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The Superfund Sites of Silicon Valley
- api_or_ipa 9y agoholycrap, is the soccer pitch the one on the corner of Page Mill & El Camino? That's nuts that I drive right next to a superfund site every day.
- jboy55 9y agoMy rule of thumb, if its in SV, its a superfund site. I used to work by the VA hospital, there was a sign that said pregnant women shouldn't touch the grass.
- seanp2k2 9y agoDon’t forget all the Prop 65 earnings in apartment complexes! It’s mostly for asbestos in the case of apartments.
- rconti 9y agoLooks like the one at Alma and El Camino, right across from Stanford Mall.
- seanp2k2 9y agoA great place for new luxury apartments and condos! I wish I was kidding.
- jpm_sd 9y agoThis is pretty thin on content. More information: [1] https://qz.com/1017181/silicon-valley-pollution-there-are-more-superfund-sites-in-santa-clara-than-any-other-us-county/ https://qz.com/1017181/silicon-valley-pollution-there-are-mo... [2] https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Toxic-Plumes-The-Dark-Side-of-Silicon-Valley-258942561.html https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Toxic-Plumes-The-D... [3] https://www.epa.gov/vaporintrusion/vapor-intrusion-superfund-sites https://www.epa.gov/vaporintrusion/vapor-intrusion-superfund...
- tobinfricke 9y ago> This is pretty thin on content. Note that this is a photography project and appears in the "Lens" section of the NYT.
- gnicholas 9y agoThe NBC article has a useful map: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/brchannel/Map-The-Chemical-Legacy-of-Silicon-Valley-258950021.html https://www.nbcbayarea.com/brchannel/Map-The-Chemical-Legacy...
- russellbeattie 9y agoI have friends who like to eat from their garden and fruit trees in their yard. I have to remind them that they're living in Silicon Valley and who knows what sort of crazy industrial solvents are seeping up through the ground.
- colin_mccabe 9y agoThe main industrial solvent described in superfund sites in the south bay is TCE (trichloroethelyine), which does not bioaccumulate. The fruit won't contain it, even if you live right on the superfund site. I'm not aware of a major soil contaminant around here that does bioaccumulate. I guess lead from the old leaded gasoline, which we stopped using in the 1970s. (Areas around roads that were active prior to the 1970s will have higher soil lead levels). But that's the same as any place in the US.
- electricslpnsld 9y ago> I guess lead from the old leaded gasoline This is a major issue in parts of Oakland, not South Bay but not far away [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_contamination_in_Oakland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_contamination_in_Oakland
- inferiorhuman 9y agoLeaded gasoline wasn't phased out in California until 1990.
- aaronblohowiak 9y agoJanuary 1 1992 and it was the first state to do so.
- derekp7 9y agoI think mid to mid-late 70's was when most cars could no longer take leaded gasoline (the pump nozzle wouldn't fit, and catalytic converters would get plugged). Leaded gas was still available, but as older cars died not much leaded gas was pumped (cars back then didn't have as long of a life cycle, so probably by 85 or so more cars than not were on unleaded).
- dekhn 9y agoShocking how incomplete this article is. One of the prominent sites was caused by Fairchild, and it's specifically described in Gordon Moore's autobiography. he said they just dumped strong acids down the drain, unaware that it ate a hole in the drainpipe, and so all the other solvents they dumped down the same drain ended up hitting the water table and pluming (https://www.amazon.com/Moores-Law-Silicon-Valleys-Revolutionary/dp/0465055648 https://www.amazon.com/Moores-Law-Silicon-Valleys-Revolution...). he claims he didn't know that would happen, but every trained chemist learns to neutralize their acids before dumping them down the drain. AFAICT, Moore and his buddies never had to pay anything for this- the companies settled with the government.
- HarryHirsch 9y agoThe statement about the acids doesn't make any sense. Every building engineer in charge of an industrial site knows that the pH of wastewater has to be within range, or the city will come after you for messing with operation of the sewage plant. My undergraduate university had a neutralization plant at its science site. And what's with the solvents dumped down the drain? Only water-soluble material is disposed of through sewage, with constraints on biological oxygen demand. Solvents don't go into sewage, they are burned, and some halogenated solvents are exquisitely toxic to the biological stage in the treatment plant, but that is known. Also, the sewage engineers would notice. With semiconductor plants it's usually halogenated solvent plumes. No leaky sewage lines involved.
- dekhn 9y agoThis all happened in the 60s and 70s when Fairchild was getting started. AFAICT, they just ignored all the rules. Note that this was before "semiconductor plants" as a thing existed: Moore invented a lot of the technology underlying semi plants at Fairchild.
