Berkeley, Albany to test parks for evidence of radioactive waste
Officials in Berkeley and Albany are moving forward with plans to test two popular bayside parks — César Chávez and the Albany Bulb — for evidence of radioactive material possibly dumped decades ago by the former Stauffer Chemical Co. plant in Richmond. Richmond has been dealing with radioactive material and other hazardous waste left by Stauffer for decades, but Berkeley and Albany officials were warned only this year that the company may have also discarded tons of industrial waste into landfills that have since been covered over and converted to the bayshore parks. The planned testing in both cities will include uranium, thorium and the banned pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), on the advice of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, according to reports from both cities.