Emeryville started as a mudflat on the Bay where they'd drive cattle to slaughterhouses and leather tanners. It smelled real bad so they did it way out in the middle of nowhere.
It sort of became the place for messy industry, when just burying the bad junk was considered sufficient.
Company I worked for had major construction project for their campus expansion, but it took a while to clear the PG&E transformer storage lot of decades of PCB leakage.
Poly chlorinated biphenyls are nasty. Almost as nasty as the heavy metal contamination of the Sherwin-Williams Paint factory across the way.
The merely-poisonous-at-quantity horseradish processing facility was a breath of fresh air... and is now part of the Pixar-plex.
What with all the major construction over the past 30 years, there have been ongoing cleanup efforts. I don't know how realistic my optimism is, but it's way cleaner than it was in the 1980s.
Same with a lot of neighborhoods in NYC, even trendy ones like Williamsburg and Greenpoint. Always research what your building is built on top of before you sign the lease.
Yeah, there's also a rubbish dump converted to a amphitheater next door that randomly and spontaneously catches fire.
VOC contaminated soil at Fairchild, Intersil and Intel sites should be safe except after flooding from exceptionally heavy rain. Presumably there's a plan to shut the playgrounds, but it's America so who knows...
Perhaps it is true that the federal government has no standards for brownfield cleanup, but that does not mean no standards exist. The California Water Quality Control Board and the Department of Toxic Substances Control are responsible for coordinating cleanups of these sites to objective standards required for habitation, commercial development, schools, parks, or whatever. You can see the DTSC activities for the Sherwin-Williams site at https://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/profile_report?glo...
I wish I had more to point at rn but, hemp crops can help pull toxins from soil. Other crops too , can help with a "brown zone" but hemp (and it's cousin) get more press.
and here I am, wondering if it's safe to eat stuff grown in my yard because there was a fire at a nuclear weapons production facility 30 miles from here, 50 years ago.
We build on a patch of land that used to be small workshop removing paint from furniture and the like. The shop operated way back in the 70s and 80s, as far as I know. Well, at least long enough ago that just dumping all the chemicals used in the backyard. That backyard is now our garden. We were obliged to conduct soil analysis. So, overall the soil was:
1. Super expensive to get rid of, the only "recycling" site willing to take it was 150 km away. Luckily, we managed to convince the construction company to only transport the bare minimum. The reminder was moved to the front and is now sitting under the car port
2. The contamination is bad enough to be illegal for a kindergarden or play ground, but good enough for a general park
3. covering it up with 50 cm of clean stuff gets it "kindergarden" legal, 75 cm get it good for growing crops. So we have a front half of the garden where we plant flowers and such and a back half were vegetables and herbs and so grow.
Damn easy to build yourself in any size you desire, it's basically an open box, on the bottom and top, of weather resistant hard wood (so don't buy on Amazon!). You fill the bottom with old branches and other pieces of wood, then you multiple layers of earth. You have to top it up so every other spring. And put it some stones to get the wood away from the moisture of the ground.
If you collected a soil sample (a few spoons of dirt from 5-8 places in your garden, put in s plastic baggie.) Then get it tested - ask for a 32 element ICP. It's fairly cheap, 10-20$USD, gives you a run down of those 32 elements, and then you can see if there are any anomalies. They give you an answer in ppm (parts per million.) For example. Then you look at the published standards for soil quality. For example in your case, residential criteria. In your state. Find online.
If you are more than a factor of 10 or 100 above that, in one element, you may have an issue. If there was a fire, and ashes blew your way, there could be detectable amounts.
If there are, especially if those elements are suspected to originate from the fire. You can worry about further tests. Some organic compounds- by products of the fire may be there, and be measurable. And that gets more expensive.(~ $500)
But you'll probably find everything is ok.
I suspect we live in the same area. I go mountain biking around there often, and I'm a little paranoid when the Santa Ana winds come through and stir up a lot of dust :\
Emeryville is a 10 minute drive from SF, or 1 mile away from a BART station that gets you to SF in 15 minutes. It is a suburb of SF or a suburb in the SF Bay Area.
[+] [-] watersb|3 years ago|reply
It sort of became the place for messy industry, when just burying the bad junk was considered sufficient.
Company I worked for had major construction project for their campus expansion, but it took a while to clear the PG&E transformer storage lot of decades of PCB leakage.
Poly chlorinated biphenyls are nasty. Almost as nasty as the heavy metal contamination of the Sherwin-Williams Paint factory across the way.
The merely-poisonous-at-quantity horseradish processing facility was a breath of fresh air... and is now part of the Pixar-plex.
What with all the major construction over the past 30 years, there have been ongoing cleanup efforts. I don't know how realistic my optimism is, but it's way cleaner than it was in the 1980s.
[+] [-] walrus01|3 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal
[+] [-] rahimnathwani|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gkop|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ng12|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] walrus01|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kmonsen|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] otherotherchris|3 years ago|reply
VOC contaminated soil at Fairchild, Intersil and Intel sites should be safe except after flooding from exceptionally heavy rain. Presumably there's a plan to shut the playgrounds, but it's America so who knows...
[+] [-] jeffbee|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] djbusby|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xyzwave|3 years ago|reply
https://usfblogs.usfca.edu/sustainability/2022/02/03/mycorem...
[+] [-] throwawayboise|3 years ago|reply
Normal toxic site cleanups that I have read about usually involve at minimum replacing topsoil to a depth of several feet.
[+] [-] simulate-me|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jerkstate|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hef19898|3 years ago|reply
1. Super expensive to get rid of, the only "recycling" site willing to take it was 150 km away. Luckily, we managed to convince the construction company to only transport the bare minimum. The reminder was moved to the front and is now sitting under the car port
2. The contamination is bad enough to be illegal for a kindergarden or play ground, but good enough for a general park
3. covering it up with 50 cm of clean stuff gets it "kindergarden" legal, 75 cm get it good for growing crops. So we have a front half of the garden where we plant flowers and such and a back half were vegetables and herbs and so grow.
Depends on how much you want to grow, this is potential solution. And it also more gentle for your back: a Hochbeet (German, that's what t looks like:https://www.amazon.de/s?k=hochbeet&adgrpid=1199567838429561&...)
Damn easy to build yourself in any size you desire, it's basically an open box, on the bottom and top, of weather resistant hard wood (so don't buy on Amazon!). You fill the bottom with old branches and other pieces of wood, then you multiple layers of earth. You have to top it up so every other spring. And put it some stones to get the wood away from the moisture of the ground.
[+] [-] pomian|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clarionbell|3 years ago|reply
The metals are still toxic however. So I wouldn't recommend going for a geiger counter, instead try testing for chemical contamination.
[+] [-] grebly|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kadoban|3 years ago|reply
*not medical advice
[+] [-] iancmceachern|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] olliej|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] humanistbot|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ransom1538|3 years ago|reply
a) SF (the city) starts at the Golden Gate bridge and runs all the way to San Jose.
b) Redwood city, San Jose and Oakland - anything located 50 miles around SF - these are all suburbs of SF.
c) The entire state burns every summer.
[+] [-] GoOnThenDoTell|3 years ago|reply
Most people from london don’t live in “city of london”