Art Liberman's Toxic Groundwater Report

Here is a Q&A for residents about the newsletter and the cleanup activity.

Q. What is the DTSC ?

A. The DTSC is the Department of Toxics Substances Control, the California agency that is responsible for monitoring the cleanup (remediation) of sites across the state that have been contaminated by spills of toxic materials.

Q. What does this have to do with Barron Park ?

A. Toxic chemicals used by 10 companies, clustered near the intersection of Hillview and Porter in the Stanford Research Park, leaked from their underground storage tanks. The contamination was carried by underground water flows and by Matadero Creek into the ground water underneath Barron Park. The leaks were detected in the 1980¹s.

Q What is the type of contamination and what are the cleanup goals ?

A. The substances that leaked into the groundwater were chlorinated organic solvents, such as trichloroethene (TCE), used in the production of semiconductor wafers. These solvent chemicals, as a class, are referred to as volatile organic compounds (VOC¹s). The clean up goals are to reduce the VOC¹s in the Creek and in the underground water to below the Federal and California Drinking Water standards.

Q. What is the status of the contamination cleanup ?

A. Under the supervision of the DTSC, the companies responsible for the spill, along with the landowner, Stanford, have been working for 15 years to clean up the contamination. Some wells were drilled to pump out and extract the VOC¹s at various depths from the groundwater; other wells were drilled to monitor the contamination over time. Most of the wells are close to the contamination leak sites, but some wells were drilled in Barron Park. The ones used for extracting contaminated water in our neighborhood have been shut down as the contamination level in the upper level groundwater in Barron Park has dropped below the Drinking Water standards. But the contamination remains at unacceptable levels in the areas close to where the tanks leaked and also in parts of the Veteran¹s Administration property. Pumping and extraction and other methods of cleaning up the contamination are still underway at these sites. A more detailed report will be in the upcoming Barron Park newsletter.

Q. Why did the DTSC send this newsletter now?

A. Every 5 years, the DTSC requires the parties conducting the cleanup to step back and provide a comprehensive report of the progress over the previous period. The DTSC will review the reports and make adjustments to the plan. The review also includes adjustments for changes in regulations.

Q. What can I do to find more information?

A. You can look at the reports already received by the DTSC on their Envirostor database. Use the directions on page 2 of the newsletter. There are reports for each of the contamination sites, and also for the regional site, the Hillview- Porter Plume, that includes Barron Park.

The newsletter says the Five-Year review reports will not be available until early 2009. But some members of Barron Park Association will be meeting with the DTSC hazardous substance scientists and the engineers conducting the cleanup work in the next month or so. If you have some questions about the information in the reports, or you have questions you would like asked of the DTSC, you can forward questions by email to me, Art Liberman