Barron Park resident Art Liberman, a retired scientist familiar with the processes used in metal plating facilities, researched alternative processes that could reduce or eliminate certain types of hazardous materials.
To: city.council@cityofpaloalto.org Sent: Sunday, January 21, 2007 6:26:31 PM Subject: Positive Message on the Reduction of Hazardous Materials at CPI
To members of the City Council:
Those of us living next to CPI want to be good neighbors to our corporate neighbor next door. We have been suggesting that CPI reduce its amounts of the extremely hazardous materials. We are not advocating this only because it is in our own self interest. It would reduce the risks from an accidental release to us, but it is also be in the long term business interest of CPI. We feel this is a win–win situation. Hazardous materials are costly to purchase, costly to store and use, and costly to dispose of, and also damaging to the environment.
CPI uses a large amount of acids to clean the metal surfaces before plating them with metals to insure the plating adheres well. Acid storage and usage should be examined closely at CPI to find ways to reduce the amounts of acid consumed, for example by adjusting the acid bath temperatures and recapturing the acid vapors and mists released from the tanks.
Among the most dangerous of the chemicals at CPI is the cyanide which is used in the plating processes. The potassium cyanide salts that CPI uses is an extremely poisonous material and it poses a significant risk to the CPI employees who must move them, mix them, and work with them, and then dispose of them. More modern and safer processes without cyanide exist, and more and more companies are using them.
The plating processes that CPI uses now are the same ones that Varian was using when the building and the plating shop was first built, more than 40 years ago. The Cyanide based plating itself is a technology based on patents that date from the 19th century.
About 10 years ago Lawrence Livermore worked with a number of metal finishing companies to develop and evaluate new cyanide-free plating solutions. At the end, they concluded that viable cyanide free plating solutions existed for all metals, including silver plating which uses the greatest amount of cyanide.
It is sometimes difficult for a company to change its ‘tried and true’ processes. Whenever some aspect of a product is changed, a number of evaluations need to be made that include careful comparisons on the possible consequences to a product performance. These can be time consuming, but CPI must begin moving in that direction.
There are a number of resources available to CPI in making the transition. If CPI needs assistance, the EPA and the Metal Finishing industry have created a Strategic Goals Program that offers incentives to companies to go beyond environmental compliance. There are twelve companies in California. CPI should join. The web site http://www.strategicgoals.org/about.cfm has success stories of companies who have completely eliminated cyanide in their plating processes, and have reduced the hazardous waste costs, lowered their waste water usage, and more. The City Council could direct the City Manager to convene a panel of technical experts in the Bay Area who could advise CPI on the current best practices in the metal finishing industry.
Cyanide free processes may be more complicated and the solutions more expensive, but the costs would be lower in the long term. CPI and other companies using cyanide plating processes must deal with the increasing concerns and costs with hazardous wastes, employee safety, consequences of accidents and accidental releases of cyanide and the consequent legal liabilities, as well as increasing government oversight and regulation.
The metal finishing industry does advocate more "green" approaches. Given the risks in use of cyanide, CPI must move in that direction -- it truly is in their long term business interest.