LEGACY OF CONTAMINATION. A California Naval base shutters, and contamination lingers decades later/ Reuters

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Reuters looks into the nuclear contamination of the EPA Superfund site, Treasure Island which is in San Francisco Bay and it is being developed by contractors with close ties to Bay Area politicians. The City put low income housing on the former barracks and houses on the site. People are getting sick. The Navy and the city are trying to cover this up but kids are finding radioactive materials all over the island.

One girl who became ill had a jewelry box her “Treasure Box” with radium painted dials and radioactive beads. [Editors note: Fallout beads]

Disaster Area Editor:
Why would these be on Treasure Island? Treasure Island was the Navy’s Nuclear, Biological and Chemical training school. They are exactly the thing you need to train sailors on how to detect radiation and so they buried these things in the ground for the sailors to find. And that is the only way they could have been dug up by this little girl in her yard or on the playground at her school on Treasure Island.

Most military bases who operated ships and airplanes had radium painted dials and markers used to operate machines, engines etc in no-light situations. When they realized that these markers were radioactive and that they were dangerous, these bases removed them and buried them in the ground, with no care that it might spread the contamination into the water table.

Most EPA superfund sites for military bases have the radium dial markers as one of the things that make it a federal cleanup site. Usually there are others like PCBs (dioxin) and Trichloroethylene (TCE), unexploded ordinance (which is quite common in the Bay Area). You can search for these specific chemicals on the Envirostor website which is the State of California’s Toxic Waste site or on the GeoTracker site which covers California and federal cleanup sites. The Geotracker map shows little squares that indicate a toxic waste location and if you click on them it will show the name of the site.

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Cupertino – Apple Headquarters and Kaiser Pernamente on the INTERSIL (DTKM) (SL720641214) EPA Superfund Tri-Site

Groundwater Contamination Map, Toxic Plumes Map Source: The Chemical Legacy of Old Silicon Valley, NBC Bay Area, Map Editor Scott Pham 2019 The red dots represent Daycare centers 2019 https://www.nbcbayarea.com/on-air/as-seen-on/toxic-plumes_-the-dark-side-of-silicon-valley_bay-area/87485/

EPA Superfund Site: INTERSIL INC./SIEMENS COMPONENTS CUPERTINO, CA

Apple Computer, Kaiser Permanente Child/ado Psy and Kaiser Permanente – CDRP (Chemical dependency recovery program) are located on the EPA Superfund Tri-Site where there are toxic chemicals in the ground that emerge as toxic vapor and the deed restrictions are present to stop organizations from having hospital facilities on the site. Strange thing is Kaiser Permanente operates two facilities on the site. So I would imagine that each patient must be signing a waver when they visit the facility?

I know Apple does not have daycare at their facility they would not be stupid enough to do such a thing. I find it strange that people are willing to work on a toxic waste site. But I guess they know what they are doing. Surely Apple would inform everyone who has access to the site, including delivery drivers as they are required by the deed restrictions?

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“The Intersil/Siemens Superfund Site includes the following three areas: 1) the former Intersil facility, located at 10900 North Tantau Avenue, Cupertino; 2) the former Siemens facility, located at 10950 North Tantau Avenue, Cupertino; and 3) the Off-Site Study Area, located north of and hydraulically downgradient from the two former facilities in Sunnyvale. Investigations conducted in the 1980s as part of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board’s (Regional Board’s) underground storage tank (UST) leak detection program found volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in soil on- and off-site. The primary contaminant of concern at the site is the VOC, trichloroethene (TCE).

• Former Intersil Facility – Intersil, Inc. operated at the property from 1968 to 1988 and initiated investigations in 1983. The potential sources of contamination were removed between 1986 and 1988, including waste neutralization systems, a waste solvent tank, and an above-ground chemical and hazardous waste storage area.

• Former Siemens Facility – Litronix and its successor, Siemens Microelectronics, Inc., operated at the property from 1970 to the mid-1990s. Until 1982, liquid wastes were stored in five USTs that were removed in 1982. From 1982 until cessation of operations, liquid wastes previously stored in USTs were temporarily placed in the hazardous materials storage area for off-site disposal or recycling. Investigations began in 1982 after the discovery of contaminants during the removal of the USTs.

Drinking water for Sunnyvale and Cupertino is not affected by this contamination. Calabazas Creek, an intermittent stream, is located approximately 1,500 feet east of the site. “

Geotracker State of California site:

POTENTIAL CONTAMINANTS OF CONCERN

1,1,1-TRICHLOROETHANE (TCA)
FREON
OTHER CHLORINATED HYDROCARBONS
TETRACHLOROETHYLENE (PCE)
TRICHLOROETHYLENE (TCE)

Deed Restrictions:

ACTIVITIES PROHIBITED WHICH DISTURB THE REMEDY AND MONITORING SYSTEMS WITHOUT APPROVAL
DAY CARE CENTER PROHIBITED
ELDER CARE CENTER PROHIBITED
HOSPITAL USE PROHIBITED
LAND USE COVENANT
NO GROUNDWATER EXTRACTION AT ANY DEPTH WITHOUT APPROVAL
NOTIFY DAMAGES TO REMEDY AND MONITORING SYSTEMS UPON DISCOVERY
NOTIFY PRIOR TO SUBSURFACE WORK
PUBLIC OR PRIVATE SCHOOL FOR PERSONS UNDER 21 PROHIBITED
RESIDENCE USE PROHIBITED