- HarryHirsch 9y agoThey really shouldn't have skipped the rules, a common source of solvent plumes in groundwater is drycleaners. When did they start using halogenated solvents, in the 1930s?
- fkj_9 9y agoHow weird - I used to live in that same house that's featured in that article. 1908 Colony St. in Mountain View, CA. I remember the landlord made me sign an agreement that indemnifies them from legal responsibility in the event I get sick from drinking the water, or leaky vapors, or whatever. It basically read that if I get sick for any reason, I can't sue anyone for it. What a lovely and generous place SV is!
- dqpb 9y agoWhy would you sign that?
- gowld 9y agoWould you prefer I sue you if I get sick for any reason? Do you want to pay the cost of environmental remediation in your rent? I'm sure your landlord would be willing to allow that.
- fkj_9 9y agoI would prefer you not sue me if you get sick for any reason. Though I am not a multi-million dollar corporation responsible for toxic waste under your bed. I don't want to pay the cost of environmental remediation through my rent. I would rather an agreement was reached to either deem the area uninhabitable or clean it thoroughly and deem it safe, in which case the non-liability clause oughtn't be necessary. I dislike the lack of guarantee either way. I didn't mean to trivialize a complicated issue. It was more so hyperbolic musing that in an area that supposedly epitomizes Western civilization, technological progress and elevates humanism, we can't even guarantee basic safety from the elements.
- dbt00 9y agoPreviously covered: 2001, salon: https://www.salon.com/2001/07/30/almaden1/ https://www.salon.com/2001/07/30/almaden1/ 2013, the atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/not-even-silicon-valley-escapes-history/277824/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/not-e... 2015, gizmodo: https://gizmodo.com/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-and-the-toxic-remn-1743622225 https://gizmodo.com/the-secret-history-of-silicon-valley-and... 2017, kqed: https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/388730 https://www.kqed.org/futureofyou/388730 I've lived here off and on since 1999, but that Atlantic article was the first one to really get my attention.
- gabaix 9y agoI also lived in College Terrace in Palo Alto, where one of the superfund is. At the time very few residents knew about the issue. I believe it is the same today. My neighbor Aaron Greenspan (also known for fighting his classmate Mark Zuckerberg on trademark issues) asked local authorities to do more to inform residents. It did not go anywhere. He eventually moved out, and so did I. Here's one of his blog posts from back in 2013: http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/20130404/in-search-of-the-cookie-dough-tree/ http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/20130404/in-search-of-...
- sjg007 9y agoI think Google is on top of a superfund site.
- cdibona 9y agoThe main HQ isn't actually on top of a superfund site, but an ex-dump. We derive a fair amount of methane from the decaying matter underneath shoreline...
- DrScump 9y agoThe Shoreline Amphitheater (yes, the idiots who ran Mtn. View back then couldn't tell an amphitheater from a theater) was built over the dump. The first few events revealed the danger when people sitting on the lawn portion actually set the lawn afire with their lighters, due to methane seeping through the soil.
- sadface 9y agoA startup/lifestyle company I used to work for several years ago aggregates the GIS data of these superfund sites (and other environmental points of interest) and makes it available at [1]. The site is pretty old and some of the links need updating, but they still link to the monitoring profiles of these sites. For example, here[2] is the CA Water Board page for the Page Mill HP site. [1]https://whatsdown.terradex.com/ https://whatsdown.terradex.com/ [2]http://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/profile_report.asp?global_id=SL720511210 http://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/profile_report.asp?glob...
- thinkloop 9y ago"Superfund" seems to be what we call contaminated land from industrial waste?
- dqpb 9y agoThat's a really stupid name (or maybe really smart if your a politician). Should be called Supertoxic.
- gowld 9y agoSuperfund refers to the super amount of funds spent to clean up the messes.
- klipt 9y agoBut they haven't cleaned them up?
- coldacid 9y agoWith a lot of these substances, cleaning them up doesn't just cost a lot of money, it also takes a lot of time.
- knowaveragejoe 9y agoSome have been.
- galdosdi 9y agoOnce they're totally cleaned up they're no longer superfund sites. This is like looking at my list of _open_ bug tickets and complaining that not a single one of them is done. That said, it can be hard to get a lot of these sites all the way to 100% cleaned up, and there's a lot of non-engineering obstacles. There's landowners and neighbors with all kinds of differing incentives, as in a Queens, NY site where they want to dig up and get rid of some radiation but there are businesses who have already been built atop it and would have to be destroyed.
