2017 CPEO Brownfields List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2017 18:04:38 -0700 (PDT)
Reply: cpeo-brownfields
Subject: [CPEO-BIF] "Superfund sites and the vestige of the Silicon Valley manufacturing era"
 
IN PLAIN SITE
Superfund sites and the vestige of the Silicon Valley manufacturing era

SILICON VALLEY AND SUPERFUND SITES

Silicon Valley got its name from the manufacturing era that began in the early 1960s and lasted into the 1980s, when factories located in Santa Clara County produced microchips and semiconductors with extensive use of acids and solvents such as Trychorethylene (TCE). After being used, these chemicals were stored in underground tanks.

In the early '80s, high rates of cancer and birth defects were detected in Silicon Valley and studies linked these to the chemicals leaking from many of the underground tanks, which had contaminated the soil and the ground water. Of the 96 sites inspected at the time 75 presented leaks.

In 1980 the U.S. Congress created the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), a new program managed by the Environmental Protection Agency, charged with identifying and cleaning up highly toxic sites, or Superfunds, across the Country. When clean up began in Silicon Valley, 29 Superfund sites were identified, based on the Hazard Ranking System and placed on the National Priority List (NPL) of Superfund Sites. The Superfund clean up that started in the '80s included removal of the underground tanks and contaminated soil. Treatment of the ground water also began and continues on many sites to this day.  As sites have been deemed clean they are removed from the NPL and no longer considered Superfund sites.

…

For Federica Armstrong’s photographic essay, the entire introduction, and audio interviews, see
https://www.inplainsite.net

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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