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Bayview Hunters Point Mothers Environmental Health and Justice

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Bayview Hunters Point, commonly known as "Hunters Point", is a neighborhood located in the southeastern corner of San Francisco, California. Hunters Point experience high levels of toxic and nuclear pollution from the heavy metal industry, sewage treatment plant, and the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard that are all within a five-mile radius from the neighborhood which ultimately contributes to the pollution in the area.[1]

Hunters Point is labeled as the “Most Isolated Neighborhood.” Near Hunters Point, there is a radioactive contaminated Navy Shipyard site formerly known as the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard which is now abandoned. In addition to the contamination, the shipyard has demonstrated a progression of using coal and oil-fired power generation facilities, which has left a legacy of pollution in this area. With the legacy of pollution, a group of mothers from Hunters View created a committee and joined a local environmental organization to survey the landscape of hazardous waste sites accumulated in Bayview Hunters Point. This group then became known as the "Bayview Hunters Point Mothers Environmental Health Justice Committee."

The objective of this group is to provide guidance and direction to the community members of the Bayview area about the deteriorating health related to the local pollution. The committee has since documented over one hundred brownfield sites in the neighborhood, including the shipyard, 187 leaking underground fuel tanks, and 124 companies that handle hazardous waste.[2]

Demographics[edit]

The Bayview Hunters Point zip code is 94124. This area has a population of approximately 32,908 people. According to the ZipWho, the demographics of Hunters Point is 46.8% Black, 24.3% Asian, 16.3% Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity, and 4.8% white.[3] The median annual income for this zip code is $37,146 with 52.1% of that population owning their homes.[3]  However, 21.7% of the Hunters Point population fall on or below the poverty line of $30,000 annual income.[7[4]] The life expectancy for the San Francisco County is 81.97 years compared to the 80.82 years expected for the entire California state.[5] The San Francisco County life expectancy includes other towns other than Hunters Point.

History[edit]

History of the Shipyard/Pollution[edit]

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard is located in the Bayview Hunters Point Peninsula. The shipyard facility consists of approximately 934 acres of land and 443 acres were on submerged land.[1] This shipyard was a commercial dry dock facility from 1869-1939. Then from 1945-1974, the Navy predominantly used the shipyard as a repair facility, as well as being a facility for the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) from 1948-1969.[1] This US shipyard closed in 1991 as part of the US Naval Base Realignment and Closure Program Management (BRAC). Since the closure, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard has been abandoned until the state “divided up [the shipyard] into multiple parcels to help expediting the environmental cleanup efforts and to facilitate timely transfer of the property” for the City to be able to use 75 acres to construct residential housing development, community parks, and commercial venues. The remainder of the “Hunters Point Naval Shipyard will be conveyed to the City on parcel by parcel basis once the environmental clean is complete.”[1]

History of Bayview Hunters Point Mothers Environmental Health and Justice[edit]

Founded in 1994, the Bayview Hunters Point Mothers Environmental Health and Justice committee was formed. Bayview Hunters Point Mothers Environmental Health and Justice committee are a grassroots community groups whose mission is to "mobilizes, train, empower community mothers in the fight for environmental health and justice in Bayview Hunters Point”[6] [7]. The committee aims to provide knowledge to the community members of Hunters Point about the health deterioration related to the amount of pollution in the town. The people of Hunters Point have worked alongside this committee to highlight examples of environmental pollution, health concerns, and racial injustice through [4[8]] Efforts made can be seen through an intersectional lens in order to understand the significance and importance one committee has demonstrated. Understanding how environmental injustice has impacted a community can help us understand nationwide injustice which efforts can and should be done that work.

In 2006 the mother's committee helped close the PG&E power plant that had been contributing to the pollution in the area.[9]

Bayview Mothers Environmental Health and Justice[edit]

Mission/Goal[edit]

In 1994, the Bayview Hunters Point Mothers Environmental Health and Justice committee was formed. Bayview Hunters Point Mothers Environmental Health and Justice committee are a grassroots community groups whose mission is to “mobilizes, train, empower community mothers in the fight for environmental health and justice in Bayview Hunters Point.” [13][10] [15][9]. To empower women of the group, the mother's committee taught women computer skills, research skills, media skills along with public speaking skills. These skills are used to help them combat environmental injustice in the Bayview Hunters Point Area. [9] They center their group identity around gender and care for the community.[9]

Health Initiative[edit]

The mother's committee recognizes the health problems within their community. They believe that the people in the community are more susceptible to multiple forms of cancer as well as asthma attacks due to the presence of pollutants and hazards where they reside.[9] The mother's committee gave a complete account of heath in their community be understanding their social location and using it as knowledge in their case for environmental justice. On top of understanding their social location, they also gathered scientific evidence to back up their arguments based on their lived experiences. All together they created a strong argument that showed how the people's health was affected by the environment and the urgency of the health problems in Bayview Hunters Point.[9]

