Cleanup at future Town Center – Alameda Point East Gate area

The city has announced that over 500 acres of land will be transferred from the Navy to the city on June 4, 2013.  It will be the first – and largest – of a four-phase schedule of land transfers to the city.  One of the areas that won’t be transferred this year is located at […]

Bird life on the Nature Reserve at Alameda Point

The Alameda City Council, on March 19, 2013, unanimously approved a resolution affirming support for a nature reserve at Alameda Point.  The resolution calls for a zoning designation of “Nature Reserve” for the runway area formerly proposed for a national wildlife refuge. After an impasse was reached in negotiations between the Navy and the US […]

Cleanup plan changes at waste burning area

It was the 1950s, before the environmental movement of the 1970s and the laws that followed in its wake.  Hauling waste materials out to the western shoreline of Alameda Point to be burned and bulldozed into the Bay was not considered irresponsible.  The “Burn Area,” as it is called, lies next to the shore near […]

Zone the wildlife refuge “Open Space”

Below is the draft of a city council resolution that has been introduced to the council by councilmembers Stewart Chen and Tony Daysog.  It is on the council agenda for 7 PM, Tuesday, February 19, 2013.  The community is urged to attend and voice their opinion.   The refuge has been home, harbor, and safe […]

Alameda Wildlife Refuge podcast

This interview with wildlife biologist Leora Feeney was done in 2008 as part of the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture’s “Your Wetlands” series. Click here, or on image below, to access the podcast. The only updates are that the Loggerhead Shrikes are no longer seen nesting on the western shoreline following cleanup work that was performed.  […]

Navy could shut down groundwater treatment at housing site

The Navy often hears calls to increase its environmental cleanup effort.  Now, the community and regulators are hearing a call from the Navy to eliminate one cleanup effort altogether. Since 2009, several acres of the area north of Bayport that includes the Shinsei Gardens affordable housing development, former Coast Guard and military housing, the closed […]

Color me pelican on a winter’s day at the Seaplane Lagoon

Alameda Point 2012 environmental cleanup review, and busy year ahead

Cleanup activity at Alameda Point in 2012 started where it left off in 2011 — at the Seaplane Lagoon.  The northwest corner of the lagoon was the site of the second and final phase of lagoon dredging, which targeted sediment that had been contaminated near storm drain outfalls.  With dredging completed by spring, the sight […]

Annual Audubon Society bird count includes Alameda Point wildlife refuge

On December 16, from before dawn until dusk, hundreds of hardy volunteer birders trekked through parks, neighborhoods, wetlands, and woods to count birds during the Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count in the East Bay.  In Alameda, three teams fanned out across the city.  One team went to Alameda Point.   Carrying binoculars, spotting scopes, […]

Navy and VA ignore economics, environment in killing Alameda National Wildlife Refuge

Once upon a time there was talk about a national wildlife refuge at Alameda Point.  It was included in the reuse plan for Naval Air Station (NAS)-Alameda that was accepted by the Department of Defense.  It was added to Alameda’s General Plan.  The US Fish & Wildlife Service was poised to be the owner and […]

Cleaning up radium paint contamination at Building 5

The middle of Building 5, in the mezzanine area, is where radium-226 luminescent paint was applied to aircraft dials and other devices from 1941 to the mid 1950s. The Navy plans to begin removing the radium contamination from the mezzanine area in December of 2012 or January of 2013.  The harmful health effects of radium […]

Runway soil cleanup underway on wildlife refuge

Some of the toxic contamination at Alameda Point is not the result of Naval operations. The Navy began cleaning up contaminated soil at five hot spots in the airplane runway area of Alameda Point in October.  Cleanup Site 33 – on the area commonly referred to as the wildlife refuge – encompasses the southern end […]