Hunters Point Shipyard: the radioactive cleanup its own...

In southeast San Francisco, on a peninsula of filled land jutting into the bay, sits a former Navy shipyard that once housed one of the strangest laboratories of the atomic age. The Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory operated there, decontaminating warships exposed to nuclear-weapons tests and studying what radiation does to metal, machines, and people. That work left a legacy in the ground. Decades later, the same ground became the foundation for one of the largest planned housing developments in the city. The question that mattered most, before anyone could live there, was simple: is the site actually clean?

The Navy hired a contractor to answer that question. The contractor faked the answer.

This is a story with a precise and documented villain, and it is worth being careful about who that villain is. The fraud at Hunters Point was committed by the Navy's cleanup contractor, Tetra Tech EC, not by the Navy itself. Two of the company's supervisors pleaded guilty to falsifying records and went to federal prison. In January 2025, Tetra Tech EC agreed to pay the United States $97 million to resolve federal claims, without admitting liability. What that money cannot buy back is the time: full remediation of the site is now projected toward roughly 2036, decades after the shipyard's naval life ended.

What the site is

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard occupies a stretch of made land on San Francisco's southeastern shore. The Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, or NRDL, operated there from roughly 1948 to 1969, according to press histories summarizing the Navy record. The lab decontaminated ships used in atomic-weapons testing and researched radiation effects, which is how radiological hazards came to be present across the property.

The dates here are easy to garble, so it helps to keep each one separate. The NRDL closed in 1969. The Navy stopped operating the shipyard itself around 1974, after which most of it was leased to a commercial ship-repair company. The site was added to the Superfund National Priorities List around 1989, and it entered the Base Realignment and Closure process, with its listing commonly dated to 1991. None of these is "the year the base closed," and collapsing them into a single date misstates the record.

The land itself is hard to pin to one acreage figure. The San Francisco General Plan describes an approximately 490-acre landfill peninsula with about five miles of shoreline, while some press accounts cite roughly 443 acres. Larger figures near 866 to 900 acres appear when the tidelands and the submerged Parcel F are counted. The safe way to describe it is roughly 450 to 500 acres of land, with the underwater Parcel F noted separately.

To clean and transfer it in stages, the Navy divided the shipyard into parcels labelled A through G, with sub-parcels. Parcel A, the first transferred, was developed. On it, the developers Lennar and FivePoint built and sold about 350 homes, priced near $1 million each. That is a small fraction of the master plan. The combined Hunters Point Shipyard and Candlestick Point redevelopment was designed for roughly 10,000 to 12,000 homes, plus parks, retail, and commercial space. That larger number is a planned target, not a built reality.

What happened

Tetra Tech EC provided radiological remediation services at the shipyard over roughly 2003 to 2014. Its job, in effect, was to sample soil and survey buildings, run the results through radiological testing, and document that designated areas met the standards required before the land could be transferred and reused.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, the company misrepresented the source of soil samples submitted for radiological testing and falsified data collected from radiological surveys of existing buildings. In plain terms: workers took clean soil from areas known to be uncontaminated and passed it off as coming from designated, potentially contaminated areas, so that the samples would pass laboratory analysis. Survey records for buildings were falsified in a similar spirit. The criminal falsification documented in the record centers on 2012, while the broader civil case spans the full contract period.

The mechanism is the heart of the failure. The whole point of the sampling regime was to verify that specific, suspect ground was safe. Swapping in clean fill from elsewhere defeats that purpose entirely while producing paperwork that looks like success.

The convictions

Two former Tetra Tech radiological-control supervisors were criminally convicted. Stephen Rolfe and Justin Hubbard each pleaded guilty to one count of falsification of records, and each was sentenced to eight months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge James Donato in 2018. Rolfe was sentenced in January 2018 and Hubbard in May 2018.

According to the accounts of their pleas, Rolfe admitted directing technicians to substitute clean soil for contaminated samples about 20 times in 2012. Hubbard admitted collecting clean dirt from outside his assigned survey area and applying false location bar codes to it. It is worth noting that one press outlet erroneously reported the second man as "Jason" Hubbard; the correct name, confirmed by the Justice Department and NBC Bay Area, is Justin Hubbard.

Two points of fairness follow from the record. First, these were supervisors, and the guilty pleas establish their individual conduct; they were not necessarily the only people involved, but they are the ones whom the record documents as convicted. Second, the criminal charge was falsification of records. That is what the government proved and what the men admitted.

