Free Soil Testing for 100 San Francisco Gardeners

Free Soil Testing Offered to 100 Gardeners 

from San Francisco Zip Codes:

94124, 94134, 94110, 94114 or 94107

If you grow some of your own food in one of these zip codes, please consider participating in a research project on heavy metals in urban gardens. After completing a one page survey, you may be one of 100 gardeners randomly chosen to have their soil tested for heavy metals FREE OF CHARGE!

Email [email protected] for information on how to be considered for soil testing, to receive an educational pamphlet on heavy metals and gardening, or to be invited to a community meeting on garden soil and heavy metals later in the summer.

This research is being conducted by Jennifer Gorospe, a graduate student at San Jose State and a gardener living in Silver Terrace. Support for the study is provided by the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice Small Grants Program. Local partners include Arc Ecology and City Slicker Farms. Your participation is voluntary and greatly appreciated!

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LEARN MORE, view/download the informative brochure:
Gardening without heavy metals

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welcome, Zoe Elise Wilson

Yes life goes on.  Even as Arc Ecology morns the passing of our friends and colleagues Jesse Mason and Eve Bach we celebrate and welcome into our extended family a new member. 

Zoe Elise Wilson

Marcel Wilson, principle of Bionic Landscape Architecture and Planning, Arc Ecology’s long time consultant and contractor for projects such as our award winning report Alternatives For Study, and his lovely wife Jennifer, herself an accomplished landscape architect and artist, have just given birth to their second daughter. Zoe Elise Wilson was born on June 10, 2025 at 5:47pm. She weighed 7 lbs 8oz. As we can all see from the photo, she is a lovely baby and we wish her parents and he equally lovely sister Lena all the best this world has to offer. 

Each of us, whether President or pauper, or a force for good as Eve and Jesse had become or a force for ill, no matter the circumstances of our births, begins life as a tiny human looking for nurturance and a loving home. Children are able to endure much with these two ingredients.  It is the world these children encounter - their genes notwithstanding - that shape the adults they become. It is the actions of we adults that shape the world that children encounter. As we look at this wonderful picture I hope we can take a moment to think about the world this child and the rest of humanity’s children face everyday and recommit to making it a better place than we found it.  If not for us, then for Zoe and her peers born into this world of 2010.

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Celebrating Jesse Mason : 25th June 2010, 4-6 PM

The Mason Family invites you to:

A Celebration of a Life of Service

to the Bayview Hunters Point Community

Friday, June 25th 2010, from 4-6pm


The Alex Pitcher Community Room
South East Community College
1800 Oakdale Avenue (at Phelps)
San Francisco CA 94124

Jesse Mason

Born on Navy Road in the Hunters Point Shipyard in 1947, Jesse Mason’s life is the story of Bayview Hunters Point after the Second World War. A postal worker, carpenter, union man, and a tireless advocate for local jobs and economic development for the community he loved. Jesse Mason passed away on June 4th 2010 still battling the powers that be as Arc Ecology’s BVHP Employment Developer to bring fairness and justice to the community.

The Mason Family invites you to come celebrate a life lived to its fullest. Come laugh, cry, eat well, and tell your stories about this remarkable human being.

For more Information, contact: 415-643-1190.

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EPA Affirms Arc Ecology Position on Dust

U.S. EPA has finalized the report entitled, “U.S. EPA's Final Review of Dust/Naturally Occurring Asbestos Control Measures and Air Monitoring at the Former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (June 9, 2025).”

The link to the final document appears at the bottom of this post.

About the Report:
·        EPA conducted a technical review of dust mitigation plans and an independent laboratory analyses of data associated with the City and Air District’s efforts to control naturally-occurring asbestos and dust associated with construction activity on Parcel A at the former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. EPA also evaluated metals and radiation data for both the Parcel A development work and Navy activities on the Shipyard.  
·        EPA made independent technical advisory services available to community members to review the data and EPA’s draft report.  EPA held a public meeting for the community to hear comments from the technical expert.  The comments and EPA’s responses are attached to the final report.  
·        Naturally-occurring asbestos in dust at construction sites is a widespread concern in California where serpentine soil is common.  EPA’s report finds that best practices for dust monitoring and mitigation are in place at Parcel A and the Hunters Point Shipyard to protect the community by keeping exposures to asbestos, metals and radiation in dust within acceptable levels.

If you have any questions about EPA’s final report, please contact Mark Ripperda, remedial project manager, at [email protected] or at (415) 972-3028.


