May 5, 2006 1:31 am US/Pacific
Bay Area Construction Sites On Toxic Waste List
by Anna Werner
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Download List Of 'Capped' Toxic Sites (PDF)(CBS 5) Construction crews all over the Bay Area are unknowingly exposing neighborhoods and themselves to contaminated waste when they dig into the ground, a CBS 5 hidden camera investigation has found.
Jeff Salvatore's crew was working on a sewer line at a restaurant in Santa Clara when a man walked up to him.
"He said, 'This is a no-dig zone; you're not supposed to dig here. This soil is contaminated,' " Salvatore said.
But Salvatore's crew had a city permit to work there, so he asked the city inspector.
"He's like, 'I have no record of that … of it being a no-dig zone,' " Salvatore said.
But CBS 5 found it is a no-dig zone. Underneath the restaurant's asphalt is a toxic waste site, former agricultural land contaminated by pesticides.
The spot was "capped," or covered for protection, according to Barbara Cook with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
"We require the cap to protect from exposure, and once capped, the property has environmental land restrictions," Cook said. "The Department wants to put on it a deed restriction which basically limits the use of that property."
And the deed restriction is supposed to limit digging. So how did the plumbers get that permit?
CBS 5 asked the City of Santa Clara's planning department director, Kevin Riley.
"The information didn't come to us to be put in the system," Riley said.
But a letter was sent to the city, written a year before that permit was issued from the Department of Toxic Substances Control warning the city about the restrictions on that property.
Riley says he was not aware of it.
The Department of Toxic Substances Control sends out hundreds of letters to cities and counties all over California. They warn about contaminated properties the state has required to be capped.
The properties are covered by dirt, asphalt, or concrete to prevent people from being exposed to toxins. Problem is, the state has no way of knowing who actually receives the letters and what they are doing with them.
"The monitoring is done by the state. The land use or permits for digging, or constructing, is done by the local agency, the city agency. They don't communicate; that's where you get the disconnect," said Nabil Al-Hadithy, a toxics expert who works for the City of Berkeley.
For example, in 2003, the state notified the City of Richmond that one property the city wanted to use as part of the recreational Bay Trail had heavy metals like lead lurking under the surface, and no digging could go forward without a plan and constant monitoring.
City workers eventually dug up huge mounds of potentially toxic dirt.
So what about that site in Santa Clara?
CBS 5: "When your department gave the permit out for them to do this work, do you think it would have been better if they had had this information, and gone in and been able to say, 'Wait a minute. Before you go dig here, you really need to be looking at this carefully.' "
Riley: "It would be helpful, certainly."
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