How deep the problem ran

Once the falsification surfaced, the government had to ask how much of Tetra Tech's data could be trusted at all. Two reviews addressed that, and their findings must not be merged into a single blanket number.

The Navy conducted its own review across the roughly 900-acre site and found that nearly half of the data contained inconsistencies. That is a site-wide characterization, and it is alarming on its own.

A separate and more pointed finding came from a December 2017 EPA review, conducted with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and the Department of Public Health. On certain sections of the shipyard, the review characterized between 90 and 97 percent of the radiation data as "suspect" and recommended resampling. Those figures are parcel-specific: roughly 90 percent for Parcel B and roughly 97 percent for Parcel G. They are not a statement that 90 to 97 percent of the entire site's data was bad. Attributing them to the specific parcels and the specific review is essential to describing this episode honestly.

It is also worth being precise about what these reviews found and what they did not. They found that the data was unreliable and required re-verification. That is a different thing from a measured, confirmed present-day radiation exposure to the public. The regulators' conclusion was that the ground had not been properly proven clean, which is why the responsible answer was to test it again rather than to assume a specific health harm.

The timeline

Roughly 1948 to 1969: the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory operates at the shipyard.
1969: the NRDL closes.
Around 1974: the Navy ceases operating the shipyard, which is then leased to a commercial ship-repair operator.
Around 1989: the site is added to the Superfund National Priorities List.
1991: the site is listed under the Base Realignment and Closure process.
Roughly 2003 to 2014: Tetra Tech EC provides radiological remediation services; the criminal falsification documented in the record centers on 2012.
2017 (pleas entered): Rolfe and Hubbard enter guilty pleas.
December 2017: the EPA review characterizes 90 to 97 percent of data on certain parcels as suspect.
January and May 2018: Rolfe and Hubbard are sentenced to eight months each by Judge Donato.
October 26, 2018: the Justice Department announces it has intervened in three whistleblower False Claims Act lawsuits against Tetra Tech EC.
January 17, 2025: Tetra Tech EC agrees to a $97 million federal settlement and consent decree.

The money

Two federal legal tracks converged on Tetra Tech EC. The criminal track produced the two individual convictions. The civil track ran under the False Claims Act, the federal statute that lets the government, and private whistleblowers acting on its behalf, recover money paid out on fraudulent claims.

On October 26, 2018, the Justice Department announced that the United States had intervened in three whistleblower, or qui tam, lawsuits alleging that Tetra Tech EC submitted false claims to the Navy for radiological remediation and support services. (The Justice Department's live pages return access errors to automated fetchers; the same intervention text is available through the department's archived mirror, cited below.)

The settlement came more than six years later. On January 17, 2025, Tetra Tech EC agreed to a settlement and consent decree paying the United States $97 million in total. That figure breaks into two parts: $57 million to resolve the False Claims Act claims and $40 million to resolve claims under CERCLA, the federal Superfund statute. The consent decree contained no admission of liability, and it was lodged for a 30-day public-comment period.

A word of caution on that number, because it is easy to double-count. There is one $97 million settlement, the federal one. Reporting that describes a "separate" $97 million private or resident settlement in January 2025 appears to be a duplicate of the same federal figure. Private litigation tied to the contamination, brought by Bayview-Hunters Point residents and by the developer FivePoint, remained ongoing rather than settled at that amount. A genuinely distinct and much smaller figure is the $6.3 million settlement between homeowners and Lennar and FivePoint, approved earlier by Judge Donato. The federal $97 million resolves the government's claims; it does not close out every private suit.

The cost of the fraud is not only the settlement. It is also the re-work. Per a 2025 Mission Local timeline, only about 87 acres, the original Parcels A-1 and A-2, had completed cleanup, while roughly 849 acres remained, with full remediation including the underwater Parcel F not targeted for completion until around 2036. Retesting rolled out across parcels B, C, D, G, and others from 2020 onward. Those totals count all parcels, including water, which is why they run higher than the land-only acreage figures. The Navy's BRAC Program Management Office is the authoritative source for the current parcel-by-parcel status, and the Mission Local figures are best read as a timeline snapshot to be cross-checked there.

The failure and the defense, side by side

The efficiency critique writes itself, and it is fair on the record. The Navy paid a contractor to prove that a former nuclear-research site was safe for thousands of planned homes, and the proof was fabricated. Government reviews then found the data unreliable on a large scale: the Navy flagged nearly half its data, and EPA and California regulators recommended resampling roughly 90 percent of Parcel B and roughly 97 percent of Parcel G. The consequence is waste and delay measured in years. Hundreds of acres must be re-tested and in places re-cleaned, full remediation is projected toward 2036, and much of the site remains untransferred and unusable more than two decades after the shipyard's naval life ended. The structural weakness is a certification regime that let a single contractor, in effect, grade its own work, with oversight that caught the fabrication only after years of tainted data had entered the record.

