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Little known fact: high concentration of TCE permeates the Bay Area in cites like Palo Alto and Mountain View. The concentration is so bad that these superfund
by gabaix 6y ago
Little known fact: high concentration of TCE permeates the Bay Area in cites like Palo Alto and Mountain View. The concentration is so bad that these superfund sites are regularly monitored by the federal government.[1]
I lived next to the superfund site of Palo Alto, which was right under Mayfield Soccer Complex. Little had been done to monitor the risks for the children [2]. Reading this article linking TCE to Parkinson's disease, I hope there will be more awareness about Silicon Valley toxic undergrounds.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/lens/the-superfund-sites-of-silicon-valley.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/lens/the-superfund-sites-...
[2] http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/20130404/in-search-of-the-cookie-dough-tree/ http://www.aarongreenspan.com/writing/20130404/in-search-of-...
- ericbarrett 6y agoJogging through the hills of Stanford and Palo Alto in the 90s, you would occasionally smell something sweet, reminiscent of baking bread, even though there were no bakeries or homes nearby. I was told by an old-timer (worked in SV in the 60s and 70s) that's the smell of the outgassing TCE. Not sure if it's true, but it definitely made the smell less appealing.
- gnicholas 6y agoThere's even a TCE site where Facebook used to be headquartered (between California Ave and Page Mill Road), where Stanford now has a faculty housing development. The university has stated that they built the homes with protection against TCE leakage/accumulation, but I've read that TCE can easily permeate PVC pipes that are often used for water distribution. My family decided not to live in this development (or in the nearby neighborhood) because of the risks of TCE contamination. But who knows what risks there are in the area we decided to live, which is right next to SLAC!