Toxic Silicon Valley Groundwater

By Marques Vickers

Twenty-five former toxic waste sites are profiled “Toxic Silicon Valley Groundwater”. The edition focuses on visually documenting the contemporary redevelopment of these properties decades after they have become removed from closer public and media scrutiny.

During the 1960s through early 1990s, an environmental disaster originated from leaking hazardous chemicals and solvents employed in semiconductor manufacturing. A lethal combination of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) seeped through on-site industrial storage containers. These concentrated leakages formed toxic plumes that penetrated between thirty and five hundred feet beneath the ground surface. The plumes ranged from three hundred feet to ten miles in length. Drinking water, regional creeks, streams and estuary lands were affected. The result has left the technology heartland with an extended network of contaminated groundwaters.

The resulting contamination of soils and waters created a large-scale clean-up dilemma for a region that has sustained prosperity from the evolution of the technology industry. Neighboring public health consequences have included documented elevated statistics on cancer rate spikes and birth defects. Limited follow-up litigation has generally resulted in no-fault disclosure financial settlements. Only one individual has faced criminal related disposal charges and was convicted of ten misdemeanors.

Federal Superfund clean up projects began in the 1980s, coordinated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Silicon Valley has the highest concentration of Superfund sites in the United States. Reclamation projects transported polluted soils to federal hazardous waste sites. Water excavation pumping, filtering and monitoring stations were established. These ongoing treatments have reversed groundwater contamination levels to acceptable EPA standards. They have not completely eliminated the toxic compound presence or eradicated the risk of vapor intrusion aboveground.

Silicon Valley groundwater remains unacceptable for public consummation. The most affected cities currently outsource drinking water from the Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite, Sacramento Delta, San Luis Reservoir and long-established municipal and private wells.

The subsequent reuses of formerly contaminated parcels currently include residential, retail and commercial developments, a shopping center and church. Only a small percentage of lands remain dormant and these are targeted for future development.

The Silicon Valley manufacturing era remains a discreetly mentioned blight to the legacy of the industry. The semiconductor manufacturing process has subsequently been relocated offshore. Instead of prioritizing hygienic solutions for production and waste disposal, the shifting has reportedly created an equally dangerous source of dioxin pollution transported globally by prevailing winds and ocean currents.

The author’s research is based exclusively from EPA archived documentation and related contaminant databases. The text and photographs are best summarized in his chilling opening paragraph:

This is a story about unhappy endings. This is a narrative about how the manufacture of technology has potentially forever poisoned the subterranean strata of the Silicon Valley. In brief, this is a horror story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marques Vickers
• Release date: Aug 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005582678

Marques Vickers

Visual Artist, Writer and Photographer Marques Vickers is a California native presently living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, Washington regions.He was born in 1957 and raised in Vallejo, California. He is a 1979 Business Administration graduate from Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area. Following graduation, he became the Public Relations and ultimately Executive Director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce between 1979-84. He subsequently became the Vice President of Sales for AsTRA Tours and Travel in Westwood between 1984-86.Following a one-year residence in Dijon, France where he studied at the University of Bourgogne, he began Marquis Enterprises in 1987. His company operations have included sports apparel exporting, travel and tour operations, wine brokering, publishing, rare book and collectibles reselling. He has established numerous e-commerce, barter exchange and art websites including MarquesV.com, ArtsInAmerica.com, InsiderSeriesBooks.com, DiscountVintages.com and WineScalper.com.Between 2005-2009, he relocated to the Languedoc region of southern France. He concentrated on his painting and sculptural work while restoring two 19th century stone village residences. His figurative painting, photography and sculptural works have been sold and exhibited internationally since 1986. He re-established his Pacific Coast residence in 2009 and has focused his creative productivity on writing and photography.His published works span a diverse variety of subjects including true crime, international travel, California wines, architecture, history, Southern France, Pacific Coast attractions, fiction, auctions, fine art marketing, poetry, fiction and photojournalism.He has two daughters, Charline and Caroline who presently reside in Europe.

