Background

The 11.5-acre Spectra-Physics, Inc. site in Mountain View, California, has been the location of an electronics and gas laser manufacturing operation since 1961. These activities and several on-site wastewater sumps contaminated soil and groundwater with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including tetrachloroethylene (PCE), trichloroethylene (TCE), vinyl chloride and 1,1-dichloroethane (1,1-DCA).  Furthermore, contaminated groundwater that migrated north from another NPL site, Teledyne Semiconductor, merged with the contaminated plume of the Spectra-Physics, Inc. site. The two firms are cleaning up the sites jointly.

These sites are among the 28 sites in the South Bay Area of San Francisco. Facilities at these sites have used a ...
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