Site Background

The RFS is a 170 acre parcel owned by the University of California (UC) located in Richmond, about five miles from the central UC Berkeley campus. It was purchased in 1950 and is used primarily for College of Engineering academic teaching and research activities, but also houses some non-UC tenants. Current uses include the Northern Regional Library Facility, laboratories for other campus departments, including Art Practice, and EPA’s Region 9 Laboratory. The RFS also contains unique natural resources, including a remnant coastal terrace prairie and tidal marsh that is home the endangered...

The main contaminants are the metals mercury, lead and copper from the California Cap Company operations.

Pyrite cinder waste (waste from sulfuric acid production) that includes an assortment of metals (arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, selenium and zinc) and creates low pH (acid) conditions, was deposited by Stauffer Chemical Company in the early 1900s.

An isolated spot of PCB contamination was found at the outfall of the Western Storm Drain in Meeker Slough and was cleaned up in 2003, although detectable PCBS remain in some other locations at RFS.