The public-good defense is also legitimate, and it is not merely a counterweight. The underlying mission is real. The contamination is real. Hunters Point genuinely holds radiological and chemical hazards from its Cold War laboratory work, which is precisely why it is a federal Superfund site under EPA oversight. The redevelopment need is real too: San Francisco has an acute housing shortage, and the plan promised thousands of homes, including a substantial affordable share, on long-idle land. And the accountability system, however late, did function. Whistleblowers and regulators exposed the fraud. The Justice Department prosecuted, and two supervisors went to prison. EPA and California agencies forced an independent re-review. The government recovered $97 million. The retesting now underway, however slow and costly, is the responsible response, because it insists that the ground actually be verified clean rather than merely certified clean.

Both verdicts hold at once. A worthy goal, a real hazard, and a genuine housing need do not excuse the fabrication; and the fabrication does not discredit the goal, the hazard, or the need. The failure at Hunters Point was the contractor's dishonesty. The task of cleaning up and reusing a contaminated federal site remains exactly as legitimate as it was the day the paperwork was first faked, and now it has to be done twice.

Fact-check notes and sources

The site is a former Navy shipyard and EPA Superfund site that housed the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory, with the Navy responsible for cleanup under EPA oversight. NRDL operating dates of roughly 1948 to 1969 come from press histories summarizing the Navy record. U.S. EPA Superfund Site Profile
The shipyard land is roughly 450 to 500 acres; the San Francisco General Plan describes an approximately 490-acre landfill peninsula with about five miles of shoreline. Larger figures near 900 acres count tidelands and the submerged Parcel F. San Francisco Planning Department, General Plan
The site is divided into parcels A through G; Parcel A was transferred and developed, and the radiological fraud centered on parcels including B and G. U.S. Navy BRAC Program Management Office
The combined Shipyard and Candlestick Point redevelopment was planned for roughly 10,000 to 12,000 homes; about 350 homes on Parcel A are actually built, priced near $1 million. The larger number is a master-plan target. San Francisco Planning Department, General Plan
Tetra Tech EC, the Navy's radiological-remediation contractor, misrepresented the source of soil samples and falsified building-survey data; remediation ran roughly 2003 to 2014, with the criminal falsification centered on 2012. The fraud is the contractor's, not the Navy's. U.S. Department of Justice, archived release
Stephen Rolfe and Justin Hubbard, former Tetra Tech radiological-control supervisors, each pleaded guilty to one count of falsification of records and each received eight months in federal prison from Judge James Donato, sentenced in January and May 2018. The name is Justin, not Jason. NBC Bay Area; KTVU FOX 2
A December 2017 EPA review, with California DTSC and CDPH, characterized between 90 and 97 percent of radiation data as suspect on certain sections (roughly 90 percent of Parcel B, 97 percent of Parcel G); the Navy's earlier review found nearly half its data across the roughly 900-acre site had inconsistencies. These are distinct findings and are parcel-specific, not a whole-site number. NBC Bay Area
On October 26, 2018, the Justice Department intervened in three whistleblower False Claims Act lawsuits against Tetra Tech EC. U.S. Department of Justice, archived release
On January 17, 2025, Tetra Tech EC agreed to a $97 million federal settlement and consent decree: $57 million for False Claims Act claims and $40 million for CERCLA claims, with no admission of liability and a 30-day public-comment period. Federal Register, DOJ lodging notice; SF Standard
There is one $97 million settlement, the federal one. Private resident and FivePoint litigation remained ongoing rather than settled at that figure. A distinct, earlier $6.3 million settlement was reached between homeowners and Lennar and FivePoint. SF Standard
Per a 2025 Mission Local timeline, about 87 acres had completed cleanup while roughly 849 acres remained, with full remediation targeted toward 2036 and retesting rolling out across parcels from 2020 onward. These totals count all parcels including water; cross-check current status against Navy BRAC PMO. Mission Local
Timeline dates: NRDL closed 1969; Navy shipyard operations ceased around 1974, then leased to a commercial operator; NPL listing around 1989; BRAC listing 1991. Engineering News-Record

Hunters Point Shipyard: the radioactive cleanup its own contractor faked