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- smaili 9y agoI'd love to understand more clearly the risks of these contaminated sites. Would just the mere presence of, say playing on a Superfund soccer field expose you to those chemicals? Or is it more around if you were to drink the water from these sites then you would be at risk? Same goes for any offices that happen to be sitting on Superfund sites.
- pfarnsworth 9y agoLarge swathes of Mountain View are poisoned because of chemicals used at Moffett Field to clean the airplanes. They spread down into Mountain View such that some areas have higher cancer rates than others and was designated Superfund sites even 15 years ago when I lived in the area.
- philipkglass 9y agoThere's a common culprit between contamination from Moffett Field, old semiconductor sites, and even old dry cleaning sites: chlorinated solvents, trichloroethylene in particular. TCE is non-corrosive, non-flammable, cheap, a great solvent for many non-water-soluble compounds, and it evaporates cleanly and rapidly. It also has a relatively low acute toxicity to humans. It was commercialized in the 1920s as a surgical anesthetic, and still sees some medical use: http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Jh2929e/4.5.html http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Jh2929e/4.5.html I even found it sold by the can in a hardware store as recently as 2002. Unfortunately, it's a carcinogen and can cause neurological problems with heavy or chronic exposure. It breaks down slowly in soil or water. (Though it breaks down rapidly once volatilized into the atmosphere - half life of one week.) It migrates easily through soil and into water. As of 2005, TCE was detected in 5% of American public water systems supplied by groundwater and in 15% supplied by surface water. https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp19.pdf https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp19.pdf
- jacquesm 9y agoNothing like a little externalization to boost the bottom line.
- terravion 9y agoThis seems like the NY times continuing anti-SV coverage. For example, while Santa Clara has some number of super-fund sites supposed the most in the country, would we expect this based on historical manufacturing GDP? Is it out of line? There seems to be a suggestion of something sinister about Silicon Valley with mentions of the work culture--as though it was monolithic--and calling it toxic. Commenting on the clothes people wear--to what end? can't trust a guy who wears a hoodie? I'm not sure social media is so much worse if this is journalism.
- paulie_a 9y agoMaybe SV just sucks? Unless I was paid at least half a million a year I wouldn't even consider living there.
- seanp2k2 9y agoIf you play your cards right, half a million after benefits and stocks are consider is within reach for engineers. Director level and up and it’s very attainable. The Bay Area isn’t perfect, but it has a lot to offer for many, especially if you’re in the top 10% or so of earners out here. If you make minimum wage out here it’s probably awful aside from the weather and how nice and relaxed people generally are compared to the rest of the US, though I’ve seen that slipping in the past 5 years, especially on the road — it seems like there are a lot more angry drivers now than even a few years ago.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- gowld 9y agoSV is unique in the USA in that it's a major industrial area that evolved into a huge urban center, not a small rural town. So the impact of each bit of pollution is much larger.
- mcguire 9y agoAlso, the electronics industry is usually viewed as ecologically friendly, although I'm not sure why.
- hedgehog 9y agoReminds me of this previously posted essay about contamination in College Terrace: http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/20130404/in-search-of-the-cookie-dough-tree/ http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/20130404/in-search-of-...
- jboy55 9y agoIts interesting, I've always been asked what the 'official' definition of Silicon Valley is, or if some specific city is 'in' Silicon Valley or out. Like say, Redwood City. By looking at this map here, https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/plume-minimal/index.html# https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/plume-minimal/index.html# you can easily tell by wether the city has a Superfund site.
- 2bit 9y agoThis data is only for cities in Santa Clara County: This map shows the sites of toxic chemical "plumes" in Santa Clara County, CA
- jboy55 9y agoBesides one in SF (and a couple in Oakland), all the "Superfund" sites in the "Bay Area" are in Santa Clara County. https://epa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=33cebcdfdd1b4c3a8b51d416956c41f1&query=Superfund_National_Priorities_List__NPL__Sites_with_Status_Information_7557,SITE_EPA_ID=%27CAD048634059%27 https://epa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=...
- rconti 9y agoSilicon Valley should be basically Santa Clara Valley, but in practice, it basically means everywhere including SF and the east bay.
- shadowtree 9y agoI'd add Hunter's Point to this list as it is being redeveloped right now - but that former Naval Shipyard has quite a story. Some details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Naval_Shipyard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Naval_Shipyard If you enjoy higher cancer rates due to radiological contamination, this area is for you. Latest fun: San Francisco accepted Hunters Point shipyard land that may still be radioactive EPA, state health regulators approved transfer in 2015 despite awareness of fraud allegations https://sf.curbed.com/2018/3/13/17081188/san-francisco-hunters-point-shipyard-radioactive-toxic-navy https://sf.curbed.com/2018/3/13/17081188/san-francisco-hunte...
- 205guy 9y agoIn 2008, I looked at renting on Treasure Island, back when it was just starting to be developed from a derelict military base into a neighborhood. The townhomes being rented were the old military housing, in rows along the streets. One section, identical to others nearby being lived in, was fenced off with portable fences and a radiation hazard sign every 100 yards or so. The information was available at the time, but you had to go looking for it. Now that it is transferred to the city of SF and redevelopment is proceeding, I see a bunch of articles about it again. Needless to say, I didn't rent there. I ended up on the Peninsula, but a few weeks after moving in, I noticed there was an old gas station along El Camino Real that was fenced and had venting pipes and equipment--leaking gas tanks are no picnic either. https://www.google.com/search?q=treasure+island+radiation https://www.google.com/search?q=treasure+island+radiation
- rb808 9y agoMaybe NY Times should check its own backyard first. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Superfund_sites.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Superfun... EDIT: What I meant was yes SV has a bunch of superfund sites, but they are far fewer than other parts of the country, especially the North East.
- matthewmacleod 9y agoIs there some reason it’s unreasonable to look at sites throughout the USA?
- mwfunk 9y agoThe purpose of the article is not to make NY look better than SV. The purpose of the article is to point out the Superfund sites in SV that a lot of people who live here would be surprised to learn about.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- emodendroket 9y agoI find it difficult to understand the impulse that would lead someone to see a news story about pollution where they live and attack the newspaper for publishing it.
- geofft 9y agoIt's a pretty ancient impulse. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_AiI9_XIAA67_t.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_AiI9_XIAA67_t.jpg
- eyeareque 9y agoThis makes me wonder: If SV only has 20 something superfund sites from back when tech was very small, how many superfund sites does china have with their massive factories?
- briandear 9y agoThe entirety of China should be a Superfund site. I lived in Suzhou for about a year or so and Lake Tai nearby is pretty much radioactive [1] (figuratively, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were literally.) It seems that much of the surface water in China is extraordinarily polluted -- and I saw people fishing out of canals or waters near industrial sites as if they were in the Alaskan wilderness or something. There's likely a huge under-reporting of pollution-related illnesses. I know that respiratory illness statistics are an actual state secret -- you can't get access to the actual data on pollution-related illnesses. Chinese pollution is beyond crisis levels. All of this worry about the Paris agreement and CO2 -- that's nonsense: China has problems with actual pollution that kills people, such as benzene and other highly toxic chemicals and particulate pollution. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tai#Pollution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tai#Pollution
- dragonwriter 9y ago> The entirety of China should be a Superfund site. That would require a sizable expansion of EPA jurisdiction that might run into a few issues.
- toomuchtodo 9y agoIt might be a welcome change of pace from attempting to export “democracy” and “freedom” though.
- ams6110 9y agoThis is why I won't buy food products from China. This includes almost any store brand or even name brand apple juice or juice blend that you'll find in the supermarket.
- deleted 9y ago
- tikhonj 9y agoI remember seeing a great post about this a few years ago: "In Search of the Cookie Dough Tree"[1] by Aaron Greenspan. It stands out all these years as a vivid, personal account of an issue I simply hadn't thought about before. [1]: http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/20130404/in-search-of-the-cookie-dough-tree/ http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/20130404/in-search-of-...
- stevewilhelm 9y agoI worked in one of the buildings built atop this HP site[1]. It had a big water pump in the parking lot treating the ground water. The story went that the HP instruments used to detect the ground water pollution levels were first built at the very site. [1] https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.Cleanup&id=0902134#bkground https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fus...
- Taniwha 9y agowhat the essentially did in the 90s was to dig giant trenches around entire city block, way down to the impermeable clay layer ... then fill the trenches with a similar impermeable clay creating a giant block sized container which they are still now pumping water through to slowly clean out the polutants
- mmagin 9y agoFortunately (with rare exceptions) nobody uses well water in Santa Clara county (see https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1182/pdf/05SantaClaraValley.pdf https://pubs.usgs.gov/circ/circ1182/pdf/05SantaClaraValley.p... ) and a lot of these chemicals are relatively low toxicity, the greatest danger seems to be vapors released from the soil. As far as risks via things like gardening, I actually wonder about the levels of arsenic or mercury in the soil, compounds of which were used many decades ago on fruit trees (which were very common here).
