Thomas Sawano

Richmond seeks help planning for foot of sea rise that will hit its long shoreline

Looking inward from the tip of Point Pinole, it is hard to imagine that much of the gradually sloping expanse that is Richmond’s 32-mile shoreline could someday be transformed into a bulwark against global sea level rise.  In September, the city issued a request for proposals from contractors to author a strategic document that could guide Richmond’s response to the foot or so of ocean water expected to inundate coastal cities the world over.  In addition to requiring a detailed…

No new sewer line means no new construction at Keller Beach

It will be quite some time before any new homes are built in Keller Beach.  Since January 2022, property owners in the small Point Richmond neighborhood have been barred from obtaining building permits, owing to a city moratorium on new connections to the Keller Beach Sanitary Sewer, which stretches for just over a mile along the area’s coastline.  City officials tagged the line in November 2021, according to records, because of “severe internal corrosion” and sand deposits in portions of…

People of Richmond: What type of business does the city need more of?

“People of Richmond” is a regular series in which reporters pose a question to people in the community. Answers are presented verbatim, though sometimes edited for brevity. Q: What type of business would you like to see more of in Richmond? “Get us a small town pharmacist here. … A bakery, little floral shop would be nice. Give businesses an incentive to open here.” (Sam Charles, barbershop owner, pictured above) “I would like to see more entertainment-type businesses. That’d be…

People of Richmond: Are you getting the new COVID vaccine?

“People of Richmond” is a regular series in which reporters pose a question to people in the community. Answers are presented verbatim, though sometimes edited for brevity. Q: Will you get the new COVID-19 booster when it becomes available? “I don’t think I’m going to take it because I don’t need it. In the place I work, they don’t require me to take the vaccine. I can go to stores to buy things and they don’t ask me to prove…

Groundwater cleanup of contaminated Zeneca site to begin next month

Zeneca Inc. will begin a series of “groundwater injections” next month at the controversial Campus Bay project site in South Richmond, setting off a nine-month process to break down hazardous compounds underlying the 86-acre patch of coastal land.  According to Zeneca planning documents, contractors will pump thousands of gallons of city water, reactive iron, microbes and microbe food into about 400 wells that dot the 86-acre site, which lies due west of Richmond’s Panhandle Annex neighborhood. The idea, California Department…