Ramy Shbaita - Final Research Blog - Land Restoration and Social Injustice of the Concord Naval Weapons Station

 

Introduction

United States Military Base history and policy is a controversial one to say the least. Most often we hear about overseas bases, how there are too many, how they disrupt regions, how they are expensive, etc. What is not often talked about is how these bases impact the residents of the United States and the histories behind them. The Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Detachment Concord (CNWS) is no stranger to controversy, from social injustices to environmental issues. Over the course of its history, the CNWS has been the home of multiple incidences involving racial injustice, social injustice, environmental mismanagement, and more. The CNWS could be seen as a symbol of all these negative characteristics, and as a stamp of approval from the United States Government for any of these issues as long as the base remained open. The CNWS is divided into two sperate territories, a Tidal Portion which still remains relatively active, and an inland portion which is decommissioned. This project focuses on the inland territory of the CNWS. The closure and reuse of the Station marks an end in a chapter of injustice from the United States Military, both to those at home and those abroad. With its closure, the land and people in it can begin to heal. The Weapons Station is a symbol of federal and military disregard for disadvantaged communities and the environment so long as the actions can be used to justify certain policy goals. This project will detail the events surrounding the CNWS and describe how all of these situations are indicators or factors of various principals regarding social, racial, and environmental injustice. 

Research Process

To begin the research process, I first wanted to know more about the Naval Weapons Station itself, and what current Department of Defense and Department of Navy plans exist for it as of the last five years. To do this I analyzed reports and other documentation from both departments to understand what current plans are, and what other organizations outside the federal government and the military could be involved. From there I was able to find the City of Concord Reuse Plan online and guided myself through the planning process of what will be done to the former weapons station. When considering if these current plans for reuse and reclamation are fair or just, one must also understand the history of the land and who it originally belonged to prior to the United States establishing the CNWS. When understanding this, you can see possible origins of injustices being done which will be detailed later, and it sets the stage for an uncomfortable trend with this military instillation. Continuing with understanding the history, some notable events constantly come up in documentation about the Weapon Station’s history. Those being the Port Chicago Explosion and the Blood on the Tracks protest. Both of which will be explained in more detail later, but the general point taken away from these is that the Weapons Station becomes an arbiter for injustice and problems in the community as well as a problematic influence for the greater context of events it has been involved in. This process of understanding the history has led me to find federal and non-profit documentation about the land and its usage, first-hand accounts of the trauma suffered in the fight for justice against the force that is the United States Military, and more.

Historical Analysis

The analysis section of this research project will be broken up into a series of smaller sections detailing different aspects of the CNWS throughout its history and what these mean in the broader context of this course. These sections are Land Origins which details who owned the land and what has it been used for during the observable history of the region, Social and Racial Injustices explains the various events mentioned previously and the context behind these incidents with the broader implications of the times, and Environmental Injustices which describes the current reuse strategy of the CNWS as well as the current environmental issues that are causing problems for said development plans within the community.

Land Origins:

As is the case with most land in the USA, the area that is now the city of Concord used to be Native lands until about the 1770s. The area belonged to the Chupcan tribe, who was a smaller regional tribe in the bay area most known for their spiritual beliefs surrounding Mount Diablo of the Bay Area.[1] Most of the documentation I found regarding the tribe had limited information, and mostly detailed the history of the tribe as learned through the interactions with the Spanish settlers of the region. When the Spanish came in to assert control over the territory, they implemented the Mission system and largely “bred out” the Chupcan tribe, forcing them to intermarry with other tribes to weaken blood lines. By 1805, there were only 100-120 identifiable Chupcan tribespeople, and by 1840 they were almost completely dispersed within the Spanish system.[2] From then on, the area that is now Concord would be administered as largely empty unincorporated territory under the Spanish, and then the United States. With this history in mind, we can understand the injustice against the Native people and know that the land will never be able to be returned to its original owners.

