"Most people don't pay much attention to the ordinary-looking parking lot at the corner of South 10th Street and East Alma Avenue just south of downtown San Jose. There are plenty of bigger draws nearby: San Jose State University's football stadium, the San Jose Giants' ballpark, Happy Hollow Zoo, and Sharks Ice at San Jose, a popular ice rink where the San Jose Sharks practice."
"But the 5-acre, asphalt-covered lot is home to one of Silicon Valley's longest-running environmental cleanups a former business where workers scrubbed and recycled more than 2 million industrial steel drums between 1947 and 1987, often dumping pesticides, solvents, acids and other chemicals into the ground and storm drains. By 1987, after decades of contamination, the owner, Ernie Lorentz, was jailed."
A 5-acre lot near downtown San Jose once hosted Lorentz Barrel and Drum Co., where workers processed over 2 million industrial steel drums from 1947 to 1987 and frequently dumped pesticides, solvents, acids and other chemicals into soil and storm drains. The property became a federal Superfund site after decades of contamination and the owner was jailed by 1987. The U.S. EPA reports about 90% of the cleanup is complete and is proposing a $24 million project that uses metal probes to heat soil 20 to 30 feet deep, a technique used elsewhere in California, to remove stubborn residual contamination.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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