GREENACTION FOR HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, Petitioner, v. TETRA TECH EC, Inc. Licensee.

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic, Golden Gate University School of Law

Abstract

Led by our clinic professor, Steve Castleman, our clinic filed a student-researched petition before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, seeking to have the agency responsible for nuclear safety revoke a nuclear materials license held by a company that is responsible for cleaning up the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. We got great media coverage. In the coverage done by NBC Investigative Unit, which also covered the clinic’s work on pollution in Hunters Point last month, reporter Liz Wagner is holding up the petition that the clinic filed.

The shipyard is slated for commercial and residential development. The cleanup contractor, Tetra Tech, whose license that the clinic is seeking to revoke, admitted to defrauding the government in its purported cleanup of the shipyard. NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit has done a number of stories over the last four years uncovering the fraud. But our petition, filed on behalf of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, paints the most comprehensive picture to date of the fraud, which spanned at least six years and casts doubt on the integrity of the cleanup. Steve, our staff attorney, told the press that the agencies involved in cleanup – the Navy and US EPA – have failed to hold the cleanup contractor responsible. Instead it fell on the community, whistleblowers and our students to take action. Steve pointed out that regulators must talk to as many former employees as they can, starting with the seven former employees the clinic interviewed during our semester-long investigation. As we learned, former employees are the ones who truly know the extent of the fraud and can help ensure the cleanup is done properly.

Additional media coverage has been on SF Chronicle, Channel 2, and ABC. Those wanting to publicize this coverage should contact me so that we can get the story out accurately, which is always important to us.