Callaghan Hall Proposed as New Toxic Waste Site: Strawberry Canyon Secondary Option
Miranda Leitsinger, Daily Californian, September 20, 1994

The debate over the location of UC Berkeley's new toxic waste facility has taken a new turn with a university proposal that Callaghan Hall may be the best place to store as hazardous materials.

"We are looking closer at the feasibility of the Callaghan Hall site," said Katherine Mortimer, a senior planner with the office of physical and environmental planning.

"We are taking another step in the level of analysis," she added. "It seems it might be able to work."

Callaghan Hall currently houses the Reserve Officers Training Corps and is located next to the campus heating plant. If selected as the new site, Callaghan would house low-level radioactive waste and unwanted chemicals generated by the campus.

Some people have questioned whether the Callaghan site is safe because it is in the middle of a populated campus.

But Susan Spencer, director of the university's office of environment, health and safety, said a study has shown that regardless of where an alternate facility would be located, the "potential for release and exposure is very small."

Consequently, "this discovery has led to open up additional sites for the facility," she said. The search for alternate sites comes 20 years after the university began operating the Canyon Chemical Facility in the hills above Memorial Stadium. The facility, which is home to 110 tons of toxic waste each year, can no longer handle the volume and types of toxic waste.

The focus on Callaghan comes as an about-face after a year of serious consideration of a site in Strawberry Canyon for UC Berkeley's new $9.5 million facility.

The university has encountered strong opposition to the Strawberry Canyon site. Several environmental groups have formed a coalition called BAC-OUT (Bay Area Coalition Opposed to UC Toxics), applying pressure on the university to consider alternate sites.

L A Wood and Carolyn Erbele, two Berkeley activists who are members of BAC-OUT, have produced a 13-minute video entitled, "Campus Chemical Waste: Disaster in the Planning."

The video, which the activists debuted on Friday at City Hall, raises questions about the canyon site because of its proximity to the Hayward fault line -- just 1500 feet away ‹ and its location in areas known for mudslides and fires.

Among those featured in the video is Berkeley Fire Chief Gary Cates, who said the canyon site would be "contrary to the efforts made by the city to mitigate fire hazards."

Meanwhile, university officials have ordered a further study of the Callaghan site.

Although UC Berkeley was slated to make its recommendations about a final site to the UC Board of Regents in January, it may take longer before that happens, Mortimer said.

"If it gets to the point that we will offer Callaghan Hall as the site, (the recommendation) will be delayed."

Wood and Erbele are planning to show their video at the Sept. 27 meeting of the Berkeley City Council.

Two public hearings about the university's draft environmental impact report -- which includes the canyon and Callaghan Hall sites -- have been scheduled for Sept. 29. The hearings will take place in the International House at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.