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What's New:
July 21, 2005
The city of Albany has begun
carving new access roads and
removing homeless camps,
is the artwork next?
Recent Articles
The Albany Landfill Waterfront
Park is the latest Bay Area off-
leash access to be threatened.
It seems our local Sierra Club
and Citizens For the Eastshore
State Park have pressured the
parks administration to put up
signs banning off leash dogs
at the Albany Landfill.
Sign the
on-line petition to
preserve offleash access!
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Berkeley
Daily Pllanet
July 12, 2005
City of AlbanyClears HomelessEncampments From the Bulb
By JOHN GELUARDI Special to the Planet
The City of Albany is removing homeless encampments on the Albany
Landfill as part of a process that will bring the 31-acre site closer
to becoming part of the Eastshore State Park.
The city, which owns the landfill, has brought in a four-yard front
loa der, backhoe and three 30-yard containers to remove 12 homeless
encampments.
The encampments, some of which are abandoned, contain a variety
of materials including shopping carts, large sheets of plywood and
general refuse. There is also an assortment of personal possessions
such as clothing, books and camping equipment.
City officials said the project will be completed by Thursday at
an estimated cost of $15,000.
“The Albany Waterfront Committee was concerned with the number
of homeless encampments th at have sprung up,” said Ann Chaney,
the city’s community development director. “We thought
the best approach would be to remove the debris and the campsites
and make it a better park for everyone.”
In 1999, the City of Albany removed approximately 45 people who
were living on the landfill, some who had camped on the craggy,
windblown landfill for eight years. But some of the displaced squatters
began to move back onto the sporadically monitored property and
currently it is estimated that 10 people live there year around.
Workers are cutting 10-foot roadways across the landfill to access
some of the more hidden campsites. The process has caused concern
among frequent landfill visitors that mature trees and wildlife
habitat will be destroyed in the process. Berkeley attorney Osha
Neumann has written a letter to the Albany City Council requesting
that the front loader and backhoe be removed and that the debris
be carried out by hand.
But Public Works Supervisor John Medlock said the large amount of
the debris and other materials require the use of heavy machinery.
He added that very little vegetation is being destroyed.
“Plus there is a lot of broken glass and needles,” he
said. “We are trying to handle the debris as little as possible.”
Chaney said there are no immediate plans to remove any of the paintings,
murals and sculptures that are concentrated on the northwest corner
of the landfill.
City workers will also seal off seven wells that monitored toxic
substances that were leaching into the ba y. The landfill is a former
construction debris dump that closed in the early 1980s. In 1984
the Regional Water Quality Control Board issued a closure order
when ammonia and high concentrations of metals were found leaching
into the bay.
Once the order was put in place, the city of Albany was unable to
transfer the property or develop it until the toxic problem was
solved. The cost to clean the environmental problems was so high,
city officials decided to let the environmental problem naturally
attenua te.
By default, the legal limbo gave rise to an organic public park.
A community of homeless took root pet owners loved the freedom to
let dogs run free and paintings and sculptures flourished. One landfill
resident built a small castle complete with lancet windows and spiral
staircase.
However, last May the RWQCB issued a finding that the landfill is
no longer leaching ammonia or other toxic materials into the bay
and lifted the closure order. Once the monitoring wells are capped,
the City of Albany will be free to transfer the management of the
property to the East Bay Regional Park District, and ultimately
to the state as an addition to the Eastshore State Park although
it is uncertain when this will take place.
“There is currently no agreement wi th the EBRPD as to when
we will turn over the land or if it will ultimately become part
of the Eastshore State Park,” Chaney said. “We are just
beginning to talk about it.”
Berkeley
Daily Pllanet
July 12, 2005
Commentary:
Albany Bulb Cleanup is Damaging Environment
By OSHA NEUMANN
Last week the City of Albany installed three enormous green dumpsters
on the upper road leading to the Albany Bulb and began an operation
the purpose of which we’re being told is to clean out campsites
of the homeless, some of which have been reoccupied in recent months.
Unfortunately the clean up is being done in a way that is producing
massive and completely unnecessary environmental damage. Unless the
methods used are changed, irreparable harm will be done to the fragile
ecosystem of the landfill.
Instead of using the least intrusive means to accomplish its objective
the city has chosen to bring in bulldozers and heavy equipment. The
road down the center of the Bulb has been widened, although it was
already wide enough to allow the passage of police vehicles and pick
ups. In two places large circles have been scrapped bare around methane
vents. But the worst damage has been caused by the use of heavy equipment
to clear paths to campsites. California native plants including full
grown coyote bush have been flattened. In one case mature palm trees
and acacias have been uprooted. Broken tree limbs and dirt have been
bulldozed down a hillside, destroying what was one of the prettiest
groves of trees on the entire landfill.
There is no reason why the environment needs to be collateral damage
of the campaign to remove the homeless from the landfill. Everything
that the homeless brought into the landfill was carried in by hand,
or wheeled in on shopping carts and bicycles. If they brought stuff
in by hand, it can be taken out by hand.
The use of heavy equipment makes no sense if Albany is simply conducting
a cleanup operation. A possible explanation for its use is that Albany’s
goal goes beyond cleanup to reshaping the landscape of the landfill
so that it no longer provides camouflage for possible homeless sites.
If that is the case, the operation is shortsighted and futile. It
will destroy habitat for wildlife, reduce biodiversity, replace a
complex mix of mature plants with fast growing invasive vegetation,
and leave ugly scars which will not heal for decades. The folly of
destroying a village in order to save it is self evident. The folly
of destroying everything that is attractive about the landfill in
order to prevent homeless people from camping there should be equally
obvious. Regular patrolling and the issuance of warnings would be
more effective and have fewer side effects.
Albany may be ambivalent about the landfill. The debate about its
future has been lively and impassioned. It may soon become part of
the East Shore State Park. But whatever its future, the current operation
needs to be stopped and reassessed immediately.
Destruction is easy. But trees take years to grow and ecosystems can
not be willed into being overnight.
Osha Neumann is a local artist and attorney.
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