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”

Apple Stewart 1 on 3 Superfund sites located under 4 schools and 2 daycare centers and over 100 residences in Sunnyvale California

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/

Google Map Reference

Apple In Sunnyvale and there are four schools and two daycares on this site which are against the rules for TCE exposure protocol which is to not have any children under the age of 21 to be exposed to these chemicals, no daycare, no adult care. This site has housing on it.

EPA Superfund Page:

The TRW Microwave, Inc. (Building 825) site is one of three sites contributing contamination to a groundwater plume in Sunnyvale, California. Former microwave manufacturing and semiconductor processing activities contaminated groundwater and soil with volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

The former TRW Microwave Superfund Site (TRW Site), part of the “Triple Site” in Sunnyvale, California, is located at 825 Stewart Drive and neighbors multiple other sites, including: the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Buildings 901/902 Thompson Place Superfund Site (AMD 901/902 Site), the AMD 915 De Guigne Drive Superfund Site (AMD 915 Site), the Philips Semiconductors Site (Philips Site; formerly Signetics Inc.), which includes the properties at 811 Arques Avenue, 440 North Wolfe Road, and facilities along Stewart Drive, and the Mohawk Laboratories Site. A groundwater plume composed of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including trichloroethene (TCE), extends from these sites more than a mile north in Sunnyvale to beyond Highway 101.

The TRW Site, together with three other operable units (OUs), was covered by a 1991 Record of Decision for the Triple Site, all located in Sunnyvale. The four OUs for the Triple Site are as follows:

(1) The AMD 901/902 Site OU;
(2) The Philips Site OU;
(3) The TRW Site OU; and
(4) The Companies Offsite Operable Unit (OOU), a commingled plume of contaminants which originated from the other three operable units (and has contributions from other sites in the area).

At the time of adoption of the 1991 Record of Decision, the OOU was defined as a 100-acre area, downgradient and north of the Triple Site in an area bounded by the Sunnyvale East Drainage Channel on the west and Santa Paula Ave. on the east, and as the area inside a 5 micrograms per liter (µg/L) contour for trichloroethene (TCE) in groundwater. Over 400 residences and at least 4 schools are present within the OOU.

The TRW Site was occupied by Aertech Industries from 1968 until it was sold to TRW Inc (TRW) in 1974. In 1987, TRW sold the facility to FEI Microwave, Inc. In 1993, FEI Microwave stopped production and in 1995 the site was acquired by Stewart Associates and leased to research and development companies until 2001. The exterior of the building was remodeled between 2001 and 2003, including demolition of part of the existing structure and construction of a new two-story building. In December 2002, TRW merged with Northrop Grumman. In 2004, the property was purchased by Pacific Landmark, and then by Hines in 2014 and then GI Partners, the current owner, in 2016. During these changes in site ownership, TRW and then Northrop Grumman retained responsibility for site cleanup.

The primary activity at the TRW Site was assembling and testing microwave components until semiconductor processing began in 1970. Primarily solvents and small quantities of acids were used in the assembly areas for semiconductors. Solvents, acids, and heavy metals were used in the fabrication areas and plating shop. The paint shop used paints and solvents.

Acid rinse water generated by the assembly processes was neutralized on-site and discharged to the City of Sunnyvale sewer system. An underground ammonia gas acid neutralization system was installed when the facility first opened. Floor drains and acid sinks in the plating shop were connected to buried plumbing that carried acid waste to the neutralization system. This system was closed in 1986, and the underground piping was sealed. The system was replaced with three aboveground tanks. Spent solvents were stored in one of four on-site underground tanks. After 1982, solvents were stored in drums and transported off-site.

Trw Microwave, Inc (Building 825) from Toxic Sites website explains the TCE contamination goes up past the highway.

 

Google HQ Mountain View California

A map made in 2014 by Arcadis that depicts the well locations on the site
Mountainview Voice Article on the TCE Vapor Intrusion with Map that covers the Google Site. https://www.mv-voice.com/news/2018/06/08/epa-sets-sights-on-tce-vapor-intrusion

EPA information on the site

Revision No. 1 to Proposed Groundwater Self-Monitoring Plan (SMP) for the
2018 Annual Monitoring Event for the Spectra-Physics Teledyne Semiconductor
Superfund Site (the Site) comprised of the Former Teledyne Semiconductor and
Former Spectra-Physics Lasers, Inc., Sites Located in 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/

The Teledyne property is part of a two-property Superfund site along with the adjacent Spectra-Physics property.

