Red line is the 4 mile radius, light blue green is the 3 mile radius and the white line if the 2 mile radius contamination zones of Treasure Islandcontamination Zones for Treasure Island, Fort Mason, Hunters Point Shipyard and the former Navy Dispensary of Fell Street which is highlighting the one mile marker in Yellow so it showed up on this map. The other colors and their designations: Inner Red is 1 mile radius, White is 2 miles, blue-green is 3 miles and outer red is 4 miles.
Treasure Island contamination Zones are well within the city of San Francisco, including City Hall which is just within the 4 mile limit of TI. Ground water and air contamination zones go out from the source to four miles from the site. This applies to all toxic waste sites. For each mile marker there is a separate level of contamination depending on its type and source. The people of San Francisco are directly affected by the Atomic, Biological and Chemical Warfare training on Treasure Island.
For some strange reason the State of California allows people to build on toxic waste sites and they seem to limit the borders of the contamination to the property line of the site of the contamination. But under Federal Law, 40 CFR Appendix A to Part 300 – The Hazard Ranking System which is used to determine if a site is subject to Superfund status, the range of contamination goes out to various distances from the exact contamination site.
This means that most of silicon Valley is in huge trouble as they not only have large areas of contamination, the distances of risk encompass most of the land area. the problem is far larger than the fence line of your property! There are various distances listed in the law: 40 CFR Appendix A to Part 300 – The Hazard Ranking System
200 Feet from the exact site of contamination –
Note at Treasure Island residents live on the sites, Either directly over the contamination or adjacent to it.
“5.1.1 Resident population threat. Evaluate the resident population threat only if there is an area of observed contamination in one or more of the following locations:
Within the property boundary of a residence, school, or day care center and within 200 feet of the respective residence, school, or day care center, or
Within a workplace property boundary and within 200 feet of a workplace area, or
Within the boundaries of a resource specified in section 5.1.1.3.4, or Within the boundaries of a terrestrial sensitive environment specified in section 5.1.1.3.5.
If not, assign the resident population threat a value of 0, enter this value in Table 5-1, and proceed to the nearby population threat (section 5.1.2).”
Radioactive contamination of the Housing sites at Treasure Island, People live there!
Quarter of a Mile from the exact site of contamination – Level I Contamination –
Which means all of the housing at TI. The calculation includes the number of residents within this distance. Under these regulations, the current residents need to be evacuated.
Map showing quarter mile distances (Level I) from Site 12 where the housing is located. Outer red is the 1 mile zone (Level II) from the northwest corner of Site 12City Hall is in Level 1 Range from the Navy Dispensary on Fell Street which was the home of Task Force I Operation Crossroads Medical Officer (Captain Walsh) office was located and where RADIAC Training took place along with the officers who were directly contaminated as they experimented with techniques to clean the ships used in the nuclear tests in the Pacific.
Quarter of a mile to 1 Mile from the exact site of contamination – Level II Contamination –
Everyone on Treasure Island. If Treasure Island is developed the 21000 people within this distance will increase the risk by a factor of 10 where if any radiation or chemical contamination is found on the site, it will require a total evacuation until the site is remediated. The Board of Supervisors (BOS) will have to face an immediate and emergency evacuation of Treasure Island are they prepared? did anyone mention this to the BOS?
Fort Mason, location where Atomic Energy Commission sent Radio-Isotopes for use by Naval Bases and the location during world war II for Military Sea Transportation Service. Red is quarter of a mile while light blue-green is 1 mile.
3 Miles from exact site of Contamination –
This covers most of the Business district of San Francisco. Applies to Groundwater and Air contamination
4 Miles air and Groundwater Contamination –
All the way to City Hall from Treasure Isand – Applies to Groundwater and Air contamination See notes below
In 2011 the Navy conducted a radiological survey and found Radium, Thorium, Uranium, Radioactive Potassium and Radioactive Thallium under the housing at Treasure Island by driving a towed array of radiation detectors over the streets and yards producing a map of radiation for the Housing on Site 12 at Treasure Island Naval Base. This article will show many of the maps created of the Radiation at the housing on Treasure Island.
