By Malik Washington, Destination Freedom Media Group
Bayview Hunters Point has a simple, sacred demand: let our people live. Not survive. Live. Clean air, clean water, clean soil. It’s not a luxury. It’s a right. Marie Harrison said it plainly and lived it bravely, and her words echo louder than sirens today, because the mask has slipped again at Hunters Point.
Recent investigations revealed what our community has known for generations: the U.S. Navy delayed disclosing the presence of plutonium‑239 in Parcel C. Not an error. Not confusion. A delay. A decision. A betrayal. Radiation on land where developers and politicians promise luxury towers and waterfront dreams while children cough and elders keep oxygen tanks by the door.
This is not one mistake. It’s a pattern. It’s the long shadow of Department of Defense nuclear testing and waste handling stitched into the soil, groundwater, and dust of our windowsills. It’s the Tetra Tech scandal that swapped contaminated soil for clean samples. It’s a redevelopment machine moving faster than any cleanup ever has. And it’s City Hall posing for photo‑ops with Lennar and Five Point while Bayview breathes from the bottom of the deck.
Let’s name the responsible parties: the U.S. Navy. Tetra Tech. Lennar. Five Point. And the City officials who continue pushing construction on contaminated land.
Plutonium‑239 is not a rumor. It is a cancer‑causing radioactive material with a half‑life measurable in centuries. The community deserved urgent notification and immediate protective measures. Instead, we got silence, delay, and PR spin.
IF YOU LIVE IN BAYVIEW/HUNTERS POINT WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE THAT YOU READ THIS FACT SHEET TODAY!
Fact Sheet 320-080 (2002) – Washington State Department of Health
https://doh.wa.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/Documents/Pubs//320-080_plutonium_fs.pdf
Marie Harrison taught us that environmental justice is a covenant, not a campaign slogan. She faced PG&E when its plant poisoned her neighborhood. She stood up when politicians turned away. Ten years ago she warned that leaving radioactive waste by the waterfront was a disaster waiting for the tide. The tide is here.
Arieann Harrison, the Executive Director of the Marie Harrison Community Foundation, continues the legacy left behind by her mother, Marie. Through environmental activism and love for her community, she continues this meaningful work. I spoke directly to Arieann about this specific situation, and this is the statement that she requested I share with the community:
STATEMENT FROM ARIEANN HARRISON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE MARIE HARRISON COMMUNITY FOUNDATION:
“It is both disturbing and unacceptable that Plutonium – a highly toxic and radioactive substance has been released into the air in Bayview/Hunters Point in levels above what is considered safe for human exposure. This community has endured generations of toxic harm, coverups, and broken promises from agencies and corporations that were supposed to protect public health.
“Bayview/Hunters Point is not a dumping ground. We are a community of families, children, and elders who deserve clean air, safe soil, and honest accountability. The release of Plutonium, no matter how “small,” some may try to claim, represents a direct violation of environmental justice and human rights (emphasis added).
“We demand immediate transparency from the City and County of San Francisco, the Navy, and all responsible agencies. We call for independent testing, real-time air monitoring, and an emergency community health response. This is not just a contamination issue,it is a moral issue.
“The Marie Harrison Community Foundation stands with residents in calling for truth, accountability, and full remediation. Our health and our future depend on it.”
~Arieann Harrison
Executive Director Marie Harrison Community Foundation
Yet City leaders and developers are still trying to sell Bayview’s future like a glossy brochure while residents carry asthma inhalers and coffin receipts. Let’s be clear: you cannot build luxury condos over suppressed truth and call it progress. You cannot price people out and poison those who remain.
To Mayor Daniel Lurie: your office now carries the moral weight of this crisis. We demand you call public hearings on the Parcel C disclosure delay, freeze all Shipyard development until independent retesting is completed, and force federal accountability. We need leadership rooted in truth, not ribbon‑cutting optics. Stand with Bayview Hunters Point. Show us justice is more than a campaign slogan.
To the Navy: you do not get to decide when we learn the truth. Full transparency, full retesting, full accountability.
To Lennar and Five Point: if your business model prioritizes profit over human life, take your cranes and go.
To San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors: no more hiding behind bureaucratic process. Subpoena. Investigate. Act.
To the people: our bodies are evidence. Our unity is power. Our silence is death. We demand a full stop to development, independent retesting, medical support for residents, and climate‑real cleanup that respects rising seas and human dignity.
And to Bayview/Hunters Point: I love you. We rise because we must. Marie Harrison handed us a torch and a truth — we don’t fold, we don’t fade, and we don’t fear power. We make power accountable. And if nobody else will say it, I will say it:
THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN BAYVIEW/HUNTERS POINT RIGHT NOW, SHOULD BE FINANCIALLY COMPENSATED BY THE U.S. NAVY AND ALL OTHER PARTIES INVOLVED IN THIS ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER AND COVERUP.
Can we live? Yes. But only if we force those who poisoned us — and those who profit from delay — to answer to the people.
If interested in research, here’s the Resource List for this article that sets out a chronological history of the radiological contamination of Bayview/Hunters Point: https://1drv.ms/b/c/bd2dbf553c0a1145/Ebin0W4y3NxJkdqtbeeczIUBKEexl9uk60-cXfxQgzNeYw?e=SfIUwK_ParcelC.pdf
CALL TO ACTION
• Demand Mayor Daniel Lurie initiate emergency hearings and halt development at the Shipyard.
• Call for independent, community‑oversight soil, water, air, and shoreline retesting.
• Support the Marie Harrison Community Foundation at canwelive.org.
• Attend public meetings, submit complaints, share your story, and show up for your neighbors.
• Fund independent media — because democracy dies in darkness, and Bayview refuses to.
My name is Malik Washington. I am a journalist, and I will not be silenced.
This article’s song and video is:
H.E.R. – I Can’t Breathe (Official Video)
Malik Washington is a freelance journalist and Director at Destination: Freedom and Destination Freedom Media Group. For over 13 years, Malik has been a published journalist and news reporter focusing on criminal justice issues, conditions of confinement in jails and prisons, as well as hot-button political issues. You can reach him via email: mwashington@destination-freedom.org or call him at (719) 715-9592.
Suggestions or leads on stories are always welcome.
Please follow us on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/destfreedom13
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/destinationfreedom13/ X: https://x.com/dest_freedom
Follow the Vanguard on Social Media – X, Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe the Vanguard News letters. To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit davisvanguard.org/donate or give directly through ActBlue. Your support will ensure that the vital work of the Vanguard continues.
