The audit of CPI's hazardous materials usage by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health (reported here in February 2007) has still not been completed. In March, CPI said that they would issue a status report, but no such status report was issued, leaving neighbors in the dark about what has been happening. We recently learned that the County hired a third party consultant to assist with the audit and review of CPI's revised Risk Management Plan. They expect it to be completed by the end of November 2007.

Assistant City Manager Emily Harrison has convened a committee to work towards the resolution of issues that have arisen between residents of Barron Park and CPI. The group is composed of representatives from the City of Palo Alto (Emily Harrison and Fire Marshall Dan Firth), CPI (Director of West Coast Facilities Paul Dinapoli, Vice President of Human Resources Sean Villa-Lovoz and Director of Investor Relations Amanda Mogin), Santa Clara County (Hazardous Materials Program Manager Nicole Pullman), and the Barron Park neighborhood (Jeff Dean, Art Liberman, Samir Tuma, and Barron Park Association President Doug Moran).

At the March 2007 meeting with neighbors, CPI presented graphs showing that they had increased the quantities of hazardous materials at their Palo Alto site. The good news is they say they are now reducing these quantities. The bad news is that they say will not reduce the amounts below Title 19 thresholds. Read more...

The website has been renamed to CPI Hazard Watch to focus attention on practices at CPI that brought this site into existence. The site has been updated and will continue to document efforts to reduce the risk posed by hazardous materials stored by CPI next to Palo Alto homes.

Art Liberman's report on hazardous materials, CPI, and Palo Alto zoning ordinance update is now available here: Barron Park Community Mobilizes as City Council Changes Zoning, Limiting Hazardous Materials Near Residential Areas.

Many neighbors were unimpressed by CPI's claim that there is no risk from the hazardous materials. Learn why: here's a review of CPI's presentation and here are notes taken during the meeting (CPI has refused to share the slides shown at the meeting).

The Palo Alto Weekly has a story on the planned meeting between CPI and Barron Park residents, and also discusses the CPI audit by the County of Santa Clara. Read the article

CPI is going through a Risk Management Plan audit by the the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health. The County welcomes input from residents. For more information, or to comment on CPI's use of hazardous materials, contact:

Barron Park residents are invited to attend an informational meeting about CPI and Hazardous Materials Issues. 1. Presentation by Mr. Bob Fickett, President, CPI (30 minutes)
2. Extended Question and Answer session

Four Chimalus Drive residents submitted a letter to the City Council asking for an independent expert to follow up without delay on the Council's motion to work with CPI to phase out Title 19 chemicals. Read the letter.

Last night the Palo Alto City Council modified the proposed zoning ordinance, capping CPI at a 10% increase in hazardous materials (instead of the 25% originally proposed), and they agreed that there should be no new Title 19 facilities without their approval. This was a clear message to companies that the expansion of hazardous materials facilities in Palo Alto just doesn't make sense. However, the Council didn't take any strong measures to press CPI to reduce the already too high level of hazardous materials currently at the site. Read the Palo Alto Weekly article.

Barron Park resident Art Liberman sent a memo to City Council with his research on alternative "environmentally friendly" metal plating processes that could reduce or eliminate certain types of hazardous materials at CPI. Read the memo.

The Barron Park Association Board has submitted a letter to the City Council requesting strengthening of the proposed changes to the Zoning Ordinance on hazardous materials, especially high-risk chemicals (at the CPI site, bordering homes on Chimalus Drive). Read the letter.

Palo Alto's Annual Report on City Government Performance (pdf) reports that over the past five years, the number of facilities in Palo Alto with hazardous materials has increased and the number of accidents has doubled, yet the Fire Department is now performing fewer inspections and there is one less Fire Inspector than there was in 2002-2003.

The City Manager's report (pdf) on the Zoning Ordinance Update implies that Barron Park residents' concerns about risk are unfounded. The City Manager's office released two additional memos that appear intended to counter these concerns: Palo Alto Fire Department Hazardous Materials Program and ZOU Hazardous Materials Provisions and CPI. The City Manager's Office continues to recommend that the Council approve the ordinance without any changes.

Barron Park residents sent a report to City Council, with specific recommendations on how to improve the Hazardous Materials section of the Zoning Ordinance Update. Read the report.

Palo Alto Online published an article on the CPI accident: A $20,000 civil-penalties and reimbursement settlement has been reached for a hazardous nitric-acid release over Barron Park last February.

The Palo Alto Weekly published an article on the Zoning Ordinance Update: Residents protest 'hazmat' zoning protections.

The article mentions that this was the first accident at CPI, but we know that there was a least one other accident, and it is possible that there may have been other accidents that were unreported because CPI deemed them "insignificant" (like the February 2nd accident). Perhaps "first" refers to the first time that there has been an investigation and subsequent legal action.

The Board of the Barron Park Association voted unanimously to endorse our proposed changes to the Zoning Ordinance Update.

The City of Palo Alto has confirmed that the Zoning Ordinance Update will be discussed at the City Council meeting on Monday January 22nd. The meeting starts at 7pm, come and show your support!

A letter from Art Liberman was published in the Palo Alto Weekly. It begins: Read the whole letter.

Art Liberman's report Emergency Preparedness for Chemical Accidents: Toxic Gas Release from CPI on Feb 2nd 2006 has been added to the web site. Read the report (or get the original Acrobat/PDF version).

We walked the neighborhood, dropping off flyers and talking to people who were outside (we didn't ring doorbells). People we spoke to were supportive and (no surprise here) the general agreement was that the storage of large quantities hazardous chemicals so close to a residential area was inappropriate.

Several people have asked what was there first, CPI or the Barron Park neighborhood? This isn't really relevant to the discussion, but the answer is that Barron Park homes where there first. Many of the homes on Chimalus were built in the 1940's and 1950's. Some Chimalus residents remember when Varian added building #2 (later sold to CPI).