[CPEO-BIF] TCE in Stanford Research Park

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Residents want state to reject Stanford toxics plan
College Terrace group seeks testing in their neighborhood for TCE contamination

by Sue Dremann
Palo Alto Weekly (CA)
February 19, 2016

The state agency tasked with regulating hazardous materials should reject Stanford University's plan to deal with trichloroethylene (TCE) under 1601 California Ave., a College Terrace Residents' Association subcommittee studying the site has told the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC).

Stanford recently found the hazardous TCE vapors in the middle of its University Terrace construction site in the Stanford Research Park, which is slated to become 180 homes. The discovery caused Stanford to alter its building plans, moving a number of residences from atop the most contaminated "hot spots" to another location on the property. The university also proposes to cap some of the TCE areas with roads, add vapor barriers to new homes to prevent TCE seepage, and not build on some areas of the property. 

…

Members of the subcommittee for College Terrace, which lies across California Avenue from the construction site, include a research chemist, a NASA environmental scientist and a toxic-vapor-control expert. In a Jan. 26 letter, the neighborhood association stated that it wants the state department to require Stanford to remove the contaminated soil and take other safety measures. The residents are concerned that TCE may be migrating or will migrate into the groundwater during rains or that it could be in the soil under their homes. Stanford has not tested for TCE along the site's border closest to their neighborhood along California Avenue nor in College Terrace itself, they said.

…

For the entire article, see
http://paloaltoonline.com/print/story/2016/02/19/residents-want-state-to-reject-stanford-toxics-plan

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., 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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