UC Berkeley Looks at Alternate Place to Store Toxic Waste
William Brand, Oakland Tribune, September 17, 1994

After insisting for more than a year that the preferred site for a new toxic waste storage facility is Strawberry Canyon, UC Berkeley officials said Friday they are looking at an alternate site in the central campus area.

"We are seriously considering a location at Callahan Hall as an alternative to Strawberry Canyon," said David Duncan, who was acting director of environmental and physical planning at the University of California, Berkeley, on Friday in the absence of director Michael Dobbins.

Both sites were evaluated in an environmental impact report recently released by the university.

But Duncan said the university needs more detail on the Callahan site before a decision can be made. A further study of Callahan has been ordered.

A third site near Stanley Hall will not be studied further, he said. The university has stated consistently that it believes Strawberry Canyon is the best place for the $9 million, 18,000-square-foot temporary storage facility for toxic waste generated in university labs. It is intended to replace an older facility in the canyon.

The canyon site has been intensely criticized by environmentalists and Berkeley citizens, because it is 1,500 feet from the Hayward Fault and in an area of high fire risk.

Adding to the protest Friday, a 15-minute video prepared by two environmentalists warning of the dangers of the Strawberry location was shown on the steps of City Hall. An appreciative audience stopped to cheer.

As the camera pans out over the highly urban East Bay and then shows the Strawberry canyon site, a UC expert lists wastes to be stored in the facility -- 9000 different chemicals and 600 tons of low-level radioactive waste.

The video also features Berkeley Fire Chief Gary Gates illustrating the fire dangers of the Strawberry site. UC's Dobbins explains that the university worries about putting the toxics in the densely populated central campus, which has always been UC's objection to the Callahan site.

The video is scheduled to be shown to the Berkeley City Council Sept. 27.

The video producers, L A Wood and Carolyn Erbele, said they have invited Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien and other UC officials to watch the production. "So far, nobody from UC has taken us up," Wood said, "But I think we've had an impact. Today was the first time I ever heard a UC official say they were seriously considering a site other than Strawberry."