San Francisco’s smallest, most remote neighborhood is supposed to play a huge role in the city’s long-term plans to house tens of thousands more people. But Treasure Island’s future, already complicated, could soon be swamped in a fog of litigation.
After months of talk about suing over an alleged coverup of the toxic legacy of the Navy’s ownership of Treasure Island, a San Francisco attorney, joined by former island residents, said Tuesday that the lawsuit was at hand. They posted a video of their announcement in front of the San Francisco Superior Court building. The demand: $2 billion in damages and a halt to island development.
The lawsuit has 47 plaintiffs and names several defendants, including the island’s developers, the Navy and its cleanup contractors, and city agencies. The attorney filing the lawsuit, Stanley Goff, recently won a settlement from the city on behalf of county jail inmates who were exposed to raw sewage in their cells.
The Treasure Island plaintiffs say they have suffered serious health complications and retaliation from island officials.
Treasure Island Development Authority director Bob Beck, the island’s top official, referred all questions about the lawsuit to the San Francisco city attorney’s office. A spokesperson for the city attorney, John Coté, emailed this statement in response to questions:
“The safety of San Francisco residents is our top priority. We take that responsibility very seriously. The information that we have from state and federal regulators is that the parts of the island where people live, work and visit are safe. It’s worth noting that the vast majority of the allegations in this 23-page lawsuit do not involve the City and County of San Francisco. The only allegation involving the City claims that officials withheld information from residents. That is false.”
The suit is described as class-action; several of the island’s 1,800 residents contacted by The Frisc, as well as business owners who are likewise concerned about potential contamination, say they knew nothing of the suit or were not involved.
“I hope it’s for all of us,” says longtime island resident Paris Hayes. “If not, I hope we can be included later.”
Other residents, while not involved, say they aren’t surprised.
“I never felt I had health problems I could strongly correlate with living on TI, but I’m starting to change my mind,” says Jeff Kline, a 20-year resident who says he was there when areas marked for cleanup were not fenced off, and he and his roommates would go into empty buildings to salvage spare parts for their apartment. Kline was aware that Goff’s lawsuit was in the works but did not sign on.
An extension of the natural Yerba Buena Island, which separates the two spans of the Bay Bridge, Treasure Island was created from landfill in the 1930s and hosted an international exposition. It became a naval base during World War II, and in the following decades, the Navy used it to train for decontamination of radioactive ships. The Navy also dumped radioactive and other toxic waste in pits on the island. Military families began living there in the 1960s, and the first civilians moved in when the base closed in the late 1990s.
A neighborhood of 20,000?
Treasure Island is undergoing a massive makeover that would, by current plans, build 8,000 housing units, as well as parks and commercial space, and boost the population to more than 20,000 people by the year 2035. Much of that work, including the construction of a new ferry terminal, is well underway. There are still no pharmacies or gas stations, and only two markets. Even as islanders struggle with the disruption — giant piles of dirt, noise, detours, and blackouts — new businesses, restaurants, and art pieces have gained a foothold.
In the midst of a housing shortage and homelessness crisis, San Francisco is banking on TI, as locals call it, to house tens of thousands more residents, from those who can afford market-rate condominiums to those who are struggling with homelessness. More than a quarter of the planned units are earmarked as “affordable,” including at least 435 in supportive living programs such as Swords to Plowshares.
Under pressure from residents, businesses, and Supervisor Matt Haney, whose District 6 includes Treasure Island, officials have recently made two notable concessions, delaying tolls to drive on and off the island, and giving the right to stay to some residents who faced potential eviction in coming years.
Further delay would underscore the difficulty of large projects across the Bay Area, at the scale of thousands of units, to deliver much-needed housing.
Even if the lawsuit does not materially delay construction, it could serve as an additional red flag for builders, investors, and potential residents. There are already plenty of thorny problems to address, including traffic and transit, sea-level rise, and affordability.
Christoph Oppermann doesn’t want development “to be brought to a screeching halt” but acknowledges that the plaintiffs have “a pretty good case.” He lived on Yerba Buena Island for nearly two decades before relocating to Treasure Island during the renovation of “YBI.” He hopes to snag one of the few affordable units on YBI, where the first parcel of the entire project is due to be completed in 2021.
Tetra Tech, again
A Navy report in spring of 2019 found no radiological risk after cleanup by its contractor, Tetra Tech. That was before the Navy disclosed, several months later, that it found a radioactive object, painted with radium, buried near the entrance of a residential building, and removed it along with a “basketball-sized chunk” of dirt.
It was the latest in a history of revelations and discoveries that have come after years of authorities downplaying risk. (After digging it up, the Navy said exposure to the unearthed object for an hour a day over a year would deliver about the same dose of radiation as a cross-country airplane trip.)
There are reasons for skepticism. Tetra Tech was the same cleanup contractor that falsified records at the Hunters Point shipyard. Development at the shipyard has been put on hold in the wake of the scandal, two Tetra Tech employees have gone to prison, and multiple lawsuits are in the works. Even the feds have jumped in.
Unlike Hunters Point, Treasure Island was never designated a federal Superfund site even though it seemed to qualify, according to documents unearthed last year by The Chronicle and the environmental watchdog Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
Alex Lash is the editor in chief of The Frisc.