Alternative Sites

An alternative to constructing new buildings, roads, and parking lots in the environmentally-sensitive and geologically-unstable Strawberry Canyon area would be to use other sites.

The need for an alternative site concerns public safety
The current Lab site on the hillsides of the Strawberry Canyon area rests upon the collapsed caldera of an old volcano, a bowl filled with water and mud and volcanic stones, which has "leaked" with disastrous results in the past. (see this letter to the UC Regents from Dr. Garniss Curtis, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley.)

To make matters worse, the current site is almost atop the Northern Hayward Fault. In the event of the expected major earthquake on this fault, the site will be subject to liquefaction — the shaken soil turning into a liquid mass of mud.

Moreover, buildings on the edge of the caldera are likely to slide down the steep planes of shale and sandstone onto the dorms and houses below. If the hills are soaked with winter rain (October through May), mud slides could inundate not only those buildings but a good part of the campus across Gayley Road.

An alternative site could be more cost-effective
Building on flatter land rather than on unstable hillsides would be more cost effective — an important consideration given the political and public pressure to reduce federal spending and the responsibility of recipients of federal funds, such as LBNL, to use this money in the most effective manner. The need for economy may make pursuit of LBNL's Long Range Plan to develop in Blackberry and Strawberry Canyons untenable.

There are many benefits to using an alternative site
Using alternative sites would reap other benefits: the impacts on air quality of the transporting of building materials would be less, the hazards to employees and to instrumentation would be mitigated, and adjoining neighborhoods would not be endangered.

Alternative sites are available
An LBNL publication of February 16, 2010 stated that "...a second campus will be a necessity in the long term. Already, about 20 percent of the Lab's employees work off-site...." In February, 2011 the Lab issued a Request for Proposals for the site of a second campus, and in May, 2011 announced six finalists, including the Richmond Field Station (see below). However, the development of a second campus does not ensure that LBNL will change its current plans for development in the Strawberry Canyon watershed.

The Richmond Field Station

The Richmond Field Station, a 152-acre tract of land on the Bay in south Richmond, already owned by the University.

An empty field at the Richmond Field Station.

The site is merely ten minutes farther from campus than the greater part of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory off Centennial Drive. It is just off the freeway.

Old wooden buildings at the Richmond Field Station.

Portions of the Richmond Field Station site are currently preserved for wildlife, and part of it is wetland. The rest of the site contains a scattering of one-story wooden buildings dating from around World War II and two six-story buildings built recently: a glass one for Seismic Research and another for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Seismic Testing building at the Richmond Field Station.

In the 2002 Richmond Field Station Working Paper, the University identified a "Core Developable Area" of 44 acres that "...would be...suitable for gradual, but complete redevelopment into high quality research offices and labs for the University. The development capacity of this 44-acre area could total approximately 1 million gross square feet." (p. 15)

The Field Station is also adjacent to a large property recently cleaned up and now empty, ready for commercial development or for University acquisition.

Unlike the currently-proposed sites in Strawberry Canyon, The Field Station acreage is not geologically unstable. It is NOT on landfill, but resides on sediment, and was thoroughly tested many years ago.

In May 2008 the Richmond City Council passed a resolution urging the UC Regents to seriously consider the Richmond Field Station as an alternative site "because of the favorable impacts that would accrue to the City of Richmond in terms of increased job opportunities and the attraction...such facilities would provide for other, similar economic developments." (Read a pdf copy of this resolution here.) Richmond is already home to "one of the world's top producers of solar power systems" according to a Contra Costa Times article: Governor lauds green tech jobs in Richmond.

For more information:

• In 2002 UC Berkeley published the Richmond Field Station Working Paper examining the possibilities of the Richmond Field Station as a site for further development.
• Richmond Field Station website
• May 2008 Richmond City Council Resolution asking that the UC Regents decertify their environmental action reports for the proposed new buildings in the Strawberry Canyon area and consider the Richmond Field Station as an alternative site.