Yesterday, the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use Committee heard emotional testimony about dust and asbestos at the Hunters Point Shipyard, where the Lennar Corporation – under contract with the Redevelopment Agency – has excavated rock to build a massive condo complex. Health Department representatives were on hand to assure that, despite an admitted 3-month gap in monitoring, an excess in asbestos levels and Lennar’s non-compliance with dust abatement, the exposure was not toxic and there was no proof that health problems were caused by it. But plenty of residents testified that dust levels have correlated with a rise of asthma, as well as questioned allowing Lennar to continue the work without a moratorium to get an independent evaluation of the health risks involved.

But as the Board considers Chris Daly’s resolution urging the Health Department to halt construction on the premises, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell reminded the crowd that they really can’t do anything – they can only ask the Mayor to do the right thing. After all, the City allowed Redevelopment to take over land use decisions in Hunters Point, paving the way for Lennar to bulldoze and excavate the ground.

Sophie Maxwell called yesterday’s hearing after issues about toxic exposure were raised at a May 7th committee meeting, where the Board endorsed Lennar’s expansion. Maxwell called upon Public Health Director Mitch Katz to testify about his agency’s monitoring of the site – holding him responsible, she said, “because of the severity of the issues that this project brings to us.”

“The residents have legitimate concerns about the safety of the development,” said Katz, “because of health issues that have been true for twenty years.” With a long history of toxic cleanups at the Naval Shipyard and power plants, high rates of cancer and asthma are nothing new to the Bayview Hunters-Point community. “But we don’t feel that the development of this parcel is causing health problems,” said Katz.

That’s not what residents had to say during the public comment. Vivian Donohue has lived in Hunters Point for 27 years, but only recently developed headaches. Estelene Stamsel, who has lived there for 50 years and had friends who worked in the old Naval Shipyard die of asbestos, said that now dust from Lennar’s excavation site is “flying everywhere and the particles are getting into childrens’ lungs.” And Octavio Solorzano, a local high school basketball star, complained about the dust affecting his stamina. Once an Honors Student, Octavio’s grades have dipped since the construction began.

In their opening presentation, the Health Department staff acknowledged that there was a three-month period – from May to July 2006 – where the on-site monitor machines that are designed to track asbestos were not working. “If you expose the rock,” said Katz, “you will get naturally exposed asbestos” – but he doubted that the levels of exposure were significant enough to get alarmed. The maximum levels that the Health Department set, he explained, were so low so that exceeding them are not serious. “Under the worst case scenario,” he said, “we found no risk.”

Such words did not exactly impress the packed crowd. “Why should it always be a ‘worst-case scenario’ in Bayview-Hunters Point,” asked Jeffery Brammer. “My kids breathe the air. Our community has been beaten up too much.” Resident Damone Hale pointed out that Katz’s comments contradict what the Health Department says on its website. “There are no safe levels of asbestos,” he said. “Cancer may result from relatively light exposure to asbestos.”

Other speakers said that asbestos is only the invisible part of the problem – the more visible one is dust. “The people’s symptoms,” said Minister Christopher Muhammad, “are not asbestos. Asbestos has a twenty-year latency period. The problem that we’re seeing in Bayview-Hunters Point is dust-related.” And here, the Health Department admitted that Lennar was found out of compliance on three separate occasions for exposing the dust past the property line, and inadequately controlling its spread.

Among the Supervisors, Gerardo Sandoval – the only Land Use Committee member to oppose the Bayview Redevelopment Plan – was the most diligent at the hearing when it came to demanding answers from the staff and creating solutions. “I think the smart thing for the City to do,” he said, “is to find some kind of process that will restore trust in the community. If we don’t make progress on this, the whole project is headed for a train wreck. If we don’t do something, this project will get derailed.”

But the Supervisors are in a bind because with Hunters Point a Redevelopment Area, there isn’t much they can do. Chris Daly – who is not on the Land Use Committee but attended the hearing – presented a resolution that if passed, would put the Board on record urging the Health Department to halt Lennar’s construction site, and to contract with an independent entity to do a health assessment test. But as Maxwell pointed out, Daly’s resolution merely urges the Mayor to do so. “We can’t do anything,” she said.

“We’re here because of the misdeeds of Lennar,” said Brian O’Flynn, who has led the campaign to overturn the Bayview Redevelopment Plan. “And Lennar is here because of the Redevelopment Agency. We’ve seen the Redevelopment Agency is willing to give sweetheart deals to big developers. What we’ve done is render the community powerless. The solution we have is to terminate Redevelopment’s role in Bayview-Hunters Point.” With the Referendum to overturn the Redevelopment Plan tied up in court, such a goal will take a long time.

And for now, the community is upset while Lennar's dust cloud blows.

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