Tantalizingly located between San Francisco and Oakland, plans to redevelop the former Naval Base on Treasure Island circulated for at least 15 years before a $1.5 billion project was approved by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors last year.
However, redevelopment efforts have been dogged by the need to cleanup remnants of the island's past as a training facility and "ground zero for repairing, scrapping, recycling and incinerating material from ships that might have absorbed radiation from atomic bomb tests in the Pacific."
According to Matt Smith, "Although the Navy and one state agency say cleanup has been effective and remaining radiation levels are low, the state Department of Public Health expressed alarm as recently as May, saying earlier studies showing fewer radioactive sites led to a botched cleanup effort and the potential spread of contaminants both on and off the island."
"The findings," notes Smith, "appear likely to complicate the environmental cleanup and new construction on Treasure Island after years of debate – much of it shielded from the public – over the island's radioactive hazards."
