Chela Zabin will not soon forget when she first glimpsed the golden brown tentacle of the latest alien to settle in the fertile waters of San Francisco Bay.
“I had that moment of ‘Oh God, this is it, it’s here,’ ” said Dr. Zabin, a biologist with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. “I was really hoping I was wrong.”
The tentacle in question was that of an Asian kelp, Undaria pinnatifida, a flavorful and healthful ingredient in miso soup and an aggressive, costly intruder in waters from New Zealand to Monterey Bay.
The kelp, known as wakame (pronounced wa-KA-me), is on a list of “100 of the World’s Worst Invasive Alien Species,” compiled by the Invasive Species Specialist Group. Since her discovery in May, Dr. Zabin and colleagues have pulled up nearly 140 pounds of kelp attached to pilings and boats in the San Francisco Marina alone.
Every year the damage wrought by aquatic invaders in the United States and the cost of controlling them is estimated at $9 billion, according to a 2003 study by a Cornell University professor, David Pimentel, whose research is considered the most comprehensive. The bill for controlling two closely-related invasive mussels — the zebra and the quagga — in the Great Lakes alone is $30 million annually, says the United States Federal Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force.
Many scientists say that San Francisco Bay has more than 250 nonnative species, like European green crab, Asian zooplankton and other creatures and plants that outcompete native species for food, space and sunlight.
“Here you’ve got a veritable smorgasbord of habitats from shallow and muddy to deep water,” said Lars Anderson, a lead scientist with the United States Agriculture Department. The Oakland port ranks as the fourth busiest in the nation, and ships bring in tiny hitchhikers from across the globe to take up residence in the bay.
Most invasive aquatic species arrive stuck to hulls or as stowaways in ballast water. Wakame first arrived at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in 2000, Dr. Zabin and other scientists said. A year later it had moved south into Baja California and north as far as Monterey Bay, where scientists in scuba suits yanked it off boat hulls and marina moorings.
“It’s just like gardening, you can pull out all the weeds you want, but there will always be that little dandelion seed that will sprout and recolonize,” said Steve Lonhart, senior scientist at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. The kelp, which can grow an inch a day, could spread as far north as Canada before the water becomes too cold to sustain it, Dr. Lonhart said.
Native to the Japan Sea, wakame has now spread to the Mediterranean and elsewhere along European coastlines, and to New Zealand, Australia and Argentina, where the fetid smell of rotting kelp has kept beachgoers from parts of the coast.
Wakame harms native kelp, mucks up marinas and the undersides of boats, and damages mariculture like oyster farming.
Money to help eradicate invasive species is difficult to come by on both state and federal levels, particularly in a state facing an unprecedented financial crisis and cuts to programs. “When there is a big wildfire, no one stops and asks, ‘Who is going to pay for this?’ They just fight the fire,” Dr. Anderson said. “We don’t have that kind of automatic response with invasive species.”
On weekends, Dr. Anderson trolls Tomales Bay, 50 miles north of here, in a sea kayak, looking for wakame’s wide leaves.
John Finger is owner of Hog Island Oyster Farm, which has beds in 160 acres of Tomales Bay. His beds yield 2.5 million oysters per year, worth $6 million, Mr. Finger said. Of wakame’s approach, he said, “It seems inevitable that it will show up here.”
Though wakame has not yet been spotted in the bay, Mr. Finger said he was pre-emptively training his staff on how to identify and remove the kelp. “This is just another sign of how small the world is,” he said.
Back in San Francisco, Dr. Zabin and colleagues from nonprofit groups and state and federal agencies have been pooling resources and volunteers, donning scuba and snorkeling equipment and filling black plastic trash bags with the kelp.
But before trucking it to the landfill, Dr. Zabin plans to ship some to Texas. “I got an e-mail from a guy who wants to use it to make biofuel,” Dr. Zabin said. “Maybe he could just come and vacuum it up.”
Sunday, August 2, 2009
China suspends 2 environment bosses for pollution
Authorities in central China suspended two environment officials and detained a chemical plant boss after hundreds of residents protested, claiming the factory polluted a river and caused at least two deaths in the area, an official said Sunday.
Nearly a thousand villagers gathered at government and police offices in Zhentou township in Hunan province on Thursday to highlight what they say is deadly pollution being discharged from the Xianghe Chemical Factory in nearby Liuyang city, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.
The protesters said chemical waste from the factory pollutes the water that irrigates their rice and vegetable fields, according to a resident of the township surnamed Geng, whom The Associated Press contacted by phone.
Geng said the villagers demanded free health checks and medical treatment after two people who died in the area were found to have excessive levels of cadmium, a toxic metal, in their bodies. She said authorities had ordered the plant to cease operations in March.
On Saturday, police detained the head of the Xianghe Chemical Factory and the government suspended the chief and deputy chief of the city's environment protection bureau, a Communist Party official said Sunday.
The official refused to give his name and said he had no further details.
Calls to the factory were answered by an automated response that said the phone number was no longer in use. Xinhua said the plant began operations in 2004 and that government departments were surveying the plant's impact on the environment and public health.
China's waterways, especially its major rivers, are dangerously polluted after decades of rapid economic growth and lax enforcement of pollution controls.
Nearly a thousand villagers gathered at government and police offices in Zhentou township in Hunan province on Thursday to highlight what they say is deadly pollution being discharged from the Xianghe Chemical Factory in nearby Liuyang city, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.
The protesters said chemical waste from the factory pollutes the water that irrigates their rice and vegetable fields, according to a resident of the township surnamed Geng, whom The Associated Press contacted by phone.
Geng said the villagers demanded free health checks and medical treatment after two people who died in the area were found to have excessive levels of cadmium, a toxic metal, in their bodies. She said authorities had ordered the plant to cease operations in March.
On Saturday, police detained the head of the Xianghe Chemical Factory and the government suspended the chief and deputy chief of the city's environment protection bureau, a Communist Party official said Sunday.
The official refused to give his name and said he had no further details.
Calls to the factory were answered by an automated response that said the phone number was no longer in use. Xinhua said the plant began operations in 2004 and that government departments were surveying the plant's impact on the environment and public health.
China's waterways, especially its major rivers, are dangerously polluted after decades of rapid economic growth and lax enforcement of pollution controls.
Even holdouts leave poisoned mining town
Two years ago, Orval "Hoppy" Ray vowed it would take someone meaner than him to make him leave the town where he was born.
But now the crusty, 84-year-old former miner is moving out, leaving behind a blighted, ghostly landscape, its soil, water and air poisoned by generations of lead-ore extraction that produced bullets for both world wars.
After two heart attacks and a tornado that badly damaged his house, Ray lost whatever fight he had left and decided to accept a government buyout, as nearly all his neighbors in Picher have already done.
"You can't fight City Hall," said Ray, who worked Picher's lead mines in the 1940s and, for now, runs a musty pool hall on the main drag. "They've got you squeezed seven ways from Sunday."
Under the $60 million cleanup program, homeowners and businesses in and around Picher are being bought out, and the buildings will eventually be bulldozed. Some of the contaminated soil has already been hauled away; next to go are the 100-foot-high mountains of lead mining waste that loom over the town.
By early next year, Picher will be little more than a name on a map. From 20,000 people at its peak and about 1,700 when the buyouts started two or three years ago, about 80 are left.
Twister killed 6
Ray and a few dozen other people who had hoped to make a last stand here changed their minds after a tornado tore through Picher in May 2008, killing six people and leveling more than 100 homes.
"Dad had to say yes to a buyout," said his 62-year-old son, Steven. "I had damage. Wallpaper's buckling. I got to get the hell out of there."
Some guess as few as four residents, a dozen at most, will stay, in many cases because they are too stubborn or fearful or sentimental to move, despite buyout offers of around $60,000 for a modest house.
The people who do try to stay, like Jean Henson, will have to survive in a near-wasteland without utilities, police or laws.
"I grew up in the country; we had to haul water," said Henson, 58, who has asthma, emphysema and other ailments. "If I have to, I can do it again."
These are scenes from a town marking its final days: A dust-coated General Electric wall clock sits in a store window, its hands stopped at 2:20. Dogs and cats roam Main Street, searching for scraps of food.
Hoppy's pool hall is one of the last places still open. The thrift store is gone; so is the post office. The schools closed in July, and City Hall will be shuttered by September. Most of the traffic through Picher comes from the dump trucks hauling tons of lead waste.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently warned those who stay behind that the water will eventually be shut off.
"Some people still just don't believe it," said Larry Roberts, operations manager of the federal fund that helps families move out of lead-polluted communities. "I guess when the taps are shut off, they'll realize the situation they're in."
Part of 40-square-mile Superfund site
Picher is probably among the bleakest, most contaminated spots in one of the biggest Superfund cleanup sites in the country, a 40-square-mile expanse of former lead- and zinc-mining towns that extends into Missouri and Kansas. Within that zone, the creek spews orange from pollution, mine cave-ins and sinkholes threaten, and lead dust has fouled nearly everything.
At the pool hall, Ray recalled the glory days in Picher before the mines closed nearly 40 years ago: The football game in which Picher's broad-shouldered mining boys demolished a neighboring town's team 115-0. The one-room houses on Fourth Street that made up the red-light district. The saloons with names like the Bloody Knuckle.
The pool hall doubles as a museum. Hardhats line the walls, and hunks of calcite, dolomite and galena hewn from the town's mines are displayed in a glass case as if they were championship trophies.
"This is Dad's life," said his son, who is also waiting to be bought out. "This is the heart and soul of who he is."
But now the crusty, 84-year-old former miner is moving out, leaving behind a blighted, ghostly landscape, its soil, water and air poisoned by generations of lead-ore extraction that produced bullets for both world wars.
After two heart attacks and a tornado that badly damaged his house, Ray lost whatever fight he had left and decided to accept a government buyout, as nearly all his neighbors in Picher have already done.
"You can't fight City Hall," said Ray, who worked Picher's lead mines in the 1940s and, for now, runs a musty pool hall on the main drag. "They've got you squeezed seven ways from Sunday."
Under the $60 million cleanup program, homeowners and businesses in and around Picher are being bought out, and the buildings will eventually be bulldozed. Some of the contaminated soil has already been hauled away; next to go are the 100-foot-high mountains of lead mining waste that loom over the town.
By early next year, Picher will be little more than a name on a map. From 20,000 people at its peak and about 1,700 when the buyouts started two or three years ago, about 80 are left.
Twister killed 6
Ray and a few dozen other people who had hoped to make a last stand here changed their minds after a tornado tore through Picher in May 2008, killing six people and leveling more than 100 homes.
"Dad had to say yes to a buyout," said his 62-year-old son, Steven. "I had damage. Wallpaper's buckling. I got to get the hell out of there."
Some guess as few as four residents, a dozen at most, will stay, in many cases because they are too stubborn or fearful or sentimental to move, despite buyout offers of around $60,000 for a modest house.
The people who do try to stay, like Jean Henson, will have to survive in a near-wasteland without utilities, police or laws.
"I grew up in the country; we had to haul water," said Henson, 58, who has asthma, emphysema and other ailments. "If I have to, I can do it again."
These are scenes from a town marking its final days: A dust-coated General Electric wall clock sits in a store window, its hands stopped at 2:20. Dogs and cats roam Main Street, searching for scraps of food.
Hoppy's pool hall is one of the last places still open. The thrift store is gone; so is the post office. The schools closed in July, and City Hall will be shuttered by September. Most of the traffic through Picher comes from the dump trucks hauling tons of lead waste.
The Environmental Protection Agency recently warned those who stay behind that the water will eventually be shut off.
"Some people still just don't believe it," said Larry Roberts, operations manager of the federal fund that helps families move out of lead-polluted communities. "I guess when the taps are shut off, they'll realize the situation they're in."
Part of 40-square-mile Superfund site
Picher is probably among the bleakest, most contaminated spots in one of the biggest Superfund cleanup sites in the country, a 40-square-mile expanse of former lead- and zinc-mining towns that extends into Missouri and Kansas. Within that zone, the creek spews orange from pollution, mine cave-ins and sinkholes threaten, and lead dust has fouled nearly everything.
At the pool hall, Ray recalled the glory days in Picher before the mines closed nearly 40 years ago: The football game in which Picher's broad-shouldered mining boys demolished a neighboring town's team 115-0. The one-room houses on Fourth Street that made up the red-light district. The saloons with names like the Bloody Knuckle.
The pool hall doubles as a museum. Hardhats line the walls, and hunks of calcite, dolomite and galena hewn from the town's mines are displayed in a glass case as if they were championship trophies.
"This is Dad's life," said his son, who is also waiting to be bought out. "This is the heart and soul of who he is."
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Water problems from drilling are more frequent than PA officials said.
When methane began bubbling out of kitchen taps near a gas drilling site in PA last winter, a state regulator described the problem as "an anomaly." But the same official was simultaneously investigating similar cases in over a dozen homes across the state.
In fact, methane related to the natural gas industry has contaminated water wells in at least seven Pennsylvania counties since 2004 and is common enough that the state hired a full-time inspector dedicated to the issue in 2006. In one case, methane was detected in water sampled over 15 square miles. In another, a methane leak led to an explosion that killed a couple and their 17-month-old grandson.
In fact, methane related to the natural gas industry has contaminated water wells in at least seven Pennsylvania counties since 2004 and is common enough that the state hired a full-time inspector dedicated to the issue in 2006. In one case, methane was detected in water sampled over 15 square miles. In another, a methane leak led to an explosion that killed a couple and their 17-month-old grandson.
One Billion People Go Hungry - Food, Funds in Short Supply
A billion people around the world are going hungry every day, but the world's response to their urgent need for food is flagging, so critical food assistance is already being cut, the head of the world's largest humanitarian organization is warning.
World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran said Thursday the UN agency aims to feed 108 million hungry people in 74 countries this year, but is facing "dangerous and unprecedented" funding shortfalls.
"Our budget for this year of assessed and approved needs is US$6.7 billion and we expect from our projections and working with government to come in at 3.7 billion," Sheeran said at a press briefing in Washington ahead of meetings at the White House.
The World Food Programme is funded entirely through voluntary contributions, most of which come from governments.
"We are actively cutting $3 billion of our program, which means a reduction in rations and programs throughout the world, including those to the world's most vulnerable people," said Sheeran, a former U.S. under secretary for economic, business, and agricultural affairs in the State Department during the administration of President George W. Bush.
In Bangladesh, home to some of the world's hungriest people, a WFP programme set up to give meals to 300,000 children in school will now reach only 70,000, Sheeran said
In Guatemala, funding shortfalls could mean that in August, around 100,000 children under the age of five, and 50,000 pregnant and lactating women are going to lose their supply of Vitacereal – a nutritious blend of maize, soy and micronutrients.
In Kenya, hunger is on the rise following the failure of the long-rains season in marginal agricultural lowlands and pastoral areas. WFP will run short of cereals in August, and the 3.2 million Kenyans living in arid and semi-arid areas who had been receiving a normal ration will now face reductions in the amount of food they are given.
In Zimbabwe, food insecurity persists despite improvements in agricultural production and a more liberal import policy this year, according to a report issued in June by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme. The report estimates that 2.8 million people will face food shortages in the coming year.
Sheeran said the world is "rightly" looking for sustainable solutions to the world hunger problem and she commended the Group of Eight industrialized democracies for their $20 billion pledge to boost global food security made earlier this month at the G8 meeting in Italy.
She said the pledge, which focused on agricultural development, showed that the industrialized world "takes the food security issue seriously."
The G8 countries committed to a goal of mobilizing $20 billion over three years "through a coordinated, comprehensive strategy focused on sustainable agriculture development, while keeping a strong commitment to ensure adequate emergency food aid assistance," the government leaders said in their declaration.
While welcoming the G8 pledge, Sheeran said the world needs to recognize the urgent need to buy food for distribution to the people suffering from hunger and poverty, whose number now exceeds one billion.
"The problem is not all about agricultural yields," Sheeran said. "The challenge is people cannot get access to food – whether because of poor infrastructure or because they can't afford it."
Food security has many environmental dimensions, the G8 leaders recognized. "Effective food security actions must be coupled with adaptation and mitigation measures in relation to climate change, sustainable management of water, land, soil and other natural resources, including the protection of biodiversity," they declared.
The food crisis is not over in the developing world, WFP analysis confirms. In fact, the situation is more alarming in many countries than it was a year ago as the impact of high food prices is compounded by the recent financial crisis, Sheeran said.
New data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization suggests food prices are higher today than a year ago, at the height of the global food crisis, in more than 80 percent of developing countries.
Sheeran, who praised the Obama administration for prioritizing the issue of food security, is in Washington to urge policymakers to keep focused on urgent hunger needs as they seek to craft long-term solutions to hunger.
Looking forward to September's G20 meeting in Pittsburg, which will be chaired by President Barack Obama, she said WFP is calling upon the group "to take action not only on the financial crisis, but also on hunger."
The United States is the world's largest food aid donor and provides approximately half of all food aid to vulnerable populations throughout the world.
U2 singer Bono Vox, widely known for his determination to find solutions to the problems afflicting Africa, got an update on global hunger Sunday in a backstage meeting with Sheeran, before the Irish band's sold-out concert at Amsterdam's ArenA stadium.
During their meeting, Sheeran gave the singer one of the distinctive red cups which symbolize WFP's Fill the Cup campaign to raise funds to help the 66 million children in the world who go to school hungry.
Bono acknowledged that the number of hungry people in the world is “rising fast” and expressed admiration for WFP's work providing free meals to more than 20 million children in school every year
World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran said Thursday the UN agency aims to feed 108 million hungry people in 74 countries this year, but is facing "dangerous and unprecedented" funding shortfalls.
"Our budget for this year of assessed and approved needs is US$6.7 billion and we expect from our projections and working with government to come in at 3.7 billion," Sheeran said at a press briefing in Washington ahead of meetings at the White House.
The World Food Programme is funded entirely through voluntary contributions, most of which come from governments.
"We are actively cutting $3 billion of our program, which means a reduction in rations and programs throughout the world, including those to the world's most vulnerable people," said Sheeran, a former U.S. under secretary for economic, business, and agricultural affairs in the State Department during the administration of President George W. Bush.
In Bangladesh, home to some of the world's hungriest people, a WFP programme set up to give meals to 300,000 children in school will now reach only 70,000, Sheeran said
In Guatemala, funding shortfalls could mean that in August, around 100,000 children under the age of five, and 50,000 pregnant and lactating women are going to lose their supply of Vitacereal – a nutritious blend of maize, soy and micronutrients.
In Kenya, hunger is on the rise following the failure of the long-rains season in marginal agricultural lowlands and pastoral areas. WFP will run short of cereals in August, and the 3.2 million Kenyans living in arid and semi-arid areas who had been receiving a normal ration will now face reductions in the amount of food they are given.
In Zimbabwe, food insecurity persists despite improvements in agricultural production and a more liberal import policy this year, according to a report issued in June by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme. The report estimates that 2.8 million people will face food shortages in the coming year.
Sheeran said the world is "rightly" looking for sustainable solutions to the world hunger problem and she commended the Group of Eight industrialized democracies for their $20 billion pledge to boost global food security made earlier this month at the G8 meeting in Italy.
She said the pledge, which focused on agricultural development, showed that the industrialized world "takes the food security issue seriously."
The G8 countries committed to a goal of mobilizing $20 billion over three years "through a coordinated, comprehensive strategy focused on sustainable agriculture development, while keeping a strong commitment to ensure adequate emergency food aid assistance," the government leaders said in their declaration.
While welcoming the G8 pledge, Sheeran said the world needs to recognize the urgent need to buy food for distribution to the people suffering from hunger and poverty, whose number now exceeds one billion.
"The problem is not all about agricultural yields," Sheeran said. "The challenge is people cannot get access to food – whether because of poor infrastructure or because they can't afford it."
Food security has many environmental dimensions, the G8 leaders recognized. "Effective food security actions must be coupled with adaptation and mitigation measures in relation to climate change, sustainable management of water, land, soil and other natural resources, including the protection of biodiversity," they declared.
The food crisis is not over in the developing world, WFP analysis confirms. In fact, the situation is more alarming in many countries than it was a year ago as the impact of high food prices is compounded by the recent financial crisis, Sheeran said.
New data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization suggests food prices are higher today than a year ago, at the height of the global food crisis, in more than 80 percent of developing countries.
Sheeran, who praised the Obama administration for prioritizing the issue of food security, is in Washington to urge policymakers to keep focused on urgent hunger needs as they seek to craft long-term solutions to hunger.
Looking forward to September's G20 meeting in Pittsburg, which will be chaired by President Barack Obama, she said WFP is calling upon the group "to take action not only on the financial crisis, but also on hunger."
The United States is the world's largest food aid donor and provides approximately half of all food aid to vulnerable populations throughout the world.
U2 singer Bono Vox, widely known for his determination to find solutions to the problems afflicting Africa, got an update on global hunger Sunday in a backstage meeting with Sheeran, before the Irish band's sold-out concert at Amsterdam's ArenA stadium.
During their meeting, Sheeran gave the singer one of the distinctive red cups which symbolize WFP's Fill the Cup campaign to raise funds to help the 66 million children in the world who go to school hungry.
Bono acknowledged that the number of hungry people in the world is “rising fast” and expressed admiration for WFP's work providing free meals to more than 20 million children in school every year
SF eyes UN Climate Center at polluted shipyard
Mayor Gavin Newsom and the United Nations are eyeing a former naval shipyard contaminated by radiation, heavy metals and other industrial toxins as the future site of a sprawling new green technology complex and climate change think tank.
The proposal would turn a section of the Hunters Point Shipyard, one of the most polluted places in the nation according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, into a UN "Global Compact Center" meant to help solve the world's pollution dilemmas and foster clean tech business.
The city hopes to start construction on the center in 2011 and open its doors in 2012. But the project faces many hurdles before it can be realized, including the completion of a complex environmental cleanup, the approval of the city's Board of Supervisors and finding investors.
The U.S. Navy, EPA and state regulators have been working to clean up toxins from the site since the early 1990s and have spent more than $500 million so far. Once finished, the land would be transferred to the city.
"Our current schedule is that the land will be ready to transfer to the city of San Francisco in the middle of 2012," said Mark Ripperda, EPA's project manager for the site. "Timelines can always be changed, but that schedule is pretty solid."
That makes the city's planned 2012 opening unlikely, but officials said the Navy could allow some construction to start before regulators finish their work.
The parcel of land the UN center would occupy would have more than two million square feet of commercial space in a campus-like setting, with views across the bay and to downtown San Francisco. The site would feature a conference center, UN office buildings and have an estimated cost of at least $20 million.
"California, in general, and San Francisco, in particular, has been at the forefront of environmental sustainability and justice for many years and all of the right ingredients are here," said Gavin Power, deputy director of the UN Global Compact.
The shipyard is located next to Candlestick Point, the current home of the San Francisco 49ers, who are planning to leave the city for a new stadium being planned down the peninsula, in the city of Santa Clara.
On Thursday, the same day the mayor announced the proposed UN center, Santa Clara released an environmental impact report for the 49ers' new stadium, moving the team one step closer to leaving.
Newsom has been clear in his desire to keep the 49ers in San Francisco, and the timing of his proposal for a new, high-profile tenant at the site made clear the city is planning to move on with or without the team.
