THE SOUTHEAST SECTOR HAS NO HAZMAT EMERGENCY PLAN

The Southeast Sector that embraces Bayview Hunters Point, Portola District and Visitation Valley does not have a genuine Hazardous Material Emergency Plan in place today. The community has not been informed of such a plan and drills involving the community have not taken place in recent years.

It is the duty of the City Emergency Plan Facilitators which includes the San Francisco Fire Department, the San Francisco Police Department, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the San Francisco Health Department, the Home Land Security Department, Environmental Protection Agency, and other relevant agencies to put a plan together to protect the constituents of the Southeast Sector. It is an industrial zone and has serious hazmat spills waiting to happen.

Fiona Ma one of the SF Board of Supervisors has managed to convince the City to enroll Seniors and those physically challenged to be put on a list so that they can be reached in any emergency. Some people are aware of this program but the outreach has not been done to embrace the City and County of San Francisco as a whole.

In the Southeast Sector we have the majority of the Industrial Facilities. We also have the two toxic power plants. We have the single most toxic standing facility the Phelps Raw Sewage Treatment Plant and the second most toxic source the Darlin Plant at Pier 92 which comes under the jurisdiction of the San Francisco Port Authority and Monique Moyer. So much for the Burton Act and Maritime uses. This Darlin Plant must be shut down. Our children are dying.

The Hunters Point Shipyard is still under the jurisdiction of the Navy. Not one square inch has been conveyed as yet. The clean up operation now been conducted to not have a plan that addresses any major spill as the hazmat material leaves the Shipyard. We know from reading the Final Radiological Historical Report that there are over 200 hotspots that the Navy has promised to abate on the Shipyard.

The Restoration Advisory Board does not have the ability to enforce and see to a viable abatement plan with verification. They mostly talk the talk but cannot walk the walk.

The RAB has not called for a community action plan and has not put the Navy on serious notice. They are liable.

Some dubious so-called environmental advocates are spreading fear in the community about a possible spill but have no money or the ability to address any hazmat emergency. These groups are looking for money and they think by spreading fear and addressing an issue in a half ass manner they can prop their ego on a pedestal of fame and money.

Literacy for Environmental Justice is one organization that the community has to be very careful about Ð they are all about money and have no clout nor ability to do any meaningful clean up. We all know about the hot spots but who is going to do the clean up? Where is the money and real ability and time lines to address this serious hazmat situation?

The many schools we have in the area do not have a plan that should be addressed by the San Francisco Unified School District. In fact the SFUSD has no School Site Safety Plan and the mess that occurred at Thurgood Marshall High School on October 11, 2002 sent a clear signal to the SFUSD and to all law enforcement.

The situation is magnified all the more because of the many child care centers, homes for the aged, other cultural centers, and facilities where people gather and work Ð all of which will be prone if a major spill occurs and this has happened before but the authorities have kept it hidden from the public at large.

Anne Marie Conroy, Heather Fong, FEMA, SFFD, SF Health Department, Home Land Security, EPA, DTSC, the Corps of Engineers are all fully aware of the mess that lies at Hunters Point Shipyard Ð the point I am making is who will handle the mess as and when it occurs.

Folks like Lennar BVHP LLC want to be built homes but no one cares about a Safety Plan and the health of the constituents. Where is the Precautionary Principle? Who really cares about our children and the Elders who are most prone to a toxic spill?

We know for a fact that when the underground fires were burning by Kiska Road in 2000 it took the City and County of San Francisco weeks to address the situation. Arc Ecology and LEJ did not do anything about this situation. They did not come to bat for the community. Now they want to do some clean up and make money by Yosemite Slough! Pathetic!

The SF Public Health did nothing and has faked its record to address the real situation with faulty records about the 2000 fires at Hunters Point Shipyard. Right now the SF Fire Department is poised to take over the Hunters Point Shipyard and I know that the SF Fire Department does not have the technical ability to address major radiological implications as for example the Corps of Engineers have.

Mayor Gavin Newsom is kept in the dark and should not allow City Fire Fighters to be exposed to radiological elements created by the Navy.

I am asking Michael Cohen the Czar of all base closures to look into this matter at once. I am putting Keith Forman on notice. The Navy should maintain a Fire Department at the Shipyard and also bear the cost of all fires and radiological implications linked to spills and abatement projects. The Navy is responsible and liable for past mistakes.

LEJ and other advocates who are in for the money should not mess with the welfare of the community when it comes to cleanup and abatement and the real process of execution. Advocates mostly talk about stuff but really cannot execute the tedious and cumbersome processes. More so when it comes to Arc Ecology and Literacy for Environmental Justice two White headed organizations whom are preying on people of color and making money through grants.

Toxic spills and other dangerous hazmat emergencies will occur - it is left to the Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom and his appointed personnel to take charge and tell the community at large through word of mouth and printed material how best these real dangerous situations will be addressed.

The Home Land Security should be warned that certain advocates in the community who cannot be trusted are putting the lives of many in peril through fear and misinformation.

In the case of the Navy they should work with FEMA and the Homeland Security as well as the relevant City, State and Federal agencies to address any dangerous hazardous material spills in the community and more so in the Southeast Sector which has the bulk of the industrial facilities.

Supervisor Fiona Ma would be well advised to created a plan that especially addresses the Southeast Sector. Do not include the dumb, inept, and arrogant Sophie Maxwell because anything she touches gets screwed up big time. The woman is pathetic.

Our children should not be taken to toxic dumps like Pier 98. Our Supervisors and the Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom should study the Precautionary Principle.

FEMA, Homeland Security should be very concerned about unqualified so called environmentalists trying to address complicated hazardous material spills and other serious abatement issues in the Bayview Hunters Point, Portola District and Visitation Valley.




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