Book preview

Toxic Silicon Valley Groundwater

Published by Marques Vickers at Smashwords

Copyright 2020 Marques Vickers

MARQUIS PUBLISHING

HERRON ISLAND, WASHINGTON

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

The Lingering Silicon Valley Subterranean Poisoning

A Glossary of Contamination

Superfund Site #1

620-640 Page Mill Road, 601 California Avenue and 395 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto

Superfund Site #2

1950 Colony Street, Mountain View

Superfund Site #3

1250 West Middlefield Road, Mountain View

Superfund Site #4

1300 Terra Bella Avenue, Mountain View

Superfund Site #5

1710 Villa Street, Mountain View

Superfund Site #6

365 East Middlefield Road, Mountain View

Superfund Site #7

464 Ellis Street, 515/545 Whisman Road, 313 Fairchild Drive, 369 and 441 North Whisman Road and 401 National Avenue, Mountain View

Superfund Site #8

350 Ellis Street, 401 and 415 East Middlefield Road, Mountain View

Superfund Site #9

Moffett Field Naval Air Station, Ellis Street and Highway 101, Mountain View

Superfund Site #10

915 Deguigne Drive, Building 915, Sunnyvale

Superfund Site #11

901/902 Thompson Place, Sunnyvale

Superfund Site #12

401 East Hendy Avenue, Sunnyvale

Superfund Site #13

825 Stewart Drive, 811 Arques Avenue and 440 North Wolfe Road, Sunnyvale

Superfund Site #14

1165 and 1175 East Arques Avenue and 1160 Kern Avenue. Sunnyvale

Superfund Site #15

2900 Semiconductor Drive, Santa Clara

Superfund Site #16

2986 Oakmead Village Court, Santa Clara

Superfund Site #17

3050 Bowers Avenue, Santa Clara

Superfund Site #18

2880 Northwestern Parkway, Santa Clara

Superfund Site #19

3050 Coronado Boulevard, Santa Clara

Superfund Site #20

10900 Tantau Avenue and 1900 Homestead Road, Cupertino

Superfund Site #21

1515 South Tenth Street, San Jose

Superfund Site #22

Near the Junction of Interstate Highway 101 and West Valley Highway 85, San Jose

Superfund Site #23

The Parcel is Bound by Whisman and East Middlefield Roads, the Central Expressway and Highway 237, Mountain View

Superfund Site #24

South Bay Asbestos Area located in the Alviso Neighborhood, San Jose

Toxic Site #25

Intersection of Tennant and Railroad Avenue, Morgan Hill

About The Author

Preface

The stain of poisoned groundwater and environmental contamination by the high-technology industry manufacturing processes of the 1960s-90s is an enduring legacy. It is conceivable that the chemical contaminants and vapor intrusions aspects will never be eradicated. The Silicon Valley has historically hosted the largest concentration of Federal Superfund toxic clean-up sites in the United States. Whether unintentional or deliberate, the toxic trail has adversely impacted thousands of lives.

Descriptions of each toxic site are archived on the Environmental Protection Agency website and related media articles. There has been absolutely no need to embellish or amplify the reports.

The facts are sufficiently terrifying.

The Lingering Silicon Valley Subterranean Poisoning

This is a story about unhappy endings. This is a narrative about how the manufacture of technology has potentially forever poisoned the subterranean strata of the Silicon Valley. In brief, this is a horror story.

More individuals have had their lives adversely altered or shortened by this calamity that any natural disaster or mass criminal activity and yet, nearly forty years later the remnants have not been entirely eliminated. We still remain uninformed as to the full severity of the long-term repercussions.

High technology and computers have forever changed our lifestyles, modes of commerce, and the manner in which we interact with each other. Innovations have made us more productive, expansive in our knowledge base, and able to communicate effortlessly and instantaneously at speeds and to locations once thought unimaginable.

Seemingly, this radical transition appears in the guise of an immaculately clean industry, absent of smokestacks, bulky machinery and unsightly waste. The end products have become accomplished by innocuous wafer thin silicon microchips. Our assumption of clean, however, has proven illusionary. What has become later evident and measurable is that semiconductor production has created an epic scale environmental catastrophe. What has become equally tragic is that the extent and projected duration has largely evaded mainstream attention and scrutiny.

Contemporary Silicon Valley architecture is constructed on a tainted foundation of toxic groundwaters. The debacle dates back less than half a century.

When pollutants are released into the ground, they descend. They attach to absorbent clay soils or are blocked and transported by groundwater flows. These water bodies may exist fifty feet below the land surface or five hundred. Direct human contact or exposure is rare unless drilling is targeted to these depths.

Imagine a vial of ink plunging into water. Imagine its immediate and widespread dispersion. Concentrated pollutants react identically when they reach groundwater tables. They expand and spread. These toxic grenades are called plumes. They have migrated underneath the Silicon Valley since first reported in the early 1980s.

The Silicon Valley of the late 1970s and 1980s was a significant semiconductor manufacturing hub with a lethal secret. Low-rise warehouse facilities populated the bland commercial terrain. Many operations employed chemical solvents, degreasers, acids and metal compounds essential in the microchip fabrication process. Storage tanks and acid neutralizing systems were purposely concealed or buried within adjacent soils.

Their intended design impression was clutterless and streamlined order. The prototype backfired. The subterranean storage tanks leaked. Toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs)