The Problem The Risk Aerial Images The Solution What Next Home
| Summary: CPI is the only company in Palo Alto storing large quantities of dangerous chemicals next to homes. Since 2006, there have been at least three reportable incidents involving hazardous materials. | |
| On February 2nd 2006, a cloud of nitric acid vapor was released from CPI's Palo Alto facility and drifted over the adjacent Barron Park neighborhood. CPI evacuated the facility but didn't notify the authorities and didn't alert neighbors. | A year after the accident, CPI paid $20,000 to Palo Alto in penalties and investigation costs, and also agreed to take steps to prevent this from happening again. |
| As this incident became public knowledge, Barron Park residents researched public records and found that CPI stores large number of hazardous materials right next to their neighborhood. Two toxic chemicals are stored in such large quantities that they are subject to special regulations (California Title 19), and CPI is required to file report (called a Risk Management Plan). | The two regulated chemicals are nitric acid and potassium cyanide. An accident involving potassium cyanide can cause the release of hydrogen cyanide, a deadly poisonous gas. |
| CPI is the only company in Palo Alto required to file a Risk Management Plan. This plan specifies a worst-case scenario that describes the effect of a rupture in one of the chemical storage tanks. | There is no estimate of what would happen in case of an accident involving multiple tanks, so the "worst-case" isn't really the worst-case. |
| CPI's worst-case scenario lays out an area that extends 0.2 miles (about 1000 feet) from their facility. Anyone remaining inside this area during a worst-case scenario accident would be at risk. This area includes a number of houses in Barron Park as well as a stretch of El Camino Real, and there is a pre-school and an elementary school just past the edge of this zone. | The 1000 foot zone is an approximation, based on a model created by a CPI consultant. This is not a "magic" distance: there is nothing that will stop toxic fumes from travelling further. |
| CPI stores the hazardous materials (as well as large tanks of liquid hydrogen and other liquid gases) next to the fence bordering the Barron Park neighborhood. Trucks drive through this area daily delivering hazardous materials and removing hazardous wastes. Over the past several years, CPI has increased the quantities of nitric acid and potassium cyanide at this facility. | CPI recently closed a facility in an industrial area of San Carlos, and expanded the Palo Alto facility, increasing the quantities of hazardous materials stored next to the residential neighborhood. |
The Problem The Risk Aerial Images The Solution What Next Home