From: Art
Liberman <art_liberman@yahoo.com>
Date: January
25, 2007 11:51:09 AM PST
To: city.council@cityofpaloalto.org,
citymgr@cityofpaloalto.org, Steve Emslie
<steve.emslie@cityofpaloalto.org>, Curtis Williams
<Curtis.Williams@CityofPaloAlto.org>, Donald Larkin
<Donald.Larkin@CityofPaloAlto.org>, Gary Baum <Gary.Baum@CityofPaloAlto.org>
Subject: Measures to Implement Council Motion on Reducing CPI
Title 19 Hazardous Materials
To the Members of the City Council:
We want to thank the City Council for listening to our
neighborhood's concerns about hazardous materials on January 22 and for approving
a strengthened Zoning Update Ordinance. The Council action has
demonstrated that it puts a high priority on ensuring our health and safety.
The Council also understood the serious risks that our
community faces should there be a natural disaster or accidental release
of the extremely hazardous materials at CPI, just feet from our homes. The
message in the motion by Councilman Barton clearly directs CPI to reduce its
hazardous materials to sub-Title 19 thresholds. While the goal is clear, the
motion allows for considerable flexibility in the means to reach the goal. The
motion directed staff to work with CPI. However, this is an area that is very
specialized, and staff does not have the technical expertise. This is not at
all the type of issue our hazardous materials safety personnel are trained to
deal with.
Instead, implementation of this motion requires an expert with a
background in the complex chemistry, surface finish processing, and material
properties of plated metal coatings, and also knows how to apply the latest
innovations in this field that use safer and more environmentally
sensitive alternatives to the hazardous materials currently used at CPI.
We request that the city engage an unbiased, independent
3rd party
expert who would be able to evaluate the CPI electroplating operations. This
expert would be knowledgeable in the current best practices in the industry.
We ask that the City immediately begin the search for such an
expert and set an objective of engaging someone as soon as possible, or
certainly within three months.
The expert should be able to assess the situation in six months.
By September the expert would report back to the Council on the directions that
CPI should follow and the time frame it would take to reduce all of
its hazardous materials to sub-Title 19 thresholds. While the expert
would need to work closely with CPI, we recognize that the legitimate
confidentiality concerns of CPI would be respected in any information disclosed
to the public.
The City Council should monitor the progress on this project, and
have the final report presented at a public meeting where questions from the
Council and public can be asked.
We expect our concern will be acted upon with a sense of urgency,
and so we are calling on the Council to take the initiative and move this
proposal forward quickly. It is important to determine whether CPI can meet the
City Council's goal so that an alternative course of action can be pursued
(such as amortizing the use entirely) in a timely manner if the goal cannot be
attained.
Respectfully,
Arthur Liberman 751 Chimalus
Jeff
Dean
710 Chimalus
Romola Georgia 3445
Tippawingo
Bill
Kelly
632 Chimalus