Environmental Justice Initiative[edit]

With a legacy of pollution in the Hunters Point area from the heavy metal industry, sewage treatment plant and the abandoned Bayview Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, the Bayview Mothers Environmental Health and Justice group collaborated with the mothers in Hunters Point to highlight this toxic sites. The mothers committee collaborated with a local environmental justice organizations to survey the landscape of hazardous waste sites that had accumulated in Bayview Hunters Point in the postwar decades. The Bayview Hunters Point Mothers Environmental Health Justice committee aims to provide knowledge to the community members of Hunters Point about their health deterioration related to the amount of pollution in the town. The committee since then has documented over one hundred brownfield sites in the neighborhood, including the shipyard, 187 leaking underground fuel tanks, and 124 companies that handle hazardous waste [[2]2]. Their initiative is to have the government clean their polluted soil, water, and air.

Pollution[edit]

According to the EPA, Bayview Hunters Point is considered one of the most chemically polluted areas in the the United States. [9] The heavy metal industry, sewage treatment plant and the Bayview Hunters Point Naval Shipyard are all in a five-mile radius from the neighborhood and contribute heavily to the pollution in the area[8][11]. Environmental pollution occurs in different forms; air, water, soil, radioactive, noise, heat/thermal, and lights. [12] Every form of pollution has a direct point source or a non-point source.[12] The effects of environmental pollution on human health includes several respiratory problems including asthma or lung cancer with the decrease in air quality.[12] Water pollution may contaminate the food chain and cause water-borne diseases like cholera and diarrhea to increase.[12] Soil pollution can contaminate food and radioactive pollution can cause cancer-- skin, blood, infertility due to exposure, birth defects and blindness. [12] Radioactive contamination and waste has the ability to permanently change soil, air, and water.[12]

Water Quality[edit]

The Bayview Hunters Point watershed consists of two parts: the South Basin and the Yosemite watershed [8[13]]. Sources of pollution into the watershed of Bayview Hunters Point are from sewage overflows and illegally dumping waste directly into the water. Heavy metals, oil, pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB’s) and asbestos are also present in the polluted waters [6[11]]. Two of the radioactive materials present in the water are Radium 226 and Cesium 137, which have been shown to increase rates of asthma, diabetes, and cancers in the residents of Bayview Hunters Point [6[11]. Hazards that are threatening the Yosemite Watershed include 700 waste materials, 325 underground petroleum storage tanks as well as two different Superfund sites. With all of these different pollutants threatening the Bayview Hunters Point watershed, the study found the Bayview hunters Points community to have 4 times the amount of toxin in the area compared to nearby neighborhoods [8[13]].

Nuclear Waste/Radioactive Pollution[edit]

Hunters Point experiences high levels of toxic and nuclear pollution [8[13]]. A large portion of this pollution came from the Hunters Point Navy Shipyard which was used to decontaminate nuclear weapons and hazardous materials. The Hunters Point Navy Shipyard is now labeled as a brownfield site because of the radioactive pollution found on this site, according to the US Naval Base Realignment and Closure Program Management (BRAC) [1][9]. The Nuclear waste traced in this abandon shipyard site can be traced back to when this site was a Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory being used to decontaminate and dispose of nuclear and radioactive ships returning from bomb testing out at sea [[11]6]. The radioactive pollution has permanent effects including increased risk of cancer-- skin, blood, infertility due to exposure, birth defects and blindness; it has the ability to permanently change soil, air, and water which are major sources for life, and radioactive waste can also cause mutations in species.[12]

Effects of Pollution[edit]

There is a referenced link with the toxic and nuclear hazards and pollution of the environment to Bayview Hunters Point being a racialized area with the majority of families being Black [8[13]]. The heavy metal industry, sewage treatment plant and the Bayview Hunters Point Naval Shipyard are all in a five-mile radius from the neighborhood and contribute heavily to the pollution in the area[8[13]]. According to the EPA, Bayview Hunters Point is considered one of the most chemically polluted areas in the United States [15][9]. Water pollution and radioactive pollution present in the environment of Bayview Hunters Point which has resulted in high rates of asthma, respiratory diseases, diabetes, heart failure, hypertension, emphysema, and cancers in the residents living in the BVHP three times higher than anywhere else in California[[11]][8[13]]. In regards to the problem of asthma, 10% of residents in Bayview Hunters Point suffer, 14% of these people are children.  Asthma, however, is not the only major health problem in Bayview Hunters Point. Cancer is highly prevalent in the Bayview Hunters Point area and is regarded as one of the leading causes of death in the community. Some of the causes of cancer might be air pollution, asbestos exposure and exposure to nuclear or toxic waste [7[4]]. The pollution can also lead to more birth defects in children. In the Bayview Hunters Point area with 63% of children are born with birth defects [5]. The pollution and its health risks have led to people being more cautious about what they are eating, especially when it comes to seafood [6[11]].