"If the Niners come, they are perfectly compatible," said Michael Cohen, the mayor's director of economic and work force development. "If not, the 25 acres dedicated to the stadium site can be used for a range of alternative purposes."
The UN Center and a future stadium would be key parts of San Francisco's plan to redevelop the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhoods, a project Cohen called "the most important development project in city history."
Voters have approved the redevelopment plan, which is expected to create more than 10,000 new homes, parks and retail space.
The idea that the shipyard would finally be cleaned up led some members of the Hunters Point-Bayview community to greet the proposal with open arms.
"Environmental justice entails not just having the shipyard cleaned up, but also revitalizing to create jobs and parks and affordable housing," Veronica Hunnicutt, chair of the mayor's Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee, said in a statement.
The proposal would turn a section of the Hunters Point Shipyard, one of the most polluted places in the nation according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, into a UN "Global Compact Center" meant to help solve the world's pollution dilemmas and foster clean tech business.
The city hopes to start construction on the center in 2011 and open its doors in 2012. But the project faces many hurdles before it can be realized, including the completion of a complex environmental cleanup, the approval of the city's Board of Supervisors and finding investors.
The U.S. Navy, EPA and state regulators have been working to clean up toxins from the site since the early 1990s and have spent more than $500 million so far. Once finished, the land would be transferred to the city.
"Our current schedule is that the land will be ready to transfer to the city of San Francisco in the middle of 2012," said Mark Ripperda, EPA's project manager for the site. "Timelines can always be changed, but that schedule is pretty solid."
That makes the city's planned 2012 opening unlikely, but officials said the Navy could allow some construction to start before regulators finish their work.
The parcel of land the UN center would occupy would have more than two million square feet of commercial space in a campus-like setting, with views across the bay and to downtown San Francisco. The site would feature a conference center, UN office buildings and have an estimated cost of at least $20 million.
"California, in general, and San Francisco, in particular, has been at the forefront of environmental sustainability and justice for many years and all of the right ingredients are here," said Gavin Power, deputy director of the UN Global Compact.
The shipyard is located next to Candlestick Point, the current home of the San Francisco 49ers, who are planning to leave the city for a new stadium being planned down the peninsula, in the city of Santa Clara.
On Thursday, the same day the mayor announced the proposed UN center, Santa Clara released an environmental impact report for the 49ers' new stadium, moving the team one step closer to leaving.
Newsom has been clear in his desire to keep the 49ers in San Francisco, and the timing of his proposal for a new, high-profile tenant at the site made clear the city is planning to move on with or without the team.
"If the Niners come, they are perfectly compatible," said Michael Cohen, the mayor's director of economic and work force development. "If not, the 25 acres dedicated to the stadium site can be used for a range of alternative purposes."
The UN Center and a future stadium would be key parts of San Francisco's plan to redevelop the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhoods, a project Cohen called "the most important development project in city history."
Voters have approved the redevelopment plan, which is expected to create more than 10,000 new homes, parks and retail space.
The idea that the shipyard would finally be cleaned up led some members of the Hunters Point-Bayview community to greet the proposal with open arms.
"Environmental justice entails not just having the shipyard cleaned up, but also revitalizing to create jobs and parks and affordable housing," Veronica Hunnicutt, chair of the mayor's Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee, said in a statement.
Queen may open Sandringham path under Marine and Coastal Access Bill
The Queen is likely to be one the first landowners to open up private land, on her Sandringham estate, as part of a plan to create a new path around the English coast.
The stretch from King’s Lynn to Hunstanton along the North Norfolk coast has no legal right of way and has been identified as a priority for access by ramblers and the Government’s conservation advisers.
New laws under the Marine and Coastal Access Bill to open up beaches, inlets and clifftops out of bounds to walkers and tourists will come into force in November. Officials from Natural England will then start drawing up detailed plans for the coastal path in consultation with landowners. The scheme is to cost £50 million over the next ten years.
Maps published today show for the first time the scale of the project. They reveal that a third of the 2,748 miles of coastline is closed to the public. They also show that many miles of footpaths already open to walkers could vanish into the sea within 20 years because of erosion. The powers will allow Natural England to identify “spreading room” next to such paths so that they can be moved back over the decades.
