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EPA SEEKS FINES FROM NAVY FOR HUNTERS POINT FIRE

Release Date: 6/7/2001
Contact Information: Leo Kay, Press Office, 415/744-2201

     SAN FRANCISCO   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency informed the Navy today that it will seek a $25,000 penalty for the Navy's two week delay in notifying the EPA and the community of a landfill fire at the Hunters Shipyard last August.

     Although the Navy learned of the landfill fire on the southern edge of the property on Aug. 16, neither the EPA nor people living in nearby neighborhoods were notified until Aug. 31.  The late notice violated a formal agreement that the EPA, the Navy and the state of California have signed that outlines roles and responsibilities of the respective agencies, and enforceable cleanup deadlines.

     After being notified, the EPA immediately directed the Navy to install air monitors around the landfill to monitor potential emissions from the fire.  Sampling results showed showed low levels of benzene emitting into the air.  

     "While we usually exercise discretion in seeking penalties from our federal partners, the Navy could, and should, have acted quicker to notify the regulators and the community of last summer's landfill fire.  The Department of Defense should be held at the same level of accountability as responsible parties at private sites," said Dan Meer, the EPA's chief of federal facility Superfund sites in California.

     The fire broke out on an old landfill called Parcel E, which is believed to be contaminated with metals, solvents and other industrial debris.  The Navy is still characterizing the nature and extent of contamination in the landfill.

     The EPA designated the Hunters Point Shipyard as a federal Superfund site in 1991.  Parcel E is one of six parcels on the 934-acre shipyard that may require additional cleanup.
                               
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