The various ways the area has changed can explain the urban and economic growth over times. Analyzing different narratives can explain the history of racialized representations which indicated that Bayview is socially marginalized and “politically passive, despite the progressive political movements that have emerged in the area.”  [2[2]] Currently, projects to build on long standing and relationships between the Hunters Point residents have either been ignored or other political agendas have been made by the government for redevelopment. Dillon notes on Doreen Massey’s theory of place as an articulation of social relations, can explain how residents of Hunters Point feel excluding, which is why it is seen as separate from San Francisco. Regardless of the demographics and location.

Present Day[edit]

Kelsey Finch's 2008 doctoral dissertation notes specifically on the racialized poverty that has come into effect at Hunters Point. From multiple scholars viewpoints on poverty, Finch argues that a majority of scholars have identified unemployment, specifically the systematic lack of job opportunities, as the major causes of urban neighborhood poverty. One of these reasons is due to decentralization, “which refers to the spatial mismatch between manufacturing jobs, mainly located in the suburbs, and the low-skilled labor force that usually resides in the central city. The second important cause of unemployment is deindustrialization, which refers to the loss of low-skilled jobs in the industrial, manufacturing sector.” Another argument for poverty is the idea that “structural changes in the economy combined with economic segregation, such as the decreasing need for low-skill labor, and the poor quality of American education have all contributed to the economic decline of urban neighborhoods.”[14]

Nearly 40% of Bayview Hunters Point residents have annual incomes below $15,000, while only 20% of the City’s population as a whole have incomes that low, and the unemployment rate is 13% in Bayview Hunters Point, more than twice as high as the City as a whole,” largely in part because the health of the community has been impacted by the ongoing environmental contamination of the community’s soil and water with particulates, pesticides, petrochemicals, heavy metals, asbestos, and radioactive materials, which the US EPA has concluded with which air pollutants have made up the top contaminators.[15]

It should be noted that the “Pan-Glo Services facility is located in an industrial area of Bayview Hunters Point. According to the USEPA, the facility annually emits almost 29 tons of volatile organic compounds, .40 tons of nitrous oxides, and .10 tons of carbon monoxide.”

Reports and data provide us with exact statistics of how much pollutants are impacting the area and cause of illnesses, diseases, and impairments. We cannot understand the magnitude of health setbacks unless we take into account the precise chemicals that are affecting citizens.

Other Organizations and Groups[edit]

Bayview Hunters Point Mothers & Fathers Committee for Health and Environmental Justice[edit]

Like the Bayview-Hunter Point Mothers Environmental Health and Justice group, it is based in the San Francisco area and focuses on its environmental conditions, pre-existing or otherwise. The most notable recent action of the group was their response to Tetra Tech EC Inc, a company involved in the Hunter's Point Shipyard Superfund site, when it was found that they had been falsifying data to make the cleanup efforts appear more successful than it was.[16] The BHPMFCHEJ, in conjunction with members of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice and Clean Air Health Alliance, published a letter to the EPA requesting that the approved company to replace Tetra Tech, CH2M Hill, be removed from all involvement as well due to their previous history of falsifying evidence as well. This along with the request for comprehensive sampling and testing as well as transparency were included in the letter.[17]

Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice[edit]

Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice is a group that works to end what they refer to as environmental racism. This is described as environmental injustice that affects a particular race more often than other groups with the most common examples being a minority group living in a hazardous environment often as a result of pollution with little to no means to move away or protect their wellbeing. While they are involved with and cover new on different events in the Bayview Hunters Point area, they also have ties to other states such as Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Utah, and Wisconsin.[18] This group has campaigned for the cleanup of contaminated sites like the one in Bayview Hunters Point and have been invested in a variety of other actions including civil rights policies, the protection of indigenous lands, and the avocation of a reduction in diesel emissions and pollution.[19] They utilize their wide reach to get more people involved in the matter and increase conversation for the environmental justice movement.

References[edit]

[1] Former Naval Shipyard Hunter Point. NAVFAC. https://www.bracpmo.navy.mil/brac_bases/california/former_shipyard_hunters_point.html

[2] Dillon, L. (2014). Race, waste, and space: Brownfield redevelopment and environmental justice at the Hunters Point Shipyard. Antipode, 46(5), 1205-1221.

[3] Chang, V., Metzger, E. S., Payne, M., Havens, S. M., Peerman, W. R., & Lendvay, J. M. (2004). Community-Based Approach to Environmental Education. age, 9, 1.

[4] McHugh, N. (n.d.). Situating Knowledge through the Mothers Committee of Bayview Hunters Point. Retrieved from https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/iaph/June26/Presentations/14/

[5] English, D. (2004). The silent violence of environmental racism in Bayview Hunters Point. The Black Studies Journal, 5, 90-96.

