Thunderstorms early, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 54F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%..
Thunderstorms early, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 54F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Updated: April 10, 2026 @ 4:32 pm
Editor,
Forty years ago, Redwood City made a bet. While neighboring cities capped shoreline dumps and left them undisturbed, Redwood City gambled by building on top of their toxin-filled dump, next to a wildlife reserve. Then they upped the ante with housing next to the 30-foot-high mound. And they backed their wager with the Westport Plan; a promise that in exchange for building 1 million square feet, the developer would guarantee no toxic leaks from that dump.
Now, 40 years later, the city has lost the bet. The dump settled, exposing building foundations, and they don’t know the status of the mud cap or toxic leaks. The state has issued citations for jerry-rigged attempts to vent excess methane. We have failures of the levee — the levee the developer promised to maintain to protect the Bay, but that taxpayers had to pay to fix. Groundwater floods the site whenever a king tide meets an atmospheric river.
Now the city wants to up the ante again — double or nothing. They want off the hook for that Westport Plan. Triple the buildings, 100-foot Millennium towers of Pisa, twice the employees and cars. Plus, toxic biosafety-level-3 research, so when the inevitable natural disaster occurs, they expose the Bay to biotoxin leaks.
Now, 40 years later, we know about Bay-mud liquefaction and that we are overdue for a major quake. We’ve watched the Millennium Tower tilt. We know sea-level rise pushes up groundwater to leach toxins into the Bay. We know our Bay ecosystem impacts fisheries beyond the Golden Gate. And we know a little biological leak can lead to a worldwide pandemic. But, somehow, we don’t know how to stop this madness.
Kristin Mercer
Belmont
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