Link to the Final EPA Report and EPA's response to comments on the Draft Report:
U.S. EPA's Final Review of Dust/Naturally Occurring Asbestos Control Measures and Air Monitoring at the Former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard (June 9, 2025)

Link to U.S. EPA General Site Information:
U.S. EPA Hunters Point Naval Superfund Site Overview Web Site
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article: Giving Up The Ghost Fleet

Giving up the ghost fleet
Jan McGirk, Chinadialogue, June 08, 2025

In California, rusting US navy ships that were poisoning bay waters for decades are being cleaned up, moved and recycled - thanks to a legal victory by local environmental groups. Jan McGirk reports.

read the full article:
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/3658

Saul Bloom, Arc Ecology’s executive director, said: “MARAD had been doing the minimum possible, just to keep these ships from sinking. Under the previous administration [of George W Bush], they had not been a big believer in compliance, as they were preoccupied with other things. They saw this fleet-recycling as a needless distraction. We had been concerned for many years.”

Bloom’s group runs an innovative programme to combat military pollution and to assess war’s long-term effects on the environment. “I saw the ghost fleet out in the bay 25 years ago,” he said, “but there was no political will ’way back then to do anything. Ship recycling is a dirty, messy business.”

“Arc Ecology’s concern is that ships might eventually get towed out to Saipan, a small American protectorate in the Marianas, in order to obtain savings and not run afoul of the trade laws in ship-breaking,” Bloom said. “Well, it is not Bangladesh … We don’t have families living on the site, children under 14 risking their limbs and lungs, and losing on average 10 individuals per vessel. But we’ll have to see about the likelihood that Saipan will comply with our human-rights values and environmental concerns.”

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this article also appears in Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jan-mcgirk/giving-up-the-ghost-ships_b_604713.html
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Jesse Mason January 12, 2025 - June 04, 2025

Jesse Mason

January 12, 2025 - June 04, 2025

Friends:

This afternoon at 12:30pm, Jesse Mason slipped peacefully from this life. On behalf of his family and Arc Ecology we would like to extend our deep gratitude and appreciation to all those who have responded with such love and compassion for Jesse. As you might imagine, however prepared one might be, it is still very difficult to respond to his loss. Therefore please accept this brief notice with our thanks and the knowledge that a fuller account is forthcoming. We will also include information regarding the time and location of Jesse’s memorial and where you can send donations to a fund established by the family.

Thank you.  

youtube: Jesse appears here in our 2009 video "Save Our Park" 
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article: More Americans Grow Old in Toxic Environments

More Americans Grow Old in Toxic Environments
03 June 2025 | Nahmyo Thomas | The Washington Informer

“We are greatly concerned about the well-being of senior citizens,” said Saul Bloom, CEO of Arc Ecology, a San Francisco-based organization advocating national environmental and social responsibility.

Pollutants, of course, are unsafe for people of all ages and greatly affect children’s health. But according to Bloom, the young generations are at an even greater risk of suffering from violence, drugs and other threats that tend to coexist in neglected neighborhoods.

“Even if we did everything possible, and removed every ounce of waste, radioactive pollutant, and particulate matter that affect the lungs, it would not [ease] the mortality rate for young people,” he said. 

read the full article:
http://www.washingtoninformer.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3796:more-americans-grow-old-in-toxic-environments-&catid=50:local&Itemid=113
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article: Lennar awaits key vote on big S.F. project

Lennar awaits key vote on big S.F. project
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen
Thursday, June 3, 2025

Read more: Lennar awaits key vote on big S.F. project - San Francisco Business Times

In a recent interview with the Business Times Saul Bloom, executive director of the Arc Ecology, an environmental group that has been involved in Hunters Point since 1984, said there are large problems with comments in the draft environmental impact report and said the city and Lennar should take the time to address them before trying to gain approval for the EIR. In particular Bloom said environmental groups are certain to file a lawsuit to stop Yosemite Slough, a narrow waterway that would be mostly open to pedestrians, city buses, and cyclists. If the 49ers do go ahead with San Francisco stadium the bridge would be open to car traffic on game days.
“Our feeling is that haste makes waste,” said Bloom. “The most dangerous time in any plan is when you have lost patience with the process and just want to get it done. That is when you make your big mistakes.”

Read more: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/05/31/daily43.html
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Dr. Mike McGowan receives commendation

Arc Ecology's Senior Staff Scientist Dr. Mike McGowan has been recommended for a commendation by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission [SFPUC] for his participation and contributions to the Wastewater Enterprise Biosolids Digester Task Force. The task force of community representatives from diverse interests and walks of life in the Bayview-Hunters Point area met for 17 months with SFPUC staff, consultants, and technical experts to evaluate alternatives for siting the new digester facility. Their consensus report will be presented to the SFPUC commissioners at the June 22 meeting.

read more about the SFPUC Wastewater Enterprise
Biosolids Digester Task Force:
http://sfwater.org/mto_main.cfm/MC_ID/14/MSC_ID/120/MTO_ID/689

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