The responsible parties (RPs) for the Teledyne/Spectra-Physics site completed a Monitored Natural Attenuation (MNA) study in the off-property area north of and downgradient of the site. The MNA study concluded that natural breakdown of the chlorinated volatile organic compounds of concern is occuring naturally and at the same rate as groundwater extraction. As a result, only a few of the off-property downgradient extraction wells were operating mainly to maintain hydraulic control of the plume. The RPs completed a pilot study to test the feasibility of enhanced reductive dechlorination (ERD) and concluded that ERD is feasible with bioaugmentation of the Shallow Zone.

Within the last five years, the RPs detected elevated source areas at the Teledyne property using high resolution technology and continuously logged and screened ERD injection well boreholes. Implementing a full-scale ERD treatability study, they have been and are currently remediating the property with groundwater-CVOC levels dropping from as much as over 80,000 ug/l to low multiples of MCLs. Several rounds of ERD injections successfully cleaned up most of the Shallow Zone at the Teledyne property and the adjacent Spring Street residential area to drinking water standards and the treatability study was even more successful in the underlying Upper and Lower Intermediate Zones.

An on-property IA VI evaluation at a SpectraPhysics property in 2004 indicated no IA-CVOC contamination above the Regional Water Board’s 2008 ESLs. More recently, the RPs also assertively evaluated potential IA VI in the off-property commercial North Bayshore and residential Spring Street areas to conclude that IA VI is not occurring in most of the commercial area and is occasionally occurring in several homes in the residential area. The RPs installed sub-slab depressurization systems in the impacted on-property commercial buildings and offered the affected residents crawl space fans to address the issue.

Google Map Reference

Geotracker document explaining the toxic groundwater plume encompassing the Googleplex with maps describing all of the toxic waste sites in the Teledyne/Spectra-Physics site (SL721281224)
POTENTIAL CONTAMINANTS OF CONCERN
OTHER CHLORINATED HYDROCARBONS, TETRACHLOROETHYLENE (PCE), TRICHLOROETHYLENE (TCE), VINYL CHLORIDE

Nine indicator chemicals were identified from approximately 30
chemicals detected in the Study Area. The nine indicator chemicals are as follows:
1,1-dichloroethane (1,1-DCA)
1.1-dichloroethylene (1,1-DCE)
1.2-dichloroethylene (1,2-DCE)
tetrachloroethylene (PCE)
toluene
1,2,4-trichlorobenzene (1,2,4-TCB)
1,1,1-trichloroethane (1,1,1-TCA)
trichloroethylene (TCE)
vinyl chloride (VC

RECORD OF DECISION, TELEDYNE SEMICONDUCTOR AND SPECTRA-PHYSICS, INC. JOINT SUPERFUND SITES MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA MARCH 22, 1991 U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY REGION 9 p. 26
https://semspub.epa.gov/work/09/46745.pdf

Geotracker Deed Restrictions for Teledyne/Spectra-Physics site Superfund Site Continue reading “Google HQ 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. “

What politicians, the Navy and the EPA don’t want you to know: Treasure Island and Hunters Point are equally toxic Superfund sites

October 31, 2018 by Carol Harvey San Francisco Bay View; National Black Newspaper
Comprehensive Article
Watch the Videos, the political corruption is explained.
EPA director on the TIDA development board.

“Though Treasure Island bears a certified EPA Superfund site identification number, CA7170023330, EPA officials like Jared Blumenfeld, TIDA board member who rose to direct federal EPA District 9, refuse to include this Bay Area toxic landform on the EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL) of Superfund sites online, thereby concealing the truth from potential Treasure Island renters.”

There is a picture of Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s son and Jared Blumenfeld “Paul Pelosi Jr. poses with Jared Blumenfeld, federal director for EPA San Francisco District 9, when Blumenfeld was on the Treasure Island Development Authority Board.”

Jared Blumenfeld was the EPA Administrator for the Western District of the US in the Obama Administration. Jared Blumenfeld was appointed to the California EPA agency by Governor Gavin Newsom in January 2019.

Pelosi and the Treasure Island Land Grab By Michelle Malkin

http://michellemalkin.com/2010/08/18/pelosi-and-the-treasure-island-land-grab/

By Michelle Malkin • August 18, 2010 10:03 AM

Article explains the political connections to the developers of Treasure Island. To Nancy Pelosi’s family members directly involved in taking the island from the Navy and putting it in the hands of developers that just happen to be related or worked for all of the politicians in Nancy Pelosi’s tender care. They then put homeless people into the barracks of the island which is a superfund clean-up for nuclear radiation.

