OAKLAND — Long gone from Oakland, the A’s are still battling in court and the California Legislature to demand the demolition of an old steel mill that once thwarted the baseball team’s dreams of a waterfront ballpark.
IA’s abandoned the proposal for the stadium and condo development in 2023 and abandoned the rest of the city more than a year ago. But in the apparent side goal of playing baseball in Sacramento and building new digs in Las Vegas, A’s lawyers are also looking to sue state regulators for Radius, without any apparent financial gain.
The franchise, listed in legal documents as Athletics Investment Group, sought in January to end an exemption that has allowed Radius’ facility in West Oakland to generate hazardous waste without reasonable regulations.
The facility, which opened in 1965, has been the site of several fires over the past two decades, including a major fire in 2023 that sparked a civil lawsuit in Alameda County. Environmentalists in West Oakland have long blamed Radius for contributing to poor air quality in the area.
Now, those advocates count the city’s last major sports franchise — whose acrimonious divorce from Oakland helped tank owner John Fisher’s reputation among residents — as an odd bed.
“It’s as confusing to me as it is to anyone else,” said Brian Beveridge, outgoing head of the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project. “They are no longer interested in the development, they have left the city but their law firm is still there, they are fixing this issue.”
Beveridge said lawyers hired by the San Francisco law firm Venable LLP have contacted his group and other lawyers about opposing the government bill. The franchise also teamed up with environmental groups to oppose SB 811, a California bill that critics warned would loosen regulations governing California’s small metal detectors.
The franchise did not succeed Radius in court before, but the difference now is that it no longer seems to have a financial share in the legal effort, or in its recent appearance as one of the opponents of the bill, which its supporters say will actually strengthen the regulations, making them the same thing.
“If metal scrapers were to be classified as hazardous waste,” said the bill’s author, Sen. Anna Caballero, in a statement, “California will be different from anywhere else in the world and California’s steel mills will not be able to continue operating.”
Grinding mills in metallurgical plants have historically been found by researchers to release polluting chemicals into the environment when they grind up junk cars and other scrap metal. It’s among the complaints activists have filed against West Oakland’s port industry, where the rate of asthma hospitalizations is higher than anywhere else in Alameda County.
In 2021, the agency agreed to pay $4.1 million to the Department of Toxic Substances Control and other prosecutors over allegations that the steel mills emitted particles of hazardous metals, such as lead, cadmium and zinc.
Representatives for Radius, which is headquartered in Portland, Oregon, did not respond to written inquiries or requests for an interview.
The A’s previously sought, and failed, to get state regulators in 2023 to classify the facility’s waste as “hazardous,” which would have subjected the facility to stricter environmental regulations. Regulators discovered at the time that nearby landfills showed no evidence of air or water pollution.
In January, an Alameda County court rejected a request by the A’s that would have forced state regulators to seek a new “hazardous waste” permit if Radius wanted to continue operating its West Oakland plant, which first opened three years before the A’s arrived in Oakland.
But the court appeared sympathetic to A’s moderate requests, striking down the appeal only because a separate legal process underway in Los Angeles forced the state Department of Toxic Substances Control to keep its existing regulations on the books for now.
Former team President Dave Kaval attacked Radius at every opportunity while the franchise pursued the development of Howard Terminal, a $12 billion real estate venture that ended in 2023 after construction costs during the COVID-19 crisis.
Since leaving Oakland, however, the A’s haven’t offered much in the way of reasoning behind their continued rivalry with the Radius.
“OA is pleased to be joined by members of the public and environmental organizations to shed light on the need for environmental law enforcement,” said Athletics vice chairman, Sandy Dean, in his message, asserting that Radius has strengthened its restraint due to the group’s various legal challenges.
Those interviewed for this story offered several different theories as to why the A’s still care about the Radius.
“I don’t know if they care about saving their reputation with the city of Oakland,” said Councilor Carroll Fife, who is not familiar with the axed Howard Terminal in his district that includes West Oakland and the port. “But if they did care, this is a good way to do it.”
The disagreement comes down to a 1988 Department of Toxic Substances Control policy — referred to in the industry as “OPP 88-6 — that kept waste from being legally classified as “hazardous,” even though regulators have sought to close the loophole since at least the turn of the century.
Judge Michael Markham said “almost everyone agrees” that an effective “safe harbor” that protects steel scrappers from tougher standards “is a serious problem and should be done away with.” He left open the possibility that A or someone else could file a similarly worded lawsuit directly challenging OPP 88-6.
For now, however, state legislatures are considering doing the opposite. SB 811, which passed the Legislature, would create a regulatory system for providers that come in without the rules governing hazardous waste.
It follows a very similar bill, SB 404, approved by the Legislature last year, which passed the state Senate unanimously, before Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it, saying the law “lacks clear definitions about what is being processed at these facilities, including what ‘hazardous waste’ requirements apply.”
Radius traces its roots to Oregon, where Russian immigrant Sam Schnitzer founded it as the Alaska Junk Company in 1906. Schnitzer opened its West Oakland factory in the 1960s, becoming a cornerstone of the city’s port industry.
But the country’s declining production – and a number of environmental challenges, such as a series of fires at the port center – have reduced Schnitzer’s earnings, leading the company to rebrand as Radius Recycling in 2023. The following year, the company lost $266 million and $2.7 billion in sales, the Oregon Business Journal reported.
Last year, The Oregonian reported that Radius was sold to Toyota Tsusho Corporation, a Japanese auto company, for $1.3 billion.
In Oakland, the company has encountered many enemies, including former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, who tried to file multiple lawsuits against Radius in 2023 for a massive fire that left black smoke billowing into the sky.
His successor, DA Ursula Jones-Dickson, dismissed the case last year but then took the company to court. Now the A’s are looking to enter legal action. It’s an unusual twist in the story of a beloved sports center that left Oakland in the wrong way.
“There are many people in the East Bay who will hate the A’s until they leave the World,” said Fife. “But this is an interest on the part of the club, and when people do good things, you have to acknowledge them, even if they have a not so good record.”
Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.