Jumping ahead about 100 years, Concord would see the Naval Weapons Station opened in 1942 to help with the United States war effort in the Pacific. Given its strategic location in the Bay Area, it became a major hub of shipping war materials on the west coast such as munitions, weapons, medical supplies and other wartime equipment. Its relative proximity and existing infrastructure of the nearby cities made it ideal to reach other territories in the Pacific and Far East, and support the war effort in those regions. After the end of World War II, the CNWS would see usage as a logistical hub for men and materials for the next wars in Korea, Vietnam, and Central America. If there was a conflict or region the United States was involved in, chances are there was material there that originated from Concord. These controversial wars that the base was involved in would set the state once again for there to be very evident injustices occurring.

Social and Racial Injustices:

One of the first notable incidences of major injustice occurring after the opening of the CNWS, was the Port Chicago Disaster. In 1944, a munitions explosion rocked the community, killing 320 people and injuring another 400 more.[3] The vast majority of those killed and injured in the blast were African-American sailors and thus it became a symbol of the African-American civil rights movement. This event was indicative of current United States Military Policy for the time, which was a segregated military. Not only was the military segregated, but there was also a mistreatment of minorities within the armed forces, often giving them the most dangerous or otherwise more difficult jobs outside of frontline combat when compared to other white soldiers in the same positions as they are. The fallout from the explosion in Port Chicago of the CNWS created a protest where 258 surviving sailors refused to return to work at the CNWS, to protest unsafe working conditions and racial discrimination.[4] The result of this protest ended with 50 sailors being court-marshalled and convicted of mutiny. The protest garnered national support and eventually led to the integration of the Navy by 1946, and full integration of all armed forces by 1948.[5] The actions in the aftermath of the Port Chicago Disaster directly led to the advancement of civil rights for African-Americans in the United States, creating a lasting positive impact from the injustices the CNWS originally brought forth. This event tied the community to the land, sharing its history now as the place where blood was shed and principals were stood up for.

The other notable event that was reoccurring during research about the social injustices perpetrated by the CNWS was the Blood on the Tracks protest of 1987. This protest was originally orchestrated to display public support against the involvement of the United States in the Central American Crisis which begun in the late 1970s. The protest was planned to be held outside Concord as during this crisis, the Concord CNWS was a critical depot to transport munitions being given as aid to US-friendly militia groups in Central America. One of the munitions being commonly shipped was White Phosphorus. White phosphorus is a chemical compound that ignites when it reacts with oxygen, producing thick clouds of white smoke and reaching temperatures high enough to burn through metal.[6] Usually, its legal usage is limited to cover zones as smoke, usage in illumination and incendiary munitions, and as the incendiary component of tracer ammunition. While technically legal, the usage of the compound is highly discouraged from usage against enemy combatants as it is determined to be a cruel weapon. However, countries get around this by using the chemical to destroy emplacements and fortifications, which are often manned by enemy combatants unlucky enough to be in the zone. Reminder; it is munitions like these that the United States was supplying to forces in Central America that, while relatively friendly to the USA, did not necessarily have the best human rights track records. During the protest at Concord Naval Weapons Station against using weapons like these in Central America, Brian Wilson was hit by a munitions supply train that was ordered not to stop from the protests occurring on base.[7] Wilson would go on to lose his legs and have several other injuries from this incident, furthering his political activism into pacifism. With this protest, there is a visible trend of anti-war and pro-civil rights movements centered around the Naval Weapons Station. Many of which involve protests of usage of chemically toxic materials or movements for the rights of minority groups, both in and outside of the United States.

Environmental Injustices

Over its history, there have been a series of accidents that have released toxic levels of chemicals, legally defined as “toxic waste materials”, there are dozens of sites all over the former weapons station with what is defined as “an unacceptable level of lead and other materials” throughout the base.[8] Many of these compounds are combinations of various metals such as selenium, vanadium, zinc, antimony, copper, molybdenum, and more. These contaminants are organized by exposure risks to various forms of wildlife including several species of birds, various reptiles, and dozens of mammals. Much of this pollution is caused by the munitions used and transported through the Station. This is referring to different training exercises using live ammunition in various sites like pistol, rifle, and explosive testing ranges. These toxins pose problems for development, forcing cleanup efforts as the land previously used kills much of the plant life and causes various illnesses depending on the wildlife or person inhabiting the region. The Environmental Protection Agency has monitored various sites within the region and determined them to be of great concern with 14 different toxic sites being determined as territories in need of immediate attention. These range from weapons firing ranges, to materials science labs, to maintenance depots, and more.[9] As it currently stands, the decommissioned zone of the CNWS has dozens of toxic materials residing within it, and various cleanup efforts are underway.

Despite all these issues, the territory is set to be given to the City of Concord by 2023, setting the stage for a future of health issues of the city if the cleanup efforts do not proceed on schedule. Luckily for now, it seems that most of the projects are moving in accordance to their set plans, and development plans are on track. Current development projects are set to reuse large sections of the former CNWS as commercial, residential, industrial, and other municipal zones. Most of the last of the CNWS however will remain largely unincorporated and be reused as a park system with designated zones marked off as potentially toxic for residents or visitors until they can be officially cleaned. One of the more notable developments transforms old munitions storage bunkers into over 13,000 new homes for the City of Concord.[10] As the area develops, echoes of its past very well may continue to haunt new residents or developers for years to come.

Image analysis

Each of the images used in this project served various purposes, but they were mainly used to help the reader develop a greater understanding of the topics being discussed in each of the sections they are placed in. The various visual sources also served to contribute a greater understanding to me personally in regards to location, impact, and context of specific events mentioned throughout this project. A few pictures that were really crucial to understanding certain aspects about the current day CNWS were the image of the munition bunkers left behind, and the graphic about the reuse plan from the City of Concord. The image of the bunkers really drove home the levels of waste present in the land as each of those bunkers stores hundreds of tons of potentially toxic materials that if mismanaged, can have disastrous impacts on the surrounding environmental region. The scale by which the problems of the CNWS could reach were concerning to say the least, and now fully understood. The graphic of the reuse plan allowed me to not only visualize the territory in question more, but also guide my research into why specific areas were being developed as such while others weren’t thereby giving me new areas to attach focus to for my project. Much of what was yielded from these different rabbit holes in analyzing the pictures was highly technical but the generalized ideas are present within the final paper itself.  

Conclusion

If it has not been made abundantly clear, United States Military instillations are largely problematic. The Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Detachment Concord has found itself host to a litany of major problems from social to racial, to environmental. While there is still some positive impact from the closure of the base, this does not forgive the years of injustice and crisis brought upon by the CNWS and the policies it represented. The rich histories of struggle and strife from various groups over the decades will not be forgotten. Their impacts will be remembered by those who experienced them and those who worked so hard to achieve them. The story of the CNWS is one of a government and military who close their eyes to the issues they case, and communities who struggle and fight for what they believe in. Whether that be for the rights of fellow Americans regardless of their skin color, or for the environmental destruction wrought by toxic weapons tested at home and used overseas, people will remember. The lives lost and blood shed on this land will remain as stark reminder to those who support the expansion and development of American military interests, void of any and all costs.

Bibliography

Aiesi, Matthew J. “The Jus in Bello of White Phosphorus: Getting the Law Correct.” Lawfare, November 26, 2019. https://www.lawfareblog.com/jus-bello-white-phosphorus-getting-law-correct#:~:text=The%20Law%20of%20Armed%20Conflict%20Applicable%20to%20White%20Phosphorus&text=Determining%20that%20it%20is%20illegal,%2D%20or%20customary%2Dbased%20prohibition.

Arrigoni, Aimee. “Native Americans of the East Bay After the Gold Rush.” Museum of the San Ramon Valley. Accessed March 17, 2021. https://museumsrv.org/post-1187/.

Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Program Management Office (PMO) West , Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis Munitions and Explosives of Concern Installation Restoration IR Site 24A Former Pistol Range (UXO 0001A) Former Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Detachment Concord Concord, California § (2011).