“Treasure Island is not a case of a small town that has relied on a local military base for its livelihood for decades. It is a land grab by politicians for well-connected developers. Tony Hall, the former executive director of the Treasure Island Development Authority, told us the city’s effort to develop the island is a “den of corruption.” Treasure Island Community Development, the prospective developer for Treasure Island, was granted a no-bid contract by the city.”

Navy does damage control for Pelosi, Feinstein and Lennar as it continues to claim Treasure Island and Hunters Point Shipyard are ‘safe’

Another $22 million down the rat hole?
by Steve Zeltzer, KPFA WorkWeek Radio
July 5, 2018

“The U.S. Navy had its every-three-months dog and pony show at the Treasure Island Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) meeting on Tuesday, June 19, 2018. The previous meeting included a Tetra Tech representative and a loud confrontation, but this time Tetra Tech representatives were not on the panel since there are now two Tetra Tech managers in federal prison for falsifying the cleanup records at Hunters Point and an ongoing grand jury investigation with likely more sealed indictments that could lead to further criminal action against the top management of Tetra Tech.

Since the scandal blow-up, however, Congresswoman Pelosi has arranged to get another $42 million from the budget reconciliation bill for more retesting on formerly tested contaminated land in the Superfund site at Hunters Point Shipyard. This is after $1 billion has already been expended by the U.S. government to clean up Hunters Point Shipyard and Treasure Island, which are both Superfund sites.”

“Behind the continued effort to push forward with both the developments at Hunters Point Shipyard and Treasure Island are Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who have deep financial connections to this development of the Shipyard and Treasure Island. Feinstein’s husband, Richard Blum, financially pushed for the development; his company has the primary contract to build condos at Treasure Island. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi’s nephew, Laurence Pelosi, was an executive of Lennar – in charge of real estate acquisitions – while she was pushing for the development and getting hundreds of millions for the “cleanup.””

“Former Mayor Willie Brown had been instrumental in arranging for the U.S. Navy to prepare the site to turn it over to the city for future million-dollar condos. In the meantime, they placed low income African American families and homeless on the Island.”

Contamination Issues at Hunters Point Shipyard Presented by Daniel Hirsch President, Committee to Bridge the Gap and former Director, Program on Environmental and Nuclear Policy, UC Santa Cruz October 18, 2018

http://committeetobridgethegap.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Hunters-Point-Community-Presentation-10-18-18.pdf
Extensive PDF document contains background information including photographs of the bomb tests, EPA Found Only 3% of Samples to Be Free of Falsification, Tetra Tech Scandal Indicative of Broken Agency Oversight, The Navy has ignored the likelihood of widespread contamination throughout HPS. Also shows the Atomic tests and the Navy miscalculated the test and irradiated more than 70 ships. Pictures of sailors scrubbing down the decks after the blast, th Navy making the mistake of using the radioactive water after a nuclear blast to clean the ship, thus irradiating the entire water filtration systems. Photographs of the workers sandblasting the ships in an attempt to remove the radiation. Tens of thousands of barrels of radioactive waste, both from HPS and other nuclear sites in the region, were stored at HPS for eventual dumping at the Farallon Islands. This included an entire contaminated aircraft carrier loaded with radioactive waste. Sailors–and their clothing– contaminated by nuclear work at HPS were washed at the site, with the contaminated rinse water going down the drains and leaking into the soil through breaks in the lines. Great Majority of Radionuclides Excluded from Testing. Cleanup Goals Are Extremely Outdated http://committeetobridgethegap.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Hunters-Point-Community-Presentation-10-18-18.pdf
Article contains background information including photographs of the bomb tests, EPA Found Only 3% of Samples to Be Free of Falsification, Tetra Tech Scandal Indicative of Broken Agency Oversight, The Navy has ignored the likelihood of widespread contamination throughout HPS. Also shows the Atomic tests and the Navy miscalculated the test and irradiated more than 70 ships. Pictures of sailors scrubbing down the decks after the blast, th Navy making the mistake of using the radioactive water after a nuclear blast to clean the ship, thus irradiating the entire water filtration systems. Photographs of the workers sandblasting the ships in an attempt to remove the radiation. Tens of thousands of barrels of radioactive waste, both from HPS and other nuclear sites in the region, were stored at HPS for eventual dumping at the Farallon Islands. This included an entire contaminated aircraft carrier loaded with radioactive waste. Sailors–and their clothing– contaminated by nuclear work at HPS were washed at the site, with the contaminated rinse water going down the drains and leaking into the soil through breaks in the lines. Burning the irradiated fuel oil at Hunters Point Shipyard of all the ships in atomic tests.