- aj7 9y agoI worked at Spectra-Physics when the contamination occurred. It was below a plating line that did alodine prior to painting aluminum laser and instrument housings. The building pictured is Bldg 5, where I had my first serious job. This was a clean building where ion laser tubes were manufactured and scientific lasers, including the first high power single frequency, and ultrafast (picosecond) lasers were final tested. Spectra-Physics was bought and sold many times, and is now a division of a company that perfected a relatively simple vacuum gauge that relied on the movement of a stai steel diaphragm. Spectra was the first laser IPO, but it never really flourished; it was kind of ruined by Stanford MBAs. It’s competitor, Coherent, became a powerhouse, largely because it retained its technical leadership. My building 5 is now a Korean church. Now that’s a profitable business!
- JudasGoat 9y agoDoes anyone care to comment on other countries and their handling of the hazardous waste from semiconductor manufacturing? Also are the unsafe practices long outdated?
- gnachman 9y agoThe first paragraphs here are horrifying: https://www.mv-voice.com/morgue/2001/2001_01_19.supe19.html https://www.mv-voice.com/morgue/2001/2001_01_19.supe19.html > According to Alana Lee, the EPA project manager for the site, the air stripper on the Netscape campus was constructed in 1989, and because of a grandfather clause, is permitted to emit 24 pounds per day of toxic material. > > The current limit for air-strippers is 1 pound per day.
- flyGuyOnTheSly 9y ago>The world’s capital of tech innovation prefers to keep its superlatives, good and bad, under wraps. Can anybody explain to me what "superlatives" means in that opening sentence? As it doesn't seem to match any of the standard definitions. [0] [0] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/superlative http://www.dictionary.com/browse/superlative
- sjm-lbm 9y agoI read it as definition #4 on your link. Basically, it's saying that SV likes to keep both it's very very good things (new life-changing tech) and it's very very bad things (these Superfund sides) under wraps.
- flyGuyOnTheSly 9y agoThank you, yes, that does make sense now!
- gumby 9y agoAfter it was an HP building that soccer field in the photo was a gas station, which was likely worse. And people are taking steps: in Santa Clara (the city, not county), residential areas are receive Hetch Hetchy water while areas zoned industrial get groundwater. When I had an office there I was able to look this up on the city's web site. The only time I've been willing to pay for bottled water. Much of Moffett Field is a superfund site (the main reason it's still a government facility) because back during the cold war the Navy used to dump toxic de-icing chemicals on those sub flights that took off from there every hour...from an area right next to the marsh. Back in the 80s I remember visiting the Intel fab (also in santa clara) and watching a farmer harvesting wheat next door. I always wondered what happened to that wheat since it was obvious back then that the leachate would be a problem (nowadays the water coming out of the fabs is cleaner than the water that come in...but the damage is done). And it's not all bad. I remember sitting in Cadence HQ (early 90s) watching an old guy work in the cherry orchard next door. I'd have eaten those cherries. And before SGI and Alza HQs moved in (to where Google HQ is now) that area was all bean fields. We used to cut through there to get to the shoreline...though back then the park and concert hall was the mountain view dump, so also probably pretty bad. SV actually managed to maintain the ag vibe for a long time. I believe the last operating farm in East Palo Alto just shut down within the last five years.
- sbov 9y agoI grew up a couple miles from the fairchild site. Back then it was an abandoned building with a fence around it. Our parents always told us to stay out, but my friends and I used to jump the fence and explore the building. Fun times were always had.
- mtreis86 9y agoThere are far more superfund sites across the country than I would have expected. https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-y...
- DrScump 9y agoThe infamous Lorentz Barrel and Drum site is right across the street from Spartan Stadium and the ice center (now called Sharks Ice) at the southwest corner of 10th and Alma.
- noetic_techy 9y agoAs someone who was born and raised in the SV, this is just something they trot out every once in a while to scare the newcomers. Almost no one is on well water and the chemicals are relatively low toxicity in most cases. You are probably getting harmed more by the smog in the air than any leakage from these sites. Yes, bad stuff was happening in the 70's environmentally. SV is NOT an isolated case.
- davidjnelson 9y agoI always wondered what the empty lot next to an apartment complex I lived in was. Did some research and it was the Jasco superfund site. I read the entire lease agreement and it didn’t mention anything about it. We need a disclosure law for that. Ended up moving.