[6] Metzger, E. S., & Lendvay, J. M. (2006). Seeking Environmental Justice through Public Participation: A Community-Based Water Quality Assessment in Bayview Hunters Point. Environmental Practice, 8(2), 104–114. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1466046606060133  

[7] Katz, M. H. (2006). Health programs in Bayview Hunter’s Point and recommendations for improving the health of Bayview Hunter’s Point Residents. San Francisco, CA: San Francisco Department of Public Health, Office of Policy and Planning.

[8] Chang, V., Metzger, E. S., Payne, M., Havens, S. M., Peerman, W. R., & Lendvay, J. M. (2004). Community-Based Approach to Environmental Education. age, 9, 1.

[9] Howard, B. (2002). Bayview Blues. E: The Environmental Magazine, 13(1), 18. Retrieved from

http://proxy-sm.researchport.umd.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eih&AN=5850360&site=ehost-live

[10] Finch, K. (2008). Trouble in Paradise: Postwar History of San Francisco's Hunters Point Neighborhood (Doctoral dissertation, K. Finch).

[11] http://greenaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/TheStateoftheEnvironment090204Final.pdf

Http://ljournal.ru/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/a-2017-023.pdf. (2017). doi:10.18411/a-2017-023

[12] ZipWho https://zipwho.com/?zip=94124&city=&filters=--_--_--_--&state=&mode=zip

[13] Life Expectacy model https://vizhub.healthdata.org/subnational/usa

[14] Mothers committee “Pollution, Health Environmental Racism and Injustice: A Toxic Inventory of Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco”

[15] https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=iaph

[16] https://www.toppr.com/bytes/environmental-pollution/

[17] https://sfbayview.com/2017/06/whistleblowers-who-worked-at-hunters-point-naval-shipyard-superfund-site-join-together-to-warn-the-public-about-radioactive-coverup/

[18] http://greenaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Bayview Hunters-Point-community-demands-firing-of-company-hired-by-Navy-for-Hunters-Point-Shipyard-work.pdf

[19] http://greenaction.org/?page_id=13

[20] http://greenaction.org/?page_id=1711

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Former Naval Shipyard Hunters Point". www.bracpmo.navy.mil. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Dillion, L. (2014). "Race, waste, and space: Brownfield redevelopment and environmental justice at the Hunters Point Shipyard".
  3. 3.0 3.1 "ZipWho.com - Free ZIP Code Demographics". zipwho.com. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Food Power! San Francisco Dept. of Public Health, 1971. From Mrs. N. Gemple, San Francisco Dept. of Public Health, 101 Grove St., Rm. 307, San Francisco, CA 94102, 36 p., single copies free to San Francisco residents and to professionals only in other areas". Journal of Nutrition Education. 4 (3): 118. June 1972. doi:10.1016/s0022-3182(72)80041-4. ISSN 0022-3182.
  5. "US Health Map | IHME Viz Hub". vizhub.healthdata.org. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  6. "US Health Map".
  7. McHugh, Nancy (June 2010). "Situating Knowledge through the Mothers committee of Bayview Hunters Point".
  8. English, D. (2004). The silent violence of environmental racism in Bayview Hunters Point. The Black Studies Journal, 5, 90-96.
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 ir.lib.uwo.ca https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1034&context=iaph. Retrieved 2018-12-10. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. https://vizhub.healthdata.org/subnational/usa. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Metzger, E. S., & Lendvay, J. M. (2006). Seeking Environmental Justice through Public Participation: A Community-Based Water Quality Assessment in Bayview Hunters Point. Environmental Practice, 8(2), 104–114. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1466046606060133
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 "Types of Environmental Pollution & their Harmful Effects!". Toppr Bytes. 2018-07-21. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 Chang, V., Metzger, E. S., Payne, M., Havens, S. M., Peerman, W. R., & Lendvay, J. M. (2004). Community-Based Approach to Environmental Education. age, 9, 1.
  14. Finch, K. (2008). Trouble in Paradise: Postwar History of San Francisco's Hunters Point Neighborhood (Doctoral dissertation, K. Finch).
  15. greenaction.org (PDF) http://greenaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/TheStateoftheEnvironment090204Final.pdf. Retrieved 2018-12-10. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. ellen (2017-06-29). "Whistleblowers who worked at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Superfund site join together to warn the public about radioactive coverup". San Francisco Bay View. Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  17. greenaction.org (PDF) http://greenaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Bayview-Hunters-Point-community-demands-firing-of-company-hired-by-Navy-for-Hunters-Point-Shipyard-work.pdf. Retrieved 2018-12-10. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  18. "Communities | GREENACTION". Retrieved 2018-12-10.
  19. "Campaigns | GREENACTION". Retrieved 2018-12-10.


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