Navy Apologizes for 11-Month Delay in Reporting Radioactive Material at Hunters Point

The U.S. Navy apologized to city leaders during a San Francisco Board of Supervisors hearing on Monday for waiting 11 months before disclosing to residents that the agency had detected airborne radioactive material at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

The Navy alerted San Francisco health officials in October that it had discovered elevated levels of plutonium-239 in November of last year. The material is highly radioactive and used to create nuclear weapons. Breathing in tiny particles of the substance is dangerous over time and can cause health issues like lung cancer. Community groups and at least one San Francisco supervisor called the 11-month delay “unacceptable.”

The Navy found the sample in an area known as Parcel C, adjacent to a hill covered in condo buildings where hundreds of families live, and nearby a public park with a view of the shipyard. The Navy had previously cleared that area for redevelopment two decades ago.

Officials with the Navy told the supervisors that the sample posed “no health risk” to the public and said it was a hundredth of the radiation a person might receive during an X-ray.

Danielle Janda, base closure manager for the Navy at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, said the agency needed extra time to retest the sample and conduct a third-party audit of the laboratory where the test was conducted. She called the sample with a low level of plutonium an “outlier,” and said the Navy plans to improve communication by working with agencies and attending more local meetings.

“In this instance, we valued accuracy over timeliness,” Janda said. “It’s obvious that we lost trust in the community and are going to work with the community to get that trust back.”

Anthony Megliola, director of the U.S. Navy’s Base Realignment and Closure Program, acknowledged the delay created “concern and frustration” among regulators and the community.

“I take responsibility for this,” Megliola said. “We recognize this approach did not meet the community’s expectations for timely communication, and the long gap undermined trust.”

Shamman Walton, District 10 supervisor, said he appreciates the apology, but said this is “not the first time the Navy has lost the public’s trust.”

“I do appreciate you for coming, for owning up to the mistake, but again, apologies and admissions do not protect our community,” Walton said. “This should not happen, and we want to make sure that this does not happen.”

Susan Philip, health officer for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said federal rules require the Navy to notify state and local agencies and the public when a situation may pose a threat to the public. Even though the Navy found the sample posed no immediate public health issues, she said, her “greater concern, of course, is the delay in notifying the regulators, who are the ones who are to make that determination about safety.”

Michael Montgomery, director of the EPA’s Superfund and Emergency Management Division, said the Navy should have come to the agency earlier because its staff could have helped with testing and communicating with the public. He said the Navy is supposed to present these sorts of findings within two weeks.

“Unfortunately, the lack of transparency created a much bigger concern than it would have if we’d have been engaged early on and been able to do the risk communication,” Montgomery said.

Within 45 days, Montgomery said his agency will conduct an independent review.

When Supervisor Walton asked whether there were consequences for the Navy’s delayed reporting, Montgomery said there are generally penalties that could apply. Still, he can’t discuss them in this case.

District 10 resident Falaofuta Satele told Navy officials during the hearing that she “doesn’t trust” them and feels like officials are trying to “cover up” their findings by not providing direct answers to the community.

“We’re not frustrated, we’re alert,” Satele said. “We are not stupid, and please have some courtesy when you say transparent, please disclose with integrity.”

Joyce Armstrong, vice chair of the Hunters Point Shipyard Citizens Advisory Committee, said it doesn’t matter how low the sample reading was; the community is dissatisfied with how the Navy handled the findings. She called for an independent investigation and said the Navy’s lack of transparency is a “pattern.”

“It appears to us that this is a cover-up,” Armstrong said. “I don’t care how low [the levels are], we still want to know.”

The 866-acre Hunters Point site was home to a shipyard from 1945 to 1974 and the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory from 1948 to 1960. By decontaminating ships after atomic bomb tests and other activities, the Navy contaminated shipyard soil and groundwater — as well as surface water and sediment in the San Francisco Bay — with radioactive chemicals, heavy metals and petroleum fuels. The base was declared one of the nation’s most contaminated sites in 1989.

Back in 2022, the San Francisco Civil Grand Jury issued a report alerting the public that groundwater rise — a result of sea levels rising in response to global emissions melting ice caps and expanding oceans — could have significant effects on the site in the coming decades.

The new finding raises fresh questions about the city’s plans to build thousands of homes amid an exceedingly complex and ongoing cleanup effort. When finished, the 693-acre Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Shipyard project — which the Superfund site is part of — could have more than 10,000 housing units. The development would include two new waterfront neighborhoods with housing and retail, along with over 340 acres of parks and open space.