[CPEO-BIF] Mountain View, California TCE hot spots

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

New toxic hot spots linked to sewers
Testing finds high TCE concentrations in four locations near Evandale Avenue

by Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice (CA)
November 14, 2013

Environmental Protection Agency officials told residents Tuesday that the only plausible explanation so far for the mysterious "hot spots" of sky-high levels of toxics under Evandale Avenue is a leaking sewer line or storm drain -- potentially placing the blame on semiconductor manufacturers once located on Whisman Road.

Previously there had been some speculation that the hot spots discovered late last year -- which are not connected to the nearby 1.5-mile long trichloroethylene (TCE) plume left by semiconductor manufacturers -- had been caused by "midnight dumping" on the top soil. But there is no evidence of the TCE, used as an industrial solvent, having been dumped on the site: it was all found more than 10 feet underground.

This could prove what longtime toxic cleanup watchdog Lenny Siegel believes to have been the result of dumping by Fairchild Semiconductor and other polluters now responsible for the massive MEW Superfund site roughly bordered by Whisman Road, Ellis Avenue and Middlefield Road. In the late 1970s, local newspapers ran stories about the spills into storm and sewer lines, which were traced to Fairchild, and once killed 100 fish in Stevens Creek.

…

For the entire article, see
http://www.mv-voice.com/news/2013/11/14/epa-sewer-may-be-source-of-evandale-toxic-hot-spots
--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650-961-8918 or 650-969-1545
Fax: 650-961-8918
LSiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org




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