In this Section, BNC publishes articles that are written either by a neighborhood representative without editing or is summarized from material which has been submitted to us. We will tell you when an article has been written by a representative or when it has been summarized.
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This month’s post is written by a member of a neighborhood in West Berkeley. It has not been edited. It’s about the long-standing issue of air pollution in that area caused not only by the I-80 freeway, but also by a Berkeley business, Pacific Steel Casting (PSC). Air pollution is a major health issue that concerns not only the existing homes, schools and child care facilities located in West Berkeley but also future residents as the pressure to develop more and more new housing in that area increases. This article also highlights the complex issue of how residential and industrial can exist side by side in compact communities such as Berkeley and the urgent need for regulatory agencies, local government, residents and business to work cooperatively to resolve these difficult concerns — not just leave them to fester, year after year. Because of the serious health issues involved, these are not concerns that neighborhoods outside of West Berkeley can shrug their shoulders and declare them to be “Someone Else’s Problems” (SEPs). We are, indeed, in this, all together.
And it’s not over yet…
The sprawling PSC plant at 2nd and Gilman first opened in Berkeley in 1934 and it has been operated by various descendants of its founders ever since. It makes steel parts mostly for large trucks and custom molds. Over the years it has grown to be the third or fifth (depending on different sources) largest foundry in the United States. Most recently, PSC’s public face has been that of its spokesperson, Elizabeth Jewel, a member of the firm of Aroner, Jewel and Ellis (AJE Partners) — yes, that is Dion Aroner, Berkeley’s former Assembly Member. Ms. Aroner and Elizabeth Jewel were former high-level staff members in the office of then-Assembly Member Tom Bates, now Berkeley’s Mayor. AJE Partners is a consulting firm on “government and community affairs for public and non profit organizations, associations and private sector clients.” Clients listed range from local non-profits like Lifelong Medical, to big business like Caruso Affiliates and Safeway, and also Tom Bates for Mayor political campaigns.
The history of neighbors fighting for improvements in cleaning up emissions from PSC is years long. The Blame Game has been key to the continuation of the problem:
- Blame the I-80 freeway, even when it is clear that specific types of pollutants came from PSC and not from car/truck emissions.
- Blame State air quality standards that give a “pass” to existing polluters while at the same time holding the same type of businesses that are new to much higher air quality standards and never explaining or even attempting to get existing polluters to reduce health risks that are acknowledged to be unacceptable because they have been declared to have that status in new facilities.
- Blame the neighborhood as trying to take jobs away from working people, but ignore health risks to residents and PSC workers alike.
Well, finally when a national newspaper (USA Today), the City’s Community Environmental Advisory Board (CEAC) and Zoning Adjustments Board (ZAB) began to look at permits and ask questions, the problem seemed to come to a head. Unfortunately, to little avail, as decision-makers turned their heads and PSC had its up and downs. There was a downturn in the economy and a series of major mishaps such as changes that brought in management with no foundry experience, employee strikes, a $31 million lawsuit filed by a long-term PSC worker over violations of California labor law (the suit was settled for $5.4 million to be paid to employees — a debt that we understand has not yet been paid, and layoffs of some 200 employees found to be undocumented immigrants, many of whom had been working there for years with invalid or missing social security numbers. Then, PSC filed for bankruptcy and the plant was put up for auction. In late July 2014, according to Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy, it was sold for $11.3 million (BNC thinks that’s a surprisingly low amount) and a judge in Oakland approved the sale to Speyside Equity, there being no other offers.
Speyside Equity is based in New York and is said by local sources to also own an aluminum foundry, Stahl Specialty Company in Missouri. However, a look at their website reveals that they sold Stahl on December 31, 2010. Speyside was formed in 2004 and states it “usually invests in traditional businesses with a history of profitability.” The company’s focus is on “chemicals, food and industrials.” The most recent acquisition listed on their site was in January 2014 when it acquired Magic Valley Fresh Frozen (a company that sells okra, spinach, southern greens, black-eyed peas, carrots and diced turnip roots to food outlets and institutional buyers). There is no mention of PSC. Ms. Jewel is quoted as saying that “As far as we know, they intend to stay in Berkeley and continue operation.”
Clean Air? A View From The West
by M.S. Siegal
For many years, living in North Berkeley, while enrolled in a doctorate program at CAL, was idyllic. I walked or biked everywhere and didn’t think of air pollution. Hey, I grew up in New York City and braved the likes of the BQE (Brooklyn-Queens Expressway) and the chemical soup known as the Holland Tunnel and New Jersey Turnpike. When it came time to settle down, the fates had me here, the Bay Area, and I naturally thought Berkeley would be a nice place to live. Remember? I lived in North Berkeley and biked and walked everywhere. The trick was finding a house that was affordable. As an ex-New Yorker, I loved public transportation and wanted to continue a sustainable life style. I wound up in West Berkeley, broke up all the concrete in the backyard, planted fruit trees and an organic garden and then poof — all my feelings of joy dissipated in one nauseating smell. Pacific Steel Casting. It was summer 2003.
Over the past 10 years, I can’t tell you how many calls I made to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District because there were so many. I came to know the inspectors intimately. Imagine, they could only stand outside the house and not go to the back garden area where the stench was particularly strong. And so it went. I also participated in protests with the West Berkeley Alliance, allied with Global Community Monitor, attended meetings and presented at Berkeley’s own Community Environmental Advisory Commission (CEAC).
When USA Today wrote in 2009 that the air in three Berkeley schools in West Berkeley (all in close proximity to Pacific Steel Casting) was “in the top 1 percent of the country’s most at-risk sites for exposure to harmful chemicals” (as reported by Riya Bhattacharjee in the Berkeley Daily Planet) I really thought that the city would step up to the plate and work to reduce the harmful exposure to its Berkeley citizens. I was wrong. We continued to play the same cat and mouse game until recently. As many of you know, Pacific Steel Casting went bankrupt, and part of the demise was linked to egregious business practices as reported in Berkeleyside (July 21, 2014):
First, the company [Pacific Steel Casting] lost a third of its workforce in 2011 after a U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement audit. Workers’ compensation insurance costs then skyrocketed after a flood of claims came in from departing workers. Then, in January, the company settled a lawsuit about the timing of worker lunch breaks for around $5.4 million, which is owed to about 1,300 current and former employees. According to the bankruptcy filing, the company “was not in a financial position to immediately fund the settlement.” The lawsuit had not been supported by the union, GMP 136B, and was originally filed by a former employee, Jewel told Berkeleyside earlier this year.
For those of us who had been marching, writing and organizing in protest against the plant over the past 10 years, the news of abusive practices in the work force was a kind of vindication of our efforts. Certainly if neighbors of PSC were breathing pollutants and particulates, so was the work force. West Berkeley Alliance bravely and courageously put forth such views as well. My sadness, however, comes from the Berkeley City politicians who bitterly, thoroughly, and effectively fought the community interests for so long and did not take care of the community or the work force. Some of the politicians, like good Orwellian folk, are now involved in clean air actions.
I am not sure what to expect from the new owners. We in West Berkeley are again (and it seems, in vain) fighting a battle for our lives, our children lives, and our city. I know it seems strange for people up in the hills, but all the buses on San Pablo Avenue are diesel buses and AC transit has no plans to change. The dirtiest, grittiest West Alameda areas are served by diesel, a well-known carcinogenic. Look also at where all the development is.
I invite all people in Berkeley, where ever you may be so lucky to live, to review the Community Risk Reduction Plan www.baaqmd.gov/Divisions/Planning-and-Research/CARE-Program/Community-Risk-Reduction-Plans.aspx and advocate for Berkeley to be involved in assessing the air in Berkeley because we know that combinant air pollutants are killers. Berkeley can no longer afford to ignore the problems with air pollution in its neighborhoods.
If you smell an odor and are concerned, please call the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s (BAAQMD’s) complaint hotline (1 800 334-6367). Possible enforcement action is taken by the BAAQMD when 5 confirmed calls are received within a 24 hour period. West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs notes that the more odor nuisance complaints and Notice of Violation (NOV) attributed to PSC, provides more evidence that there is an ongoing serious pollution problem.
Please also check into the West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs (www.westberkeleyalliance.org) and Global Community Monitor (www.gcmonitor.org). There is a lot of good information there.
BNC intends to follow-up on the Community Risk Reduction Plans, as well as what happens next at PSC. We will keep you informed.