As quickly as it appeared some four years ago, the “alien landing pad” east of Richmond’s Brickyard Cove area was taken away last week. Also dubbed “Bottoms Butte” after its owner, the Bottoms Family Trust, the 15 foot high flat topped mound of toxic soil capped by asphalt paving was quietly moved next door to the Port of Richmond’s property.

The mound came about in 1968 as the result of a Remedial Action Plan approved by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to encapsulate soils containing total petroleum hydrocarbons, metals (primarily lead, mercury and zinc), polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, phthalates, polychlorinated biphenyls and asbestos. These materials were left from the operation of Kaiser Shipyard 3 during World War II as well as from subsequent users of the site. The DTSC permit anticipated a much smaller volume of soil and would have resulted in an encapsulated area at grade. Instead, the mound was 10 times larger, and some believed, visible from space. Hence the label “alien landing pad,” recalling the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

When the mesa was first completed, nearby residents were outraged. They had received no notice of the anticipated size. It turned out that the project had never been issued a Richmond grading permit, and there were also problems with BCDC and the Regional Water Quality Control Board. DTSC’s face was dripping with egg when it was discovered they had signed off on a project that bore little resemblance to the one they had permitted.

The resolution, however, became a win-win situation when the City of Richmond offered to allow the entire mound to be moved next door. The City was in the process of completing its own remediation of similar soils and dredge spoils at the Port of Richmond Potrero Point Terminal (former Shipyard 3) and could accommodate the material from Bottoms Butte on the Port’s 50-acre site without raising the ultimate grade noticeably. The City had sold the contaminated site to Bottoms a decade earlier, and although the contract made the new owner responsible for any hazardous material cleanup, there remained the specter of some City liability. In the end, Bottoms saved millions by not having to transport the contaminated soil to a distant disposal site, but he did pay for the moving and provided two public rights-of-way across the property, one for the Bay Trail and one for future access to the Shipyard 3 historic structures that are part of the Rosie the Riveter World War II Homefront National Historic Park.  The City also made a modest profit on the venture, and Brickyard Cove residents got their view back. A real Richmond success story.

A PDF file showing the site is attached. Click Here