Tag: Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman Superfund

Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman (MEW) EPA Superfund Study Area (or MEW Site) is comprised of three Superfund sites Mountain View California

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

Envirostor State of California Link: “The EPA added this site to the National Priorities List (NPL) in 1991. This Superfund site is comprised of several former Fairchild Semiconductor Corp facilities spanning 56 acres in Mountain View. The Fairchild Semiconductor Corp – Mountain View site is one of three Superfund or NPL sites that are being cleaned up simultaneously. The other two Superfund sites are the Intel – Mountain View site and the Raytheon site. All three sites are located in the Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman (MEW) Study Area and are being addressed collectively as the MEW SIte. Site investigations at several of these facilities during 1981 and 1982 revealed extensive soil and groundwater contamination, primarily VOCs. Soil cleanup by soil vapor extraction, excavation, and aeration has been completed at all the MEW study area sites. Groundwater remediation is ongoing at the MEW Study Area.”

The contaminants which have been detected in soil and groundwater include trichloroethylene (TCE), trichloroethane (TCA), dichloroethylene (DCE) and chloroform. Continue reading “Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman (MEW) EPA Superfund Study Area (or MEW Site) is comprised of three Superfund sites Mountain View California” →

Google Buildings Polluted With Toxic Vapors From Chemical Spills

Silicon Valley was all abuzz on Friday over news that two of Google‘s buildings on North Whisman Road in Mountain View were suffering from toxic vapors seeping up from the ground below.

Christopher Helman Forbes Staff Feb 23, 2013, 12:21am
https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/02/23/google-buildings-polluted-with-toxic-vapors-from-chemical-spills/#6a9ff0783a3f

Alternative link

I live next to Google – and on top of a toxic site. Don’t let polluters be evil

By Jane Horton, the Guardian Wed 19 Mar 2014 15.45 GMT https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/19/google-mountain-view-toxic-waste
“I live across the street from one of Google’s many Mountain View campuses in California. My beloved home – a little farmhouse I bought and moved into with my family in 1975 – now lies above the Middlefield-Ellis-Whisman Superfund Study Area (or MEW Superfund site), an area polluted by 11 Potentially Responsible Parties, well-known, multi-billion-dollar Silicon Valley companies that are possibly to blame “for generating, transporting or disposing of the hazardous waste found at the site”.”

Article explains how a farmer living across the street from Google, where they built stations to remove contaminated groundwater out of the ground and clean it by building silos that mixed the polluted water to air so the vapor could be removed from the water and spread into the neighborhoods.

Alternative Link

TCE discovery halts Fairchild Drive housing project

https://mv-voice.com/news/2017/08/18/tce-discovery-halts-fairchild-drive-housing-project

by Mark Noack/ Mountain View Voice

“An approved project to build 26 homes at 277 Fairchild Drive is being delayed by officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after they discovered the site’s soil exceeded safety levels for trichloroethylene (TCE).

Representatives for the developer, Warmington Fairchild Associates LLC, say they will clean up the soil contamination over the coming months before proceeding with construction.”

” In a settlement reached with the EPA earlier this summer, Warmington officials agreed to clean up the hazardous vapors in the top layers of soil. In addition, they will inject “bioremediation” chemicals into the aquifers below, which will help break down the TCE contaminating the groundwater. “