Silicon Valley's Dirty Secret

EAST PALO ALTO, