This is the website of L A Wood who is currently seeking the City of Berkeley District 4 Council Seat - Campaign 2008 To visit L A's campaign site to learn about how you can help, go to -www.4LAWood.org-

Berkeley’s Skate Park: Backslide on the Chrome-6
L A Wood, Berkeley Daily Planet, May 1, 2008
From its opening days in 2003 when the complex was abruptly closed because of toxic groundwater seepage, Harrison skate park has been a gnarly ride for Berkeley. Now it appears to be in an irreversible backslide and headed for a wipeout. -more-

Berkeley Opts Out of Clean Water
L A Wood, Berkeley Daily Planet, March 11, 2008
“City of Berkeley, the water is murky” has becomethe latest rap on the city’s crumbling storm drain infrastructure. For nearly two decades, Berkeley’s Clean Water efforts in controlling surface water pollution have amounted to little more than a “greenwash” of meaningless phrases such as “Save the Bay”. -more-

Class Action Complaint against Pacific Steel PRESS RELEASE April 21, 2008 Class Action Complaint against Pacific Steel Law Offices of Timothy P. Rumberger, April 22, 2008 Alameda County Superior Court Case No. RG08383068 Print Media PRESS Class-Action Suit against Pacific Steel

West Berkeley Community AIR Monitoring PROJECT Community Citizen's Science Project

Cancer Risk in West Berkeley
L A Wood, Berkeley Daily Planet, January 29, 2008
For decades, the stench from airborne chemicals emitted by Pacific Steel Casting has been allowed to pollute the air downwind from its foundries with virtual impunity. Environmental changes have come slowly to this part of the city. While other industrial polluters are much smaller, or have moved away in response to the growing residential population in this district, PSC’s operations have been allowed to expand. -more-

ODOR NUISANCE @ PACIFIC STEEL
L A Wood, February 12, 2008
Pacific Steel has invested much time and money for various odor abatement technologies in an attempt to shield the foundry from public scrutiny and the courts. However, its first line of defense has always been political. This was most evident last week when Oakland councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente rallied workers outside the Berkeley foundry with some old-time saber rattling. -more-

BERKELEY'S FREEWAY SPORTS FIELDS
L A Wood Berkeley Daily Planet, October 14, 2005
Who in their right mind would ever think to create a sports field on the shoulder of aninterstate freeway that is often in gridlock and whose daily auto capacity exceeds 250,000 vehicles? It seems no one, except the City of Berkeley which is now proposing the Gilman Street “Freeway Fields”. -more-

HISTORIC WELL FIELDS IN THE EAST BAY 1860-1930
Groundwater supplied 30 to 100% of the water used in the East Bay area between 1860 and 1930 (depending on the time of year). Most residences had private wells. Within 5 to 10 years after drilling, many of those wells failed (sanded up/casing collapsed) or became contaminated from outhouses. Well fields were drilled by water companies to provide cleaner, better water... -more-

LBNL: 75 Years of Science, 75 Years of Pollution
L A Wood, Berkeley Daily Planet, August 25-27, 2006
The founders’ day activities at this private gala will undoubtedly evoke many memories of the good old days... It’s unlikely that very many will speak about its legacy of pollution and the undeniable impact that has had on the facility and its environs. -more-

CITY OF BERKELEY SEWER SYSTEM HISTORY
The City's first sewer lines were constructed around 1885 and main trunk lines added in 1913. Hundred-year old engineering notes record the original survey for the sewers on Martin Luther King Jr. Way (formerly Grove Street, known as Sherman Street in 1888). Major sewer extensions occurred in 1928 and 1929. Bond issues in 1913 and 1928 brought Berkeley's public sewer system investments up to $1.3 million. -more-

What's at stake in the Ecology of BERKELEY STRAWBERRY CANYON...

The Memorial Grove, a humble stretch of land, sustains more than is apparent from the sidewalk of Piedmont Avenue.The trees and the cameo ecosystem they hold together form a lynchpin corridor connecting two large masses of wildscapewhere foxes, mountain lions and many others find a home. Closing this corridor would reverberate across those wildscapes from the Berkeley Hills to Pinole and Chabot, and beyond to the rest of the network of parks that make the East Bay the envy of the world.
SEE a pictorial essay @ http://www.youtube.com

THE BEVATRON, the largest high-energy ACCELERATOR
in the world, when it opened in 1954 at theLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (then called the UC Radiation Laboratory), was declared eligible on December 5, 1995, for listing on the NationalRegister of Historic Places. <more>

Citizen's Report on Contaminated Groundwater at the LAWRENCE BERKELEY LAB's Numerous geotechnical investigations have been conducted during the past six decades as LBNL expanded while also experiencing problems with slope stability. Themany geotechnical and environmental reports generated by LBNL, as well as research from local academic, state, and federal entities, indicate that minimal agreement has existed among scientists on the location of bedrock contacts or location and status of earthquake faults and landslides in the Canyon... <more>

Images from the presentation Berkeley Public Works: Moving into the Twenty-First Century Note: The public policy video "Berkeley Public Works: Moving into the Twenty-First Century" was produced for the Alternative Fueling Sites Subcommittee of City Council and was first viewed as part of its agenda in 1997.  Script L A Wood