Power Plant Along India Basin—Before and After
Unfinished History
View north across India Basin with the PG&E Power plant prominently at left, c. 1949.
Photo: OpenSFHistory.org wnp25.4553
The PG&E Hunter's Point power plant, finally shut down after years of community pressure, on the shoreline in 2007 prior to its deconstruction.
Photo: Chris Carlsson
March 2009, after demolition of PG&E power plant, the view across India Basin north towards Herons Head Park and downtown in distance too.
Photo: Chris Carlsson
Greenaction and the Huntersview Mothers Committee led the successful fight that closed the PG&E Hunters Point power plant in 2006. The buildings and infrastructure at the power plant have been demolished, and PG&E and government agencies have been working on the cleanup of contamination at the 38 acre site on the shores of San Francisco Bay. Environmental sampling confirmed that the soil and groundwater are contaminated with many hazardous substances, including a large amount of PCBs, PAHS, THP diesel, arsenic, lead, hexavalent chromium, nickel, cobalt, zinc and asbestos.
In a great show of solidarity, the Huntersview Moms and Greenaction succeeded in getting PG&E to stop sending the PCBs from the power plant cleanup to be dumped in the farmworker town of Kettleman City in California’s San Joaquin Valley, a town where residents suffer a high rate of birth defects, miscarriages and infant deaths.
PG&E Hunter's Point power plant in the 1990s.
photo: Chris Carlsson
PG&E Hunter's Point power plant as it is being torn down, c. 2009.
Photo: Alex Lantsberg
Demolition underway at PG&E Hunter's Point power plant.
Photo: Alex Lantsberg
Interior of closed PG&E plant before demolition.
Photo: Alex Lantsberg
Part of an ongoing deindustrialization of San Francisco, this PG&E plant had been one of the City's biggest air polluters. Neighborhood campaigning forced its closure and demolition.
Photo: Alex Lantsberg
Picturesque ruins.
Photo: Alex Lantsberg
The end.
Photo: Alex Lantsberg