Base Realignment and Closure Program Management Office West, Action Memorandum for Time-Critical Removal Action at Guam Way Area of Potential Interest Former Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Detachment Concord Concord, California § (2012).

Bendix, Aria. “A Navy Weapons Station Full of WWII-Era Ammunition Bunkers Could Be Transformed into 13,000 New Homes in the Bay Area.” Business Insider. Business Insider, November 5, 2019. https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-weapons-station-bay-area-ammunition-bunkers-new-homes-2019-11.

“California: Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, October 3, 2019. https://www.nps.gov/places/port-chicago-naval-magazine-national-memorial.htm.

“CONCORD NAVAL WEAPONS STATION Site Profile.” EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, October 20, 2017. https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0902778#Status.

Goodman, Amy. “‘Blood on the Tracks’: Brian Willson's Memoir of Transformation from Vietnam Vet to Radical Pacifist.” Democracy Now!, October 28, 2011. https://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/28/blood_on_the_tracks_brian_willsons.

“History of the Concord Naval Weapons Station: Concord Community Reuse Project, CA.” History of the Concord Naval Weapons Station | Concord Community Reuse Project, CA. Accessed January 29, 2021. https://www.concordreuseproject.org/149/History-of-the-Concord-Naval-Weapons-Sta.

Lane, Beverly. “The Bay Miwok Language and Land .” Museum of the San Ramon Valley. Accessed March 17, 2021. https://museumsrv.org/the-bay-miwok-language-and-land/.

McLeod, Dean L. “A CHUPCAN FAMILY: The Children of Mol-Le.” Museum of the San Ramon Valley. Accessed March 17, 2021. https://museumsrv.org/a-chupcan-family-the-children-of-mol-le/.

“The Reuse Plan: Concord Community Reuse Project, CA.” The Reuse Plan | Concord Community Reuse Project, CA. Accessed March 17, 2021. https://www.concordreuseproject.org/151/The-Reuse-Plan.

Waxmann, Laura. “Navy Clears Concord Land Transfer despite Expanded Toxic Cleanup Efforts.” bizjournals.com, December 22, 2021. https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2020/12/22/concord-naval-weapons-station-redevelopment.html.

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[1] McLeod, Dean L. “A CHUPCAN FAMILY: The Children of Mol-Le.” Museum of the San Ramon Valley. Accessed March 17, 2021. https://museumsrv.org/a-chupcan-family-the-children-of-mol-le/.

[2] Lane, Beverly. “The Bay Miwok Language and Land .” Museum of the San Ramon Valley. Accessed March 17, 2021. https://museumsrv.org/the-bay-miwok-language-and-land/.

 

[3] “California: Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, October 3, 2019. https://www.nps.gov/places/port-chicago-naval-magazine-national-memorial.htm.

[4] Ibid

[5] Ibid

[6] Aiesi, Matthew J. “The Jus in Bello of White Phosphorus: Getting the Law Correct.” Lawfare, November 26, 2019.

[7] Goodman, Amy. “‘Blood on the Tracks’: Brian Willson's Memoir of Transformation from Vietnam Vet to Radical Pacifist.” Democracy Now!, October 28, 2011. https://www.democracynow.org/2011/10/28/blood_on_the_tracks_brian_willsons.

 

[8] Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Program Management Office (PMO) West , Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis Munitions and Explosives of Concern Installation Restoration IR Site 24A Former Pistol Range (UXO 0001A) Former Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Detachment Concord Concord, California § (2011).

 

[9] “CONCORD NAVAL WEAPONS STATION Site Profile.” EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, October 20, 2017. https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0902778#Status.

[10] Bendix, Aria. “A Navy Weapons Station Full of WWII-Era Ammunition Bunkers Could Be Transformed into 13,000 New Homes in the Bay Area.” Business Insider. Business Insider, November 5, 2019. https://www.businessinsider.com/navy-weapons-station-bay-area-ammunition-bunkers-new-homes-2019-11.