Alameda Point – Alameda Point Environmental Report

Harbor seals make use of commercial dock in Seaplane Lagoon

Over the years, harbor seal observers on the former Alameda Point Harbor Seal Monitors Facebook page often asked, “Do we need another harbor seal float?” It appears the seals have provided their own answer.

December is when the numbers of harbor seals start increasing at Alameda Point in anticipation of the winter herring spawning in the vicinity. The influx of seals leads to overcrowding on the specially built float near the ferry maintenance facility and Bay Trail. It has been happening since the harbor seal float was deployed in the summer of 2016. Again this December, the float has been fully occupied with as many as 75 seals (verified by numbering a printed photo) during part of the day and not an inch to spare.

Harbor seals arriving at Alameda Point this December found an alternative spot to the overcrowded float when they ventured into the nearby Seaplane Lagoon. Their additional haul-out location is on a plastic commercial dock owned by Saildrone, the maker of autonomous battery-powered boats capable of gathering marine scientific data around the world. Saildrone vessels, manufactured in a hangar on West Tower Avenue, can often be seen moored in their leased space in the Seaplane Lagoon.

City Council sidesteps community planning process for Enterprise Park

During a closed session meeting of the City Council on October 21, 2025, the council unanimously authorized city staff to prepare a long-term lease agreement with a private developer to build a commercial surf pool and associated amenities in Enterprise Park at Alameda Point. They did so, despite the fact that no community-at-large master planning process for this shoreline park, as was done with other parks, has ever been conducted to find out if Alamedans want a commercial enterprise of this type anchoring the park.

If the project moves forward, a significant part of this public parkland will become fenced off and privatized under a no-bid contract.

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.

Burst of new development activity underway at Alameda Point

The flurry of new development activity currently underway at Alameda Point is something that hasn’t been seen since 2018 when work began on the Site A residential and commercial project. The vast majority of demolition taking place is for long-awaited housing projects. But two buildings were taken down simply because they were unsafe, unusable eyesores. And a parking lot is being repurposed for the Food Bank’s new store.

Surf Pool Proposal Perverts Park Planning Process

Lost in the fog of media hoopla about a proposal to build a surf pool at Alameda Point is that its proposed location is within a larger public park awaiting a master plan. Normally the city initiates a formal consultant-led community process to develop a master plan design from scratch. In this case, the process is backwards and misleading.

At issue is the popular tranquil open space that extends from the Encinal Boat Ramp through the former campground all the way to the ferry maintenance facility. Its unofficial placeholder name is Enterprise Park.

Student volunteers lead litter cleanup around Seaplane Lagoon

Picking up litter year-round, not just on Earth Day, is an ongoing effort for some. On Saturday, April 12, dozens of students showed up at Seaplane Promenade Park at Alameda Point to pick up litter and trash from around the lagoon.

“We do these events once a month, every second Saturday,” said Patrick Hirsch, an Alameda high school student and one of the organizers of the event who works with two of the cleanup co-sponsors Community Action for a Sustainable Alameda (CASA) and Alameda Point business DOER Marine. “We supply the buckets and pickers.”