Former Navy contractor Tetra Tech agreed to pay $97 million to resolve federal claims over its botched cleanup of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, including $57 million to the DOJ and $40 million tied to Superfund cleanup costs, with almost none going directly to residents.US District Court Judge J ames Donato approved the agreement on August 13 after pausing the settlement last year. Of the $97 million, $57 million goes toward resolving the federal claims over the alleged fraud, while $40 million is connected to the ongoing Superfund cleanup, as the Chronicle reports.Tetra Tech reportedly paid the settlement last year, but Donato initially rejected it, explaining that the government had not shown that the $57 million payment was sufficient given the scale of the alleged fraud, according to the SF Standard. After sending federal prosecutors and Tetra Tech back to explain the terms, Donato reportedly said he found the agreement “fair, adequate, and reasonable.”The case stems from Tetra Tech’s work at the shipyard between 2003 and 2014, when the company was hired to conduct radiological testing and remediation. The shipyard, which once housed the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, had been contaminated by radioactive and industrial materials and was designated a Superfund site.The alleged misconduct came to light in 2014 after the Navy discovered irregularities in Tetra Tech’s soil samples two years earlier, as NBC Bay Area first reported. Federal prosecutors alleged that Tetra Tech workers replaced potentially contaminated soil samples with clean soil before sending them to laboratories and falsified records to make the work appear to have passed required testing. This was later confirmed by former Tetra Tech radiation control technician Anthony Smith and resulted in criminal cases against former Tetra Tech supervisors Stephen Rolfe and Justin Hubbard, who pleaded guilty in 2018. Both were sentenced to prison by Donato, who also presided over the later civil litigation.A subsequent review by the Navy that year found that roughly 48% of Tetra Tech’s radiological data was either suspect or showed signs of potential manipulation. An EPA letter later raised concerns about as much as 90% to 97% of the data in portions of the shipyard.Tetra Tech agreed to the $97 million deal without admitting liability or wrongdoing. The settlement resolves the federal government’s civil claims under the False Claims Act and federal Superfund law, but it does not resolve the separate lawsuit brought by homeowners who say the cleanup scandal damaged their property values.“This has been a critical project for the Hunters Point community and the federal government,” US Attorney Craig Missakian of the DOJ’s Northern District of California said. “It should have been just as important to the contractor that the government selected and paid to perform radiological testing and remediation at the site.”More than 300 homeowners in the shipyard’s only completed residential neighborhood sued Tetra Tech after the extent of the alleged fraud became public. A federal judge dismissed that case earlier this month, ruling that a 1957 law protecting the nuclear industry from certain liability did not cover claims based solely on financial losses.Developers Lennar and FivePoint Holdings separately agreed in 2022 to pay $6.3 million to settle claims from the same group of homeowners, who alleged that they were not adequately informed about contamination concerns and problems with the cleanup before buying homes on Parcel A. The developers did not admit wrongdoing.In 2019, 400 officers from the San Francisco Police Department also filed a lawsuit against Tetra Tech, alleging that the site’s radiation gave officers and their families asthma, blood disorders, lung cancer, and was even “a substantial factor” in two officers’ deaths.Prior to the lawsuit, the Chronicle reported on Building 606, a facility at the shipyard that was used by several SFPD units including the SWAT team, bomb squad, and K-9 Unit, to clean contaminated clothing. Officers complained that the tap water tasted contaminated, and several later developed cancer, including the two who died. Two German shepherds also developed cancer and died.The latest settlement also does little to address longstanding demands from Bayview-Hunters Point residents and environmental advocates for compensation and a more thorough cleanup. According to NBC Bay Area, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, which has fought the Navy over its cleanup efforts for years, welcomed the settlement but said the community still needs independent oversight of the ongoing remediation.“It’s wonderful news,” Greenaction executive director Bradley Angel said. “It also vindicates what Greenaction and community groups have said for years and years, which is that the cleanup was inadequate. It was flawed. It was reckless. It was tainted.”Greenaction and other community groups are also calling for reparations for Bayview-Hunters Point residents who they say have suffered health impacts from decades of exposure to pollution and toxic waste. The Navy’s cleanup remains ongoing, and last year it was revealed the agency had discovered unauthorized radioactive material stored inside a secured building at the site. San Francisco Environment Department data reportedly shows the neighborhood has higher rates of asthma, respiratory diseases, and cancers than the city overall, with the department identifying the area’s industrial pollution history as a contributing factor.Previously: Judge Says Federal Law Protects Navy Contractor In Botched Hunters Point Shipyard Cleanup ...read more read less