.Biofuels Lab Threatens Strawberry Canyon

UC Berkeley's BP facility would cut down three times as many trees as the controversial athletic center.

The public protest against the University of California’s plan to
build an athletic center in the middle of an oak grove was easily the
top story in Berkeley over the past year. The tree-sitters attracted
national media attention for their fight to save 41 trees next to
Memorial Coliseum. But the university’s little-noticed, yet sweeping
plans just up the road from the football stadium have received much
less scrutiny — and no protests — despite the fact that
they could inflict significant environmental damage, and result in the
loss of more than three times as many trees.

Ironically, the university’s tree-cutting plans in beautiful
Strawberry Canyon, a favorite for local hikers and nature lovers,
involve an attempt to save the planet. One of the buildings the
university plans to erect in the tree-studded canyon would be the
Helios Energy Research Facility, a massive laboratory dedicated to
developing a biofuel alternative to fossil fuels. The facility would
house 500 employees next to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
and is to be funded by a controversial $500 million grant from British
petroleum giant BP.

Plans for the building recently returned to the environmental design
and review stage after a lawsuit filed earlier this year by a small
group of environmentalists and activists, known as Save Strawberry
Canyon. But the university has no plans to abandon the Helios facility,
and likely will return the $159 million building proposal to the UC
Board of Regents for re-approval next spring. A Regents subcommittee
originally approved the building’s plans in May.

Lynn Harris, a spokesperson for Lawrence Berkeley Lab, said
university officials plan to re-evaluate geotechnical concerns raised
by the Helios facility construction proposal. The building would be
erected not far from the Hayward Fault on weak colluvial soils in an
area with a history of landslides. “The idea is that it will address
some of the seismic concerns,” Harris said of the redesign. University
officials also intend to come up with a shorter and longer building
design to address fears about blocking hillside residents’ views of San
Francisco Bay.

Stephan Volker, a Berkeley attorney who represents Save Strawberry
Canyon, said he and his clients are pleased that the university is
headed back to the drawing board. But they remain opposed to the
construction of the 160,000 square-foot facility in the canyon. “The
fragile Strawberry Canyon is an extremely poor choice,” he said. The
canyon is studded with oaks, redwoods, bays, eucalyptus, and laurels
amid a chaparral landscape. It’s also home to the UC Berkeley Botanical
Garden and the Lawrence Hall of Science. Members of Save Strawberry
Canyon include Sylvia McLaughlin, founder of Save the Bay.

Along with the concerns about the loss of trees, Volker noted that
the Helios facility it is to be built in a habitat for the endangered
Alameda Whipsnake. In addition, the university’s own environmental
impact report notes that the facility is to be constructed down slope
from a tritium plume — though the EIR claims that the “migration
of the plume has generally slowed or stopped” and does not pose a risk.
Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. The documents do not
indicate the source of the plume.

Save Strawberry Canyon wants the university to build the Helios
facility elsewhere. The group suggests the Richmond Field Station, an
old research station, or on the UC Berkeley campus. “There are a number
of locations they could be — other than a beautiful canyon,”
McLaughlin told Eco Watch. Save Strawberry Canyon also has cited
environmental concerns in a lawsuit against the university’s plan for
another large building in the canyon, known as the Computational
Research and Theory Project, a 126,000 square-foot facility.

But university officials have refused to seriously consider
alternative sites for the two buildings because they believe their
location in Strawberry Canyon will foster interaction and collaboration
with Lawrence Berkeley Lab. Research at the Helios facility will focus
on finding and developing crop substitutes for fossil fuels. The
research itself sparked controversy in the past few years after the
revelation that it is to be funded by BP, raising questions in the
academic community about the effects of huge corporate-backed endeavors
at major public universities.

The members of Save Strawberry Canyon say they have no issue with
the nature of research. The idea is to make ethanol from plant
cellulose, which essentially is sugar. It’s part of what some have
termed the coming “Sugar Economy.” To date, most of the attention on
biofuels has focused on corn-based ethanol, which has proved to be an
inefficient, costly substitute for gasoline. Corn fuels also have
displaced valuable food-producing cropland. In addition, it remains
unclear whether replacing gasoline with ethanol will significantly
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

According to a story on National Public Radio last month, UC
Berkeley researchers are currently examining miscanthus, a bamboo-like
plant that’s a relative of sugar cane and native to Southeast Asia.
Miscanthus is much more efficient than corn and better for the
environment, because it grows in extremely dense thickets without need
for fertilizers and pesticides. Miscanthus reportedly can produce up to
2,500 gallons of ethanol per acre per year. By comparison, corn yields
less than one-sixth as much — 400 gallons.

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