The materials were not cleaned up at the time, but these isotopes give off radiation at certain frequencies and by reading these frequencies we can know what types of materials are giving off the gamma and X rays of these specific isotopes. The Chart below shows the different frequencies and their corresponding isotopes listed across the top. This is gamma radiation. Alpha and Beta radiation require laboratory work to confirm their presence. So you would not be able to detect Plutonium in this study, which was used in the Radiation Training at Treasure Island.
The radiation was centered on the area of the island where the Navy conducted the Radiological, Chemical and Biological Training using mock ups of a ship, the USS Pandemonium, an airplane, and a field gun. Eventually the Navy would collect Radium objects that were in the first 10 inches of soil and place them in boxes to be sorted out later in 2018.
In response to the increase in radiation, the Navy extended the chain link fences in order to protect the residents from what turned out to be a nuclear disaster. See Survey Findings below.
Treasure Island had Ammunition Bunkers located under the housing of the base which is located on the left side of this map and here is a close up below.
The Baseline survey claimed the Navy destroyed the bunkers before they built housing on the site but the bunkers are still there and the Navy has recovered munitions including a report in 2019 of a Japanese Mortar with over 6 pounds of high Explosive just in that one bomb which just for that one item the required setback for any civilian construction is 180 feet according to 27 CFR § 555.218 – Table of distances for storage of explosive materials. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/27/555.218.
First of there pages on the B-25 box containing 55 REMS / year of radium objects, deck markers, radium dials, all by product materials that were found in the first 10 inches of soil on the ground under the housing at Treasure Island.
Spreadsheet of 684 Radium objects, numbers 596 to 1280, found in the top 10 inches of soil10 at Treasure Island California exposing the residents to 60.409 Rems of Radiation each year. 55 REMS of that total comes from one location the B-25 box (above image) where the Navy collected radioactive objects found on the site of the Radiological Training Area on Treasure Island which was demolished to build housing upon the site starting in the 1960s. There are other objects some with radiation levels higher than in this list (including one that was 3500 µrem/hr or 30 REMS per year in a report published on May 26, 202112 which means the exposure of people on the Island goes up to 90 Rems per year) and I will post them in subsequent articles to be linked here. An explanation of each column is below.
The Spreadsheet shows that they knew about the radiation, the exact amounts but let it sit there on the site for 5 years thus exposing the residents on the site to 300 Rems of total radiation. This is a direct violation of the law:
(b)Penalties for failure to notify; use of notice or information pursuant to notice in criminal case“
If the EPA was informed of the radiation, they would have evacuated and taken over the site cleanup.
This report is the POST-CONSTRUCTION SUMMARY REPORT December 2019, full citation below. Table 7 lists the Radium objects in this report on pages 163-185.
200 Foot Boundary
200 feet is the safe distance, the boundary between a radiological site and the civilian residents. There is no boundary at Treasure Island, the residents are living ON THE SITE!
This is a direct violation of the very law cited on page 1-2 of this report where they claim compliance with the “National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (Code of Federal Regulations [CFR], Title 40, Part 300) and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation.
40 CFR Appendix A to Part 300 – The Hazard Ranking System: 5.1.1 Resident population threat. Evaluate the resident population threat only if there is an area of observed contamination in one or more of the following locations:
• Within the property boundary of a residence, school, or day care center and within 200 feet of the respective residence, school, or day care center, or
• Within a workplace property boundary and within 200 feet of a workplace area, or
• Within the boundaries of a resource specified in section 5.1.1.3.4, or
• Within the boundaries of a terrestrial sensitive environment specified in section 5.1.1.3.5.
If not, assign the resident population threat a value of 0, enter this value in Table 5-1, and proceed to the nearby population threat (section 5.1.2).
There are two levels of safe radiation, one is the immediate dose and the other is the yearly dose. The Navy decided to only list the radiation by the hour to show that it does not exceed the immediate dose but failed to place on the same chart the yearly dose which prove it is a nuclear disaster area, so I calculated it by multiplying the per hour dose by 8760 hours in a year and divided the legal dosages per year by 8760 to get the hourly amounts.
60 Rems of radiation will give you a 1 in 4 chance of getting cancer11, that is just for starters, it gets worse from there. Also the Navy discovered this for these specific objects in 2013, why did they choose to not evacuate the people, knowing exactly the danger? That’s 300 REMS of Radiation needlessly exposing the residents of Treasure Island which increased their chance of getting cancer to 74 in 10011 And we now they had radiation surveys in reports published in 2007.
