An important update about the superfund-qualified Zeneca Site was given to local residents on April 9, concerning the presence of volatile organic compounds, chemicals that mix with the air and become gases. While the latest annual report published by the Zeneca corporation indicated the presence of these “VOCs” is going down, thanks to ongoing cleanup efforts, many locals and environmental groups are skeptical. 

What is the Zeneca Site?

The Zeneca Site (also known as the Campus Bay Site) is 86 acres of contaminated land near Meeker Slough in Richmond. Much of Stege Marsh is part of the Zeneca site. Even though it is “superfund qualified” and can be found on the EPA’s database of superfund sites, thanks to legal technicalities, it is not actually a superfund site (unlike the nearby United Heckathorn).

This legal technicality also means that, rather than the EPA supervising cleanup, it is California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) that has this responsibility. It was the DTSC, in conjunction with consulting company Arcadis, that gave the latest Zeneca update this April.

The toxins on the land today can be traced back to Stauffer Chemical in 1897, which built a chemical manufacturing plant there. The plant then went on to produce sulfuric acid, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. In addition to VOCs, the main subject of the presentation, the superfund-qualified site is also contaminated with dangerous pesticides like DDT and heavy metals like zinc, copper and arsenic.

There’s even radioactive waste there, thanks to Stauffer’s collaboration with the US Atomic Energy Commission during the Cold War. Pharmaceutical giant Zeneca (now called AstraZeneca) purchased the property in the 1980s, and they continued dumping chemicals off-site all the way up until 1997, when they abandoned the property.

There was an attempt made to clean up the site from 2002 to 2004, but, according to local residents and environmental groups, such as the Richmond Shoreline Alliance, many of the methods they used to clean up the site were either incomplete or ineffective.  The Richmond Shoreline Alliance is now one of the louder voices advocating for a more thorough cleanup. 

For example, a barrier cap was placed on top of the soil to prevent contamination, made of concrete and paper-mache. While the cap was only meant to be temporary, it has been sitting there for over two decades and has begun to show signs of deterioration. 

Environmental effects

Wildlife are affected by toxins when micro-organisms and plants like pickleweed take in contaminated water, become contaminated themselves, then move up the food chain as those micro-organisms and plants are eaten by other creatures. As a result, among documented problems in Stege Marsh are deformed fish with damaged reproductive organs, and fish getting tumors (yes, this can happen). 

Even those who don’t eat anything from the site — namely, humans — can still feel the effect of Zeneca’s legacy thanks to toxins making their way into the soil and groundwater.

Arsenic, one of the most common pollutants at the site, is well known to cause skin, lymph, liver, and lung cancer. So are many of the VOCs found at the Zeneca site, which can also do serious damage to the nervous, digestive and reproductive systems in humans. 

While it’s extremely difficult to trace an individual’s health problems to specific sites, many of those who lived by or even spent long periods of time near the Zeneca site developed cancer. 

This included Ethel Dotson, a local environmental activist who grew up in segregated housing near the site. After watching her mother and sister get sick, then die of cancer, she became a local environmental activist who was so passionate about getting the site cleaned up that she submitted 10 vials of her own blood to be tested in 2000. She, too, eventually died of cancer in 2007.

On April 9th, the Department of Toxic Substances Control held a presentation via Zoom based on the latest Annual Report published by Zeneca. According to them, the presence of VOCs is going down thanks to ongoing cleanup efforts — in some individual sites, down by 44% to 99% — however, many locals and environmental groups are skeptical. 

The Richmond Shoreline Alliance, for example, distributed their own “fact sheet” prior to the meeting, pointing out that only 53 out 120 injection wells had actually met cleanup goals. 

This is important because if not actively managed, VOCs can come back even after cleanup, in some cases, worse than before.

Carolyn Graves, a local resident at the meeting, spoke up about one particular VOC in particular, vinyl chloride. Vinyl chloride can cause brain, lung, and liver cancer, and even being around it for short periods of time can cause dizziness, nausea, as well as skin and eye irritation. Because of vinyl chloride and the ability of VOCs to come back, Graves gave a stark warning. 

“If for any reason this process stalls, we’re at a more dangerous spot than before,” Graves said. 

As part of their efforts to advocate for a more thorough cleanup, the Richmond Shoreline Alliance offers both virtual and occasional in-person tours of the Zeneca site. Kevin Ruano Hernandez, the Community Engagement Associate for the Richmond Shoreline Alliance, also serves as one of those tour guides.

“It’s good to talk about it, but at the end of the day, it’s all pretty depressing,” said Ruano Hernandez. 

What’s happening now?

While ideas of turning the Zeneca site into a mixed-use housing development had been documented as early as 2016, when Shoppoff Reality Investments (a real estate company based in Irvine, California) purchased the site in 2019, they became concrete. 

Despite restrictions on any residential use going back all the way back to 2004, Richmond’s city council still approved a vote to build the mixed-use housing complex directly on top of Zeneca. The Richmond Shoreline Alliance has been very active in trying to inform the community about the site’s existence, where current cleanup efforts stand, and opposing any plans for housing without a thorough cleanup. 

According to Richmondside, a lawsuit against the DTSC and the City of Richmond was filed on behalf of various environmental groups and residents in 2021. Though the lawsuit against the DTSC was said to be of “no merit”, the one against the City of Richmond has been appealed and is on the books awaiting California’s Supreme Court. Development has stalled as a result, and while there is no active construction happening on the site right now, it has not been outright cancelled either. 

During an in-person tour of the Zeneca site, Ruano Hernandez got personal and gave his own perspective on the Zeneca site and why the organization puts such an emphasis on it. 

“First, environmental justice just isn’t a focal point. Marginalized folks today, they’re not prioritized,” Ruano Hernandez said. Even so, “Richmond, Antioch, East and West Oakland, those communities deserved to be cleaned, too.”