UC Illegally Buried ‘Thousands of Truckloads’ of Toxic Soil in Richmond State Says
July 3, 2007 - By Richard Brenneman
UC Berkeley and a Swiss multinational must clean up thousands of truckloads of toxic-laden soil illegally buried at the Richmond site of a planned 1,330-unit housing complex, state officials ordered Friday.
“What we had feared has been verified,” said Assemblymember Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley, Richmond). “It confirms my fears and the fears of the neighbors, which have been shown to be terribly correct.”
Much of the contaminated earth and cinders buried at Campus Bay came from the adjacent, university-owned Richmond Field ...
Toxic Questions Surround Two Richmond Sites
July 6-9, 2007 - By Richard Brenneman
More questions are swirling around the cleanup efforts at two adjacent contaminated sites in Richmond this week.
Issues range from the adequacy of testing of contaminants at UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station (RFS) and the possibility of radioactive contamination both at the field station and at the adjacent site at Campus Bay, owned by AstraZeneca, a Swiss agro-chemical giant.
State officials last week issued emergency cleanup orders to the university and AstraZeneca, demanding the cleanup of thousands of truckloads of ...
Berkeley Meadows opens at long last
October 6, 2006 - By Denis Cuff and Martin Snapp
The skies were overcast but the mood was sunny as VIPs and ordinary folks rubbed shoulders Wednesday morning at the opening of a 17-acre slice of the Berkeley Meadow as the first developed part of the Eastshore State Park, which stretches from Oakland to Richmond.
Originally part of the Bay, the meadow was filled in a century ago to make a garbage dump. In the 1960s, developers proposed constructing a huge shopping center and office complex on the site, but a citizens' revolt stopped that plan cold.
The loudest ...
New Berkeley waterfront park should be hit with nature lovers
October 5, 2006 - Kristin Bender
BERKELEY Ñ State and regional park leaders opened a 17-acre slice of the Berkeley Meadow on Wednesday afternoon, lauding it as a great spot for walking, relaxing, bird watching and people watching.
Restoration of the former garbage dump marked the first completed phase of the Eastshore State Park General Plan, adopted in 2002 after 25 years of work by park leaders, elected officials and community watchdogs.
The 8.5-mile-long Eastshore State Park is 2,000 acres of uplands and tidelands along the waterfront of Berkeley, Oakland, ...
‘Garbage into gold’: 8 1/2-mile-long, 2,002-acre Eastshore State Park is dedicated after more than 30 years of hard work
October 5, 2006 - Carolyn Jones
It took more than three decades, hundreds of people, a dozen public agencies and plenty of creative financing, but in the end they did it: They turned eight miles of garbage dumps into one of America's largest urban parks.
"We spun garbage into gold," said Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates on Wednesday at the official dedication of the Eastshore State Park, much of which has been completed.
About 200 people helped unveil the 8.5-mile strip of tidelands, meadows, beaches and trails that stretches from the Bay Bridge to Richmond and boasts ...
Activists, officials christen Eastshore State Park
October 5, 2006 - By M.S. Enkoji
Just after World War II, on the hills rising from the San Francisco Bay, Sylvia McLaughlin would look down from her Berkeley home and watch as heaps of garbage slowly filled in the watery expanse.
"That was a time when people considered their waterfronts dumping grounds," she said. But as the bay's eastern shore seemed destined to close in on San Francisco, McLaughlin envisioned something different on the scrappy shoreline. She helped found one of several movements that galvanized the fight to rescue the waterfront, restore and ...
State Park’s New Section Opens After Long Delay
October 5, 2006 - by Corinna Matlis
After 20 years of lawsuits and compromising, community volunteers and politicians are finally celebrating the dedication of a landfill-turned-meadow at a Berkeley state park.
Officials from several area cities and environmental groups joined state park staff in a ribbon-cutting that officially opens a section of Berkeley Meadow, just north of the marina, to the public.
The meadow, which is part of the Eastshore State Park system, sits on reclaimed land that was used as a landfill throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
Several ...
Gambling venues bet big on Prop. 68
Aug 7, 2004 by Erin Sherbert
In San Mateo County, gambling interests are betting big bucks on Proposition 68, having dumped nearly $3.5 million into the campaign.
Leading the pack in monetary donations is Magna Entertainment Corp., which operates both the Bay Meadows Racecourse in San Mateo and Golden Gate Fields in Albany. Magna has given about $1.7 million to Proposition 68.
Bay Meadows Main Track Investors LLC has contributed $992,000 while the two cardrooms, Lucky Chances and Artichoke Joe's, have contributed more than $400,000 each.
To date, Proposition 68 ...