Posted on Sun, Jul. 07, 2002

Zeneca, UC Berkeley clear decades of industrial filth

By Greg Cannon

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

A loose history of California and the nation can be read in the patchwork of industry and homes that grew up along the Richmond shoreline, from Point Isabel to Point Richmond, over the last century.

In the 1800s, with the Gold Rush in full swing, the area then known as Stege, in the elbow of the Bay shore, became home to blasting cap makers and powder works that supplied Sierra mines.

After the turn of the century, companies such as Stauffer Chemical set up shop there and produced the sulfur dioxide and other chemical ingredients that fueled the nation's expanding industrial base.

World War II brought the giant Kaiser shipyards and housing for the people who worked there. Now, as industry continues to move away, the shoreline is being prized more for its million-dollar views of the Bay, San Francisco and Marin County as pricey homes and offices move into the area.

That the bulk of this industrial activity occurred before the era of modern environmental laws makes for a legacy that is as polluted as it is interesting.

The cost and burden of cleaning up decades of industrial pollution falls to current property owners, Zeneca Corp., which recently closed its Western Research Center, and UC Berkeley, which runs a research field station next door.

All told, Zeneca and the university are working on a three-year, multimillion-dollar cleanup of their combined 200 acres. Given the variety of sources and pollutants, state environmental officials have described the job as one of the most complex they've seen.

Zeneca owns what was Stauffer Chemical, the company that residents of the former Seaport War Apartments remember as their neighbor during the 1940s and 50s.

At the time, Stauffer was producing sulfuric acid among other things. A ubiquitous ingredient in all types of industrial production, sulfuric acid was made by roasting iron pyrite. In addition to the acid, the process produced the rotten egg smell that Seaport residents recall so strongly. But cinders, another byproduct, have had a more lasting effect.

Commonly used as fill along the marshy edge of the two properties, the cinders are believed responsible for arsenic and lead detected by soil bores and sample wells. In addition to digging out and hauling off the most polluted soil, cleanup crews are using limestone to neutralize the old cinders. Other treatments are being applied to counter low pH levels.

Sulfuric acid production at the site ceased in the 1970s, Jane Anderson, Zeneca's environmental project manager said. Zeneca continued making pesticides and herbicides at what was known as the Western Research Center until 1997.

DDT, a long-banned pesticide, also has shown up in tests. Anderson said company records show no history of DDT production. Other small, defunct companies used to make pesticides on what is now Zeneca property, but Anderson said there's no sure way to trace all pollutants back to their source.

Much of the pollution at UC Berkeley's Richmond Field Station is attributed to mercury used by the former California Cap Co. to make blasting caps before the university bought the site in 1950.