Officials have conducted an audit of every section of the English coast and found that people mostly can walk only about two miles before their path is blocked, either because it is too dangerous or it is on private land.
Owners will now be identified to see how best the trail can continue. Private gardens are exempt, and restrictions are often necessary on Ministry of Defence land. Routes may also have to be closed for conservation reasons or for public safety.
Poul Christiansen, acting chairman of Natural England, said that he hoped most areas would welcome the extra income and visitors that a path would attract. A coastal path in the South West, for example, generates £300 million a year for the rural economy, and 76 per cent of the coast in the region is open for walkers.
Mr Christiansen described the sea view trail as “visionary and iconic” and said that it would add enormously to the experience of people visiting the coast. “We are an island, and therefore the sea is and always has been extremely important to us. Millions of us visit it every year,” he said.
The Ramblers Association has led the campaign to open up the coast and is particularly keen to have access to private beaches such as the one at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, one of Queen Victoria’s favourite retreats, owned by English Heritage. Tom Franklin, the association’s chief executive, said: “Access to our coast is vulnerable and fragmented. The public needs the Government to hold firm and introduce legislation that will make access to our coast the envy of Europe and the world.”
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said that managers at the Sandringham estate were willing to discuss proposals for the path. Among other coastal scenery on the wish list for ramblers are the Holker Hall estate on the Cumbrian coastal path, owned by the Duke of Devonshire; a private beach along the Beaulieu river owned by the Beaulieu estate, in Hampshire; and Pilling Bank, near Cockerham Sands, Lancashire, where the local authority has banned a right of way along flood defences.
The stretch from King’s Lynn to Hunstanton along the North Norfolk coast has no legal right of way and has been identified as a priority for access by ramblers and the Government’s conservation advisers.
New laws under the Marine and Coastal Access Bill to open up beaches, inlets and clifftops out of bounds to walkers and tourists will come into force in November. Officials from Natural England will then start drawing up detailed plans for the coastal path in consultation with landowners. The scheme is to cost £50 million over the next ten years.
Maps published today show for the first time the scale of the project. They reveal that a third of the 2,748 miles of coastline is closed to the public. They also show that many miles of footpaths already open to walkers could vanish into the sea within 20 years because of erosion. The powers will allow Natural England to identify “spreading room” next to such paths so that they can be moved back over the decades.
Officials have conducted an audit of every section of the English coast and found that people mostly can walk only about two miles before their path is blocked, either because it is too dangerous or it is on private land.
Owners will now be identified to see how best the trail can continue. Private gardens are exempt, and restrictions are often necessary on Ministry of Defence land. Routes may also have to be closed for conservation reasons or for public safety.
Poul Christiansen, acting chairman of Natural England, said that he hoped most areas would welcome the extra income and visitors that a path would attract. A coastal path in the South West, for example, generates £300 million a year for the rural economy, and 76 per cent of the coast in the region is open for walkers.
Mr Christiansen described the sea view trail as “visionary and iconic” and said that it would add enormously to the experience of people visiting the coast. “We are an island, and therefore the sea is and always has been extremely important to us. Millions of us visit it every year,” he said.
The Ramblers Association has led the campaign to open up the coast and is particularly keen to have access to private beaches such as the one at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, one of Queen Victoria’s favourite retreats, owned by English Heritage. Tom Franklin, the association’s chief executive, said: “Access to our coast is vulnerable and fragmented. The public needs the Government to hold firm and introduce legislation that will make access to our coast the envy of Europe and the world.”
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said that managers at the Sandringham estate were willing to discuss proposals for the path. Among other coastal scenery on the wish list for ramblers are the Holker Hall estate on the Cumbrian coastal path, owned by the Duke of Devonshire; a private beach along the Beaulieu river owned by the Beaulieu estate, in Hampshire; and Pilling Bank, near Cockerham Sands, Lancashire, where the local authority has banned a right of way along flood defences.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)