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Background missing from article: Trichloroethylene was in widespread use during the early days of silicon fab, and was part of the "RCA clean" that was used in
by jpdoctor 14y ago
Background missing from article: Trichloroethylene was in widespread use during the early days of silicon fab, and was part of the "RCA clean" that was used in order to remove everything from the surface of a silicon wafer.
It's scattered through a great deal of SV, many of the Santa Clara county superfund sites are from former fabs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_Cali...
Naturally, no jail time was ever served because of these.
- _delirium 14y agoOn the plus side, unlike the common case in the mining industry, the Valley companies involved are mostly at least paying for the cleanup of their associated sites. Granted, it might just be because they have no choice, since the sites are clearly theirs, while in mining the sites seem to frequently end up attributed to some tiny company that promptly goes bust, leaving taxpayers paying for the cleanup.
- jpdoctor 14y ago> attributed to some tiny company that promptly goes bust, leaving taxpayers paying for the cleanup If there was ever a reason to disallow the boundaries of incorporation, that's it.