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| Purple and Orange squares represent Superfund/ Contaminated groundwater sites. |
After Mr. Stewart brought up Superfund sites (sites recognized by the EPA to have toxic levels of chemicals and contamination) during class, I remembered reading an article about a toxic site in the local newspaper a couple years back. Upon further research, I was shocked to find that Santa Clara County actually has the most Superfund sites at 23 of any county in the entire nation. In fact, the Google campus in Mountain View and NASA’s Ames Research Center sit on some of the most active Superfund sites.
Before the Silicon Valley became the software hub of the world, the Valley was actually a rather industrious area -- a manufacturing hub for semiconductors and microprocessors and chips for our electronic devices. Trichloroethylene was a common solvent used to clean semiconductors. However, testing by the EPA has revealed that the solvent was present in our groundwater, possibly from leaking pipes or underground storage tanks. In the 80s, IBM and other companies were accused of polluting the groundwater but they denied that the chemicals posed any sort of threat to human health.
A report in 1985, however, found that these chemicals caused an increase in miscarriages and birth defects in the area near this site. Trichloroethylene also is associated with increased risk of certain cancers, developmental disabilities among children exposed in utero, and endocrine disruption. Government officials in 2014 also reported 518 other toxic plumes found in the ground in Santa Clara County.
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to treat these Superfund sites, especially when there are buildings and homes already built on top of the site. We can only hope that we can prevent the creation of more of these sites.
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Very interesting blog post. One of the most common superfund sites is the Valley of the Drums in Kentucky. This 23-acre site was a collection site for waste, but the EPA found in 1979 that it contained high levels of over 140 chemical substances. There were over 1000,000 drums of waste that was delivered to this site. Luckily, the EPA found out and started a clean-up of the site. This incident was one of the main reasons the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act was created, which allowed the EPA to seek out hazardous-waste sites and clean them.
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-comprehensive-environmental-response-compensation-and-liability-act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Drums
The fact that our county has the most amount of superfund sites is equally surprising to me. While the Silicon Valley government does seem to be rather aware of this issue, its almost scary to think that it has not become a major topic of discussion for us. As you mentioned it is indeed rather difficult to treat pre-existing superfund sites, especially with other edifices above a lot of them. The good news is that the EPA is sure that all groundwater that is full of carcinogens or chemicals are no longer directly exposed to the surface. This bad news, however, is that through vapor intrusion, such toxins are still able enter the air. Luckily, there are sectors of the EPA focused specifically on the dealing with superfund sites, with their cleanup process and priority list listed on this site: https://www.epa.gov/superfund
ReplyDeleteSources:
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/09/silicon-valley-full-superfund-sites/598531/
I love how you were able to connect what we learned about in class to our community. I decided to research more what process a superfund site goes through, as I don't know much about the program. Here's what I learned: Once a site is identified to be potentially dangerous, there is an initial assessment that gives the site a score on the Hazard Ranking System. If the site is hazardous enough, it is placed on the National Priorities List (NPL), officially becomes a Superfund site, and becomes eligible for federal funding. A Remedial Investigation then collects samples of the water and soil, while the follow-up Feasibility Study comes up with possible ways to cleanup the site. Once a treatment is chosen, the EPA takes action. Some sites are taken off the NPL after a few years of cleaning, while others are still on the list decades later.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.hydroviv.com/blogs/water-smarts/epa-superfund-sites-an-overview
After reading your post, I was really surprised to learn how many superfund sites still existed in Silicon Valley, as they rarely make it onto the news. It was also very interesting to learn how many structures and public facilities exist on top of Superfund sites; there’s a soccer field located on top of a Superfund site of a former Hewlett-Packard manufacturing facility in Palo Alto. Expanding on Juntao’s comment, although the EPA maintains that the groundwater isn’t directly exposed to any contamination, toxins can still get from the groundwater into the air via vapor intrusion. In fact, for a few weeks in December of 2012, toxic vapors got into two Google buildings, exposing the office workers to levels of chemicals above the legal limit set by the EPA. Vapor intrusion is still an issue the EPA is working to mitigate, and it has required ongoing cleanup and monitoring efforts.
ReplyDeletehttps://qz.com/1017181/silicon-valley-pollution-there-are-more-superfund-sites-in-santa-clara-than-any-other-us-county/
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/09/silicon-valley-full-superfund-sites/598531/
This post was super interesting and I'm super glad someone decided to blog about this pressing topic! When we went over these "Superfund" sites in class I was very interested and did some research to also discover the mass amount of these sites in the santa clara area. I found this super surprising as I felt that I had never seen one before even though I was not clear on what exactly they looked like. Although the background on the sites in this area cleared that up for me, it now makes a lot of sense of why so many of these sites are present here and how we have grown from that.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea how many superfund sites were located in this area! The biggest one, the Moffett Field military base, currently houses many military families who live very close to an active superfund site. All of the technological advances in this area are extremely cool and important but the sheer number of superfund sites centered here serves as an important reminder about how damaging innovation can be to human lives.
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