Environmental Groups Rally for Navy Accountability Before Hunters Point Cleanup Hearing

Leaotis Martin, a Greenaction member and Bayview‑Hunters Point resident, stood outside the federal courthouse in San Francisco on Feb. 26, 2026 and told a crowd the Navy had failed the neighborhood: “I blame the Navy for all of this, every last bit of this, because they know how to clean up their own mess, and they refuse to do it.” Members of Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice held signs on the plaza before a hearing tied to a federal lawsuit alleging inadequate cleanup at the 400‑acre Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, a site slated for 10,000 new homes.

Greenaction filed that lawsuit in June 2024, and the litigation has drawn repeated judicial attention. At an April 23, 2025 federal hearing a judge appeared dissatisfied with both sides, pressing government lawyers about news reports that plutonium had been detected in the air near the site. Castleman, who spoke after court proceedings, said, “I think the judge was very engaged and he understands the stakes of the lawsuit. I think we did the best we could.”

The Navy has defended the pace and scope of its work while acknowledging controversy over testing and public notice. Mitchell, speaking for the Navy in court, described the effort as “a massive effort that takes a long time and requires coordination between the Navy, regulatory agencies and contractors to complete.” Mitchell told the court the Navy concluded the air‑quality plutonium readings were false positives and that that finding was not relayed to the public; he also said soil testing is on track to be completed by 2032 and added, “It’s going to take some time, but the Navy is making good progress.”

Organizers and residents framed the Feb. 26 rally as part of a longer fight over contamination that stretches back decades. Hunters Point housed the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory from 1946 to 1969, and historical reporting links post‑war nuclear testing and the towing of damaged vessels to environmental damage at the shipyard. Activists point to documented contamination of soil, groundwater, surface water and bay sediment and to episodes in which radioactive objects were recovered on parcels declared clean and contractors later went to prison after falsifying soil samples.

At the rally Martin linked the legal strategy to grass‑roots pressure: “If the government refuses to help, we have to help ourselves. That’s what we’re doing.” Greenaction published a post on Feb. 26, 2026 publicizing media coverage of the courthouse demonstration and the organization’s federal complaint, underscoring that the lawsuit remains the principal lever residents are using to seek more aggressive cleanup action.

Beyond the courtroom, the technical and public‑trust questions remain unresolved. Soil testing scheduled through 2032, disputed air‑quality readings, past criminal convictions tied to sampling, and the plan to redevelop three‑hundred‑plus acres into housing for thousands keep the stakes high for Bayview‑Hunters Point residents. With the lawsuit filed in June 2024 still pending and court hearings in April 2025 and February 2026 drawing scrutiny, activists and the Navy arrive at future proceedings with sharply different accounts of progress and risk — ensuring more litigation and technical review will shape the next phase of cleanup and redevelopment.