The RSY Pads in the above map (page 111) of the cleanup sites for nuclear radiation were places where they removed objects from B-25 boxes to dry out the materials and you will notice the locations are within 200 feet of housing. The materials in the boxes buried under ground which were collected in the past and buried there for the cleanup, had to be dried out as the conditions under ground is the water table is very high and they had to dry out everything so they exposed everyone to these dry out locations with the 60 Rems of radiation. This is gamma radiation which requires 6 feet of lead to protect you from the exposure so the radiation buried under ground is just as radioactive as when they put them on the drying locations. So the people of Site 12 have been exposed each year with the full dose of 60 Rems from these radium objects.
The correct symbol for a micro Rem is µrem. The footnotes to the Navy Table on page 185 of the report notify that they using Micro Rems which is a millionth of a Rem but they use the wrong symbol on their spreadsheets. The Navy’s spreadsheet uses mRem for microrem. mrems are mili rems or 1/1000th of a REM.
In this spreadsheet Item 777 at the top of the spreadsheet (above): Cumulative number: 777 item number: 10/21/2015-337 Description: Foil Date Recovered: 10/21/2015 Location Identified: B-25 Box 2830 95% complete Originating SWDA (Solid Waste Disposal Area): Westside Radiation Level Highest Contact (mR/h)1: 260 Radiation Level Opposite Side Contact (mR/h)2: 120 Open Window Radiation Level @12 inches (mR/h)3: 1000 Closed Window Radiation Level @ 12 inches (mR/h)4: 14 4MCA Spectrum identifier5: 20151103105652 Potential Primary Isotope67: 226Ra Curie ECurie Estimate: 1.7182 Entry Cross Check (mCi)8: 1.71309 Item loaded into US Army JMC Waste Brooker Transfer Container-date: 2/15/2018
Spacer between charts, which indicates the start of my analysis of the preceding data see image below:
Radiation Level Highest Contact (mR/h)1: 260 10% of individual citizen adult 10 mrems per year value µrem/per hour: 1.14 Individual Citizen Dose 100 mrems per year value in micro rems/per hour:11.4 Occupational Dose 500 mrems per year value in micro rems/per hour: 57 Highest Contact Level per year x X 8760 (hours): 2,277,600 which is 2.2776 REMS per year) 10 mrems per year in microrems: 10,000 100 mrems per year in microrems: 100,000 500 mrems per year in microrems: 500,000
684 objects to numbered 596 to 1280 BYPRODUCT radioactive objects found at Treasure Island. Highest Level of radiation using a “Geiger counter” on Treasure Island for each object in Micro-Rems per hour. The next three columns are the safe values of 10 mrems, 100 mrems and 500 mrems per year divided by 8760 hours of a year for each hour so you can compare the actual radiation to safety standards. The Highest Contact Level per year is the Highest Level of radiation from the spreadsheet multiplied by 8760 hours in a year to give the mrems value to compare to the safe levels. The last three columns show the safe levels in microrems per year. Continue reading “60 REMS of Nuclear Radiation Per Year at Treasure Island – the Spreadsheet and the laws”→
In 1964, the Navy decided to test its new cleaning agent DS2 to compare it to “DANC” which was used in all Navy Bases as a cleaner ashore. Treasure Island Damage Control school was chosen at the site because they regularly train in radiological, chemical and biological decontamination on two week intervals since 1948. Up until 1970 the decontamination area was located on the northwest corner of the island which contained a mock up of a ship (the first USS Pandemonium), a mock up of an airplane, and a 5 inch gun which was used for general training and for decontamination. In 1970 they tore down the first USS Pandemonium and built housing over the site and rebuilt it to the Northeastern side of the Island. The fire fighting school which was a separate location and was also replaced to be further to the north east of the island in 1988.
Guaranteed percentages on investment into Treasure Island, who gets what in hte Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) of the Naval Base.
Investors this agreement added another 4.5% to the investors to 22.5% The Navy gets 35 % after the Investors get their cut and the The city of San Francisco gets to pay for it.
We would like to highlight a breakthrough on negotiations for the EDC of Naval Station Treasure Island. Negotiations had been ongoing with the City since 2007. Due to the disparity of the DON [Department of the Navy] and City valuations, many compensation options were reviewed to convey the property while still obtaining Fair Market Value (FMV). The Navy had previously offered deferred compensation and percentages of gross revenue. The City had offered profit participation subordinate to a guaranteed return to developers. With adoption of language in the Fiscal Year 2010 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress enacted new EDC language that allows flexibility in transfer terms for EDCs including accepting profit participation structures.
Utilizing this authority, we were able to announce in December that an agreement in principle was reached with the City of San Francisco to convey 996 acres of the former Naval Station Treasure Island. The agreement guarantees $55M to the Navy paid over 10 years with interest and an additional $50M paid once the project meets a return of 18%. Then after an additional 4.5% return to investors (22.5% total), the Navy would receive 35% of all proceeds. This deal represents a unique opportunity to spur development, while still providing a guaranteed payment to the Navy as well as a share in the benefit of what both the City and the Navy expect to be a successful redevelopment and job generating project.
The environmental cleanup of Treasure Island is nearing completion. Once the City finalizes California Environmental Quality Act documentation and approvals with the Board of Supervisors in late 2010 or early 2011, we will be in position for the clean transfer of more than 75% of the base. The remaining cleanup includes the continued treatment of two small groundwater plumes and removal of low level radioactive contamination. These projects and the remaining transfer are expected to be complete well before the land is needed for subsequent phases of the redevelopment project.”
Prior BRAC Environmental Cleanup
“The Department has now spent about $4.3 billion on environmental cleanup, environmental compliance, and program management costs at prior BRAC locations through FY 2009. Our remaining environmental cost to complete for FY 2010 and beyond is approximately $1.4 billion. This includes $160 million cost growth which is due in part to additional munitions cleanup at Naval Air Facility Adak, AK and Naval Shipyard Mare Island, CA, clean up at Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, and additional long term monitoring program-wide. The increase is also associated with additional radiological contamination at Naval Station Treasure Island, CA, Naval Air Station Alameda, CA, and Naval Shipyard Mare Island, CA
MPPEH is a designation for material that is owned or controlled by DOD that, prior to determination of its explosive safety status, potentially contains explosive hazards and/or munitions. MPPEH is addressed by DOD Instruction 4140.62, “Material Potentially Presenting an Explosive Hazard,” November 25, 2008.
DLA Disposition Services must ensure that only Material Documented as Safe (MDAS) may be released to the public. As such, MPPEH property requires an MDAS Certification or Inert Certification prior to turn-in.
MDAS/Inert Certification must be included or attached to the DD Form 1348-1A and on each container/property.
Munitions containers and packaging material
Munitions debris remaining after munitions use
Demilitarization residue
Disposal and range-related debris
Material potentially containing a high enough concentration of explosives such that the material presents and explosive hazard such as: equipment, drainage systems, holding tanks, piping, and ventilation ducts that were associated with munitions productions, demilitarization, or disposal operations.
MDAS is MPPEH that has been assessed and documented as not presenting an explosive hazard. MDAS Certification requires two independent signatures by trained and certified personnel.
The first signatory must be a technically-qualified, DOD employee or DOD Contractor who either witnessed or performed the initial 100-percent inspection or DDESB (Defense Explosive Safety Board)-approved processing of the material.
The second signatory must be a technically-qualified, U.S. citizen who is either a DOD employee or DOD Contractor who either performed or witnessed the 100-percent re-inspection or conducted an independent quality assurance inspection of processed material using an approved sampling method.
Each signatory must ensure the chain of custody was maintained before signing the explosives safety documentation.
The following MPPEH will be accepted by DLA Disposition Services as long as the MPPEH is certified Inert and includes an Inert Certification:
The evolution of the skate board Park at Treasure Island and while these people were building it and getting the approval from the City and the TIDA board, they were being exposed to 60 Rems per year of nuclear radiation and the City didn’t tell them about it. That seems to be the theme of Treasure Island, the city approves of businesses and organizations to build on the site and yet they know the radiation is there and they fail to tell them about it. It is called murder.
Carol Harvey, investigative reporter for the San Francisco Bay View National Black Newspaper sent a video to this video, they deserve an award, it’s beautiful and a great story about persistence and hard work. And it breaks my heart to know that there is a reason why the land is abandoned.
Carol Harvey writes:
Watch and weep!
Then Read and Weep!
There are fine island shots and a great feel to this interesting, tragic, video that a skateboard boy told me about today. Some well-meaning skateboarders, excited by finally feeling accepted, aren’t told that next door powerful radiation sources are being emitted from the RADIAC schools, Bldg 342, Bldg 343, and Bldg 344, the underground bunker where (probably) plutonium and (definitely) cesium-137 with forever half-lives were stored. They aren’t aware that Rich Rovetti and those venal TIDA Board members just boot folks off the island when they tire of them or they get in the way.
In 2013, investigative reporters, Matt Smith and Katherine Meiszkowski dug cesium-137 from the soil behind the RADIAC Schools and wrote about their findings in the excellent article quoted and linked below.
(The reporters’) “samples were taken from under a palm tree 50 feet from a classroom building where cesium was kept according to military archives. A 1974 radiation safety audit identified cesium samples used and stored there with radioactivity several times the amount necessary to injure or kill someone who mishandled them. In 1993, shipping manifests from the same building showed even greater amounts of cesium-137 taken away from the same site that year.”
BASEWIDE ENVIRONMENTAL BASELINE SURVEY REPORT FOR NAVAL STATION TREASURE ISLAND, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, MAY 19, 1995
The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and later the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent radioactive materials to Fort Mason in San Francisco which is right next to Fisherman’s Wharf. The base was where the Military Sea Transportation Service and they would move the materials to the bases Treasure Island, Hunters Point Shipyard and Mare Island. Form AEC-313.
Site 6 is the first Hydraulic Training School, it moved in 1989 to the Southeastern portion of the island, this included the 1st USS Buttercup. There is a CSPAN video at time stamp 18:17 from January 30 1991 during Operation Desert Storm showing the radiological training in the second “USS Buttercup” training device which was a mock up of a two decks of a ship that would sink, fill with water to simulate and train sailors on how to plug holes and conduct radiological scans of a sinking ship. For more articles on the USS Buttercup click here.
From the Report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission: “
Environmental Management Services, Inc. (EMS) plans to us its NRC License, No. 0429295-01, effective Tuesday, January 6, 2009, for radioactive waste package handling and sampling related activities at Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA. The soil is contaminated with Ra-226 (average concentration is 20 pCi/g). These activities are expected to continue for approximately 18 months and will be conducted within a separately fenced area inside Site 6. These are the same activities EMS performed under reciprocity (RTS #105) issued January 8, 2008. This notification meets license condition 14.”
Editors Note: The safe level of radiation at Treasure island was set at 1.69 picocurries per gram. the background was measured to be .69 picocuries and they added another picocurie to that amount to create a baseline of radiation exposure site wide. Note this is a site that was not considered radiologically affected and yet the radiation levels were over 11 times the safe level of radiation.
Nickel63 – Stanford Environmental and Health and Safety Princeton report on how Geiger Counters can’t detect it.
1401 Research Boulevard Rockville, Maryland 20850 April 29, 1987
Refer to OC:L:F:WDK 7120
United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission – Region 1 631 Park Avenue King of Prussia, Pennsylvania 19406
Gentlemen:
This is a formal request for amending our existing materials license 119833-01. Proposed amendments are listed below:
Nickel63 foil contained in a VICTOREEN INSTRUMENT-model #4008-4-15 located in room 167 ATF National Laboratory Center facility. Rockville, Maryland will be transferred to our San Francisco Field Laboratory 233 Naval Station, Treasure Island. California.
This laboratory System is also in the process of finalizing the purchase of an explosives detector manufactured by SENTEX SENSING TECHNOLOGY. INC. (Scanex. jr.-Serial a1 # 60K-139 containing Hydrogen3 Titanium Tritide foils safety light-model #508-3). which will also be located at the San Francisco Field Laboratory. Note conditions of existing license regarding instrumentation located at our Rockville and Treasure Island Laboratory facilities. Please find enclosed copy of existing license # 1918331-01.
Sincerely Yours, William D. Kinard Forensic Chemist
