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).”
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.
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?
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
Treasure Island is on an Aquifer so this qualifies it for the 4 mile ranges and of course the radiation was found in the upper 10 inches of soil so the air contamination threat is also in effect. the problem with radiation is that the danger level is so extreme that you will not even realize you are breathing in the radioactive particles.
The nuclear powered Battleship Missouri was first scheduled to be docked at Treasure Island but once they found the aquifer they had to move the ship and all her escort vessels to Hunters Point Shipyard. Nuclear powered ships release radiation directly into harbors and since the San Francisco Bay Area has been the home of many of these ships, the radiation is present.
Unfortunately in 1947 the Air Craft Carrier USS Independence was parked at Treasure Island on this aquifer and was used in training at Treasure Island until they realized the Iron in the ship which had been exposed to neutron radiation, from two Atomic Bomb explosions on the ship in Operation Crossroads causing the Iron to become radioactive and so the ship had to be sunk to remove it from civilization. So in the wisdom of the Navy, they scuttled the ship in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. https://disasterarea.home.blog/2019/07/05/uss-independence-irradiated-in-nuclear-tests-found-in-gulf-of-the-farallones-national-marine-sanctuary/
The Navy has admitted to dumping Plutonium laced sand and acid solutions directly into San Francisco Bay from Hunters Point Shipyard and Mare Island during the cleaning of the ships used in the 1946 Operation Crossroads nuclear tests ( reference 1946 Page and the following links:
Dumping Nuclear Waste Directly into San Francisco Bay the Cover UP, NAVY REPORT 10 December 1946
15 Miles from exact Site of Contamination + Tides–
When you dump waste directly into the Bay as was done at Treasure Island the initial level of contamination is 15 miles but that is increased by the Tides which brings the contamination all the way to Suisun Bay and to the very bottom of the lower Bay. Then you have Mare Island which built 16 nuclear submarines and regularly refueled nuclear submarines and the Farallon Islands where the Navy dumped nuclear waste.
Sacramento River Chinook Salmon feed off of Treasure Island and their endangered status and now threatened status can be directly correlated to the contamination on TI and when they were actively dumping nuclear waste directly into the Bay.
5200 Meters for Poison Gas –
The range of Poison Gas weapons used in training before the 1972 Treaties that outlawed the offensive use of Poison Gas such as Mustard gas, Nerve Gasses VX, Sarin and BZ. 5200 Meters encompasses most downtown San Francisco.
15 Miles + for dumping into the Bay
At Treasure Island they dumped the toxic waste directly into the Bay. Site 13: Offshore Sampling (TI) Remedial Investigation shows the stormwater outfalls of TI.
40 CFR Appendix A to Part 300 – The Hazard Ranking System :
Section 4.1.1.2 Target distance limit. The target distance limit defines the maximum distance over which targets are considered in evaluating the site. Determine a separate target distance limit for each watershed as follows:
• If there is no observed release to surface water in the watershed or if there is an observed release only by direct observation (see section 4.1.2.1.1), begin measuring the target distance limit for the watershed at the probable point of entry to surface water and extend it for 15 miles along the surface water from that point.
• If there is an observed release from the site to the surface water in the watershed that is based on sampling, begin measuring the target distance limit for the watershed at the probable point of entry; extend the target distance limit either for 15 miles along the surface water or to the most distant sample point that meets the criteria for an observed release to that watershed, whichever is greater.
In evaluating the site, include only surface water targets (for example, intakes, fisheries, sensitive environments) that are within or contiguous to the hazardous substance migration path and located, partially or wholly, at or between the probable point of entry and the target distance limit applicable to the watershed:
• If flow within the hazardous substance migration path is reversed by tides, evaluate upstream targets only if there is documentation that the tidal run could carry substances from the site as far as those upstream targets.
The tide brings contamination to Suisun Bay and to the bottom of the lower Bay.
And of course Mare Island built 16 nuclear subs and they regularly refueled nuclear submarines at Mare Island. But that has not stopped the real estate developers!
Levels of Contamination- Inverse Square Rule
The Navy will cite the safe distance to nuclear radiation using the inverse square formula, where if you stand 4 meters away from a radioactive source, the radiation will be 1/16th of the radiation at 1 meter from the object.
Geiger counters come with these types of sealed sources so you can train sailors to calibrate their monitors knowing the specific amount of radiation given off by one of these targets which come in a lead lined part of the Geiger counter and you can train people to locate the source, for example the Navy would take a pencil shaped source and stick it in the ground so the RADIAC training students can use their counters to try to locate it as demonstrated below in the January 1950, US Naval Training Bulletin.
For the 100 REMS of radiation the safe distance of 0.1 REM per year is 31 feet if it were a sealed source in the above conditions. But the problem with the radiation is it is in the soil, it is made up of byproduct material, objects that were painted with radium or vacuum tubes that have radium in them which have since they were first dumped there, the iron that the radium was painted upon has rusted away and the radioactive material is in the sand. Later it was bulldozed to put the housing up and so its in the dirt and the water.
Treasure Island California 
3 thoughts on “Downtown San Francisco within Contamination Range of Treasure Island Atomic, Biological and Chemical Warfare training sites”