[CPEO-BIF] "Toxic Plumes: The Dark Side of Silicon Valley" (California)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Toxic Plumes: The Dark Side of Silicon Valley

 

By Stephen Stock, David Paredes and Scott Pham|  

NBC Bay Area

May 12, 2014 

 

Silicon Valley is an economic engine with a long history of technical innovation. But there’s a dark side to that legacy in the form of hundreds of old chemical spill sites that still contain toxic chemicals. Some of these spills are from fuel leaks or dry cleaning shops but many have their origins in the early days of Silicon Valley: the 1960s and 1970s when a booming computer chip industry gave the region its name.

 

"The dark side of the legacy is the stuff left behind," said Amanda "Mandy" Hawes, a worker's rights attorney in Silicon Valley.

 

Hawes' clients handled some of that "stuff" in factories and microchip clean rooms around the Bay. At the time, it wasn’t widely known just how toxic the chemicals they handled were.

 

"I think it wasn't unheard of for stuff to be literally poured out the back door," said Hawes. 

...

For the entire story and a link to the interactive map, see

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Toxic-Plumes-The-Dark-Side-of-Silicon-Valley-258942561.html

--

Lenny Siegel

Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight

a project of the Pacific Studies Center

278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041

Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545

Fax: 650/961-8918

<lsiegel@cpeo.org>

http://www.cpeo.org

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