The Department of Health Services has no record of this building, nor is there a record of follow-up investigation during the nine years since the site was identified by the Navy itself. Last August, the landfill at the Hunters Point Shipyard caught fire and burned for more than a month before federal and city firefighters could put it out. The Navy did not notify residents or city officials about the fire for nearly three weeks, until plumes of green and yellow smoke floated over the Bayview community that abuts the shipyard. The EPA and most of San Francisco's congressional delegation criticized the Navy for its handling of the matter. If the Navy has its way, no one ever will.
Contractors put a temporary cap on the site to put out the fire.
An official decision on the disposition of the landfill has not been made. Navy contractors have taken some samples around the perimeter of the area and a few in the middle, but the landfill itself has never been systematically analyzed. This would involve taking samples from the core of the landfill, which runs as deep as 49 feet. Mach says Navy contractors have done a walk-over survey of the landfill site, which would identify radiation down to about 18 inches below the surface, and also dug trenches about nine feet deep into the landfill, which were then surveyed for radiation. Through those mechanisms, you get a very good feel for the landfill.