Cleanup Activities – Alameda Point Environmental Report

Chevron’s tardy cleanup could lose Pacific Fusion deal for Alameda

Cleaning up buried tar left behind by an oil refinery at Alameda Point in the early 1900s did not appear to be a top priority until startup company Pacific Fusion came to City Hall in 2024 with a proposal to purchase about 12 acres of land, including the area where the old refinery was located. The proposal involves building a demonstration research facility, with $900 million in investment capital to back them up.

Two years earlier, in 2022, the Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) had reached a voluntary agreement with Chevron, which bought the refinery in the early 1900s and subsequently closed it down, to clean up the site to meet regulatory standards. But Chevron’s two deadlines for producing a cleanup plan, the first on February 28, 2025, and the second on July 18, 2025, were not met.

PFAS contamination successfully blocked from entering Oakland Estuary

On July 23, 2025, the Navy released the results of its pilot study to determine if injecting a specialized carbon solution into the ground would block hazardous PFAS chemicals from migrating into the Oakland Estuary from Alameda Point.

The area at issue, a stone’s throw from the estuary, had once been used by Navy firefighters to practice putting out fires with firefighting foam that contained PFAS chemicals. Scientists have figured out a way to contain, but not destroy, these hazardous chemicals. Follow-up groundwater samples show that the carbon barrier achieved between 99 percent and 100 percent reduction in PFAS moving beyond the barrier.

PFAS cleanup at Alameda Point unnecessarily delayed

A hazardous substance at Alameda Point would have been cleaned up by now if its manufacturer had not withheld negative health data, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had acted sooner. Instead, a whole new cleanup process has been launched by the Navy, which could take another five years.

The PFAS (Per- and Poly- Fluoro- Alkyl Substances) class of toxic chemicals have been known to be present at several isolated underground locations around Alameda Point for a long time. There is no alarming presence of PFAS or risk to the public. Nevertheless, now that PFAS has been designated a hazardous substance by the EPA, the Navy is required to conduct a time-consuming process for remediation.

Veggie oil, lactose key to cleaning up toxic groundwater at Alameda Point

There are faster ways to clean up industrial solvents in groundwater, but the only viable choice for a large contamination site at Alameda Point was to turn the job over to bacteria. Known as bioremediation, a unique bacteria is breaking apart the solvent trichloroethene (TCE), also known as trichloroethylene, into a harmless substance.

It takes time and the right conditions for the bacteria to thrive—namely, an absence of oxygen and the presence of a carbon source. Readily-available carbon sources to pump into the contamination area just happen to be soy vegetable oil and dairy lactose.

EPA’s PFAS Ruling Still Leaves Navy Hangar in Limbo

On April 19, 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) elevated the classification of PFAS chemicals from a “pollutant” to a “hazardous substance.” This should have come as good news to the City because the Navy will be forever responsible for any contamination problems that might arise later, making way for speeding up the city’s efforts to sell a valuable hangar at Alameda Point to gain revenue for replacing outdated and failing infrastructure. But, not so fast.

Transfer of Building 41 to City awaits Navy PFAS review

Because the former Naval Air Station, now known as Alameda Point, has been undergoing environmental cleanup under the jurisdiction of Superfund law, one of the rules requires that the Navy now complete a separate Record of Decision on PFAS before transferring Building 41, the hangar at the corner of West Tower Avenue and Ferry Point Road, to the City. Had PFAS been listed as a hazardous substance when the cleanup process started, the Navy would have dealt with it along the way by doing PFAS assessments, followed by remediation plans where PFAS is present.

Affordable housing construction begins by unearthing history

Heavy equipment arrived in early November at the corner of Lakehurst Circle and Mosley Avenue, two blocks away from Target, to begin construction of the first block of North Housing, a planned 12-acre affordable housing site owned by the City of Alameda Housing Authority.

The massive 10.5-foot-thick concrete base of the building, though dramatic in scale and ready for earthquakes and gro undwater rise, is only part of the story. The excavation and exposure of 13 feet of soil layers is a reminder, both figuratively and literally, of the 200 years of social, political, and geographical events that directly influenced what is happening here today.

This article highlights the history:

The days when the whole area was marshland;
Industrialization that brought pollution;
Filling in the marshland;
Navy ownership; and
National priorities and a social movement that laid the groundwork for today’s affordable housing plans.

PFAS remediation work underway next to Alameda Point shoreline

In late June, a Navy contractor began the month-long process of injecting over 180,000 gallons of activated carbon solution into the ground at Alameda Point to prevent a hazardous substance called PFAS (Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances) from entering the Oakland Estuary.