-fraud in U.S. history, 97 percent of the cleanup results are in question and two supervisors have been sentenced to prison. From a local perspective, trust in the Navy, the EPA, and Tetra Tech, the contractors responsible for cleanup, has been compromised time and time again. According to Theo Ellington, a resident of the shipyard’s Parcel A residential development, “there’s a disconnect right now between the people affected and the people in charge of overseeing the cleanup. We’re sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

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Toxic Soup Strains Silos

By Audrey Mei Yi Brown

Headlines about falsified tests are just the latest development in a long history of frustrations for Hunters Point in San Francisco. Recently, the neighborhood has been in the news due to fraud in the cleanup of the former Navy shipyard, contaminated with radioactive waste from nuclear research. In what is now called by some the biggest case of eco-fraud in U.S. history, 97 percent of the cleanup results are in question and two supervisors have been sentenced to prison. From a local perspective, trust in the Navy, the EPA, and Tetra Tech, the contractors responsible for cleanup, has been compromised time and time again. According to Theo Ellington, a resident of the shipyard’s Parcel A residential development, “there’s a disconnect right now between the people affected and the people in charge of overseeing the cleanup. We’re sick and tired of being sick and tired.”

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About the author

Audrey Brown is an independent writer based in the Bay Area who works at the intersection of environment, culture, social equity, food, art and climate. She covers environmental climate justice issues for Estuary, among other topics.

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