Video Opposing UC Waste Site Debuts Today:
Filmmakers Take Protest to Berkeley City Hall
Janet Wells, San Francisco Chronicle, September 16, 1994
Coming today at a theater near you -- or, at least the
steps of Berkeley's City Hall: the premiere showing of "Campus
Chemical Waste: Disaster in the Planning."
"This is a kickoff to mobilization," said Wood.
"Everyone says this is a NIMBY (not-in-my-back-yard) thing, but
it's an issue that has crossed the city and crossed the political lines.
We're trying to say that UC needs to change the decision-making process
and re-evaluate the sites."
The 13-minute production documents controversy over a
proposal by the University of California at Berkeley to build a $9.5
million hazardous-materials transfer facility in the rolling hills above
campus.
The video, by Berkeley activists L A Wood and Carolyn
Erbele, features comments from community and university officials with
footage of toxic storage containers looming behind cyclone fences and
shots of the 1991 fire raging through the East Bay hills.
Equipped with a video cassette recorder, a television
and a small gas generator, Wood and Erbele plan to show their low-budget
production from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today and again next week.
Berkeley hills neighbors have mustered support from city
officials, students, environmental leaders and city residents in opposing
the university's preferred plan for expanding its overloaded hazardous-waste
facility.
The university for more than 20 years has operated the
Canyon Chemical Facility in the hills above Memorial Stadium, where
110 tons of chemical and low-level radioactive waste generated each
year by hundreds of labs on campus are packaged. The facility stores
the materials for up to 90 days until trucks transport the containers
to recyclers and dumps around the country.
With the amount of scientific research increasing on campus
and more demanding regulations on waste handling, the university needs
a more sophisticated and roomier facility.
A draft environmental impact report released last month
identified a site one-quarter of a mile away from the current facility
as the best spot for expansion.
But community advocates say the site is too close to houses
and in an area prone to fires, earthquakes and mudslides.
Berkeley Fire Chief Gary Cates, speaking in the video,
agreed: "If the university is successful in locating the site here,
it will be contrary to the efforts made by the city to mitigate fire
hazards."
Community advocates have called on the university to respond
to its waste-handling problems by reducing the amount produced and by
putting the new transfer facility on campus close to labs.
"We do want to replace the current facility, but
we are responsive to the community," said Michael Dobbins, the
university's director of physical and environmental planning.
"It's important for the public to understand that
the Callaghan Hall site (on campus) is a serious option that we will
be studying more over the next few weeks."
Public hearings on the draft environmental impact
report are scheduled for September 29. The City Council earlier opposed
putting a new waste facility in Strawberry Canyon. The council is expected
to vote Tuesday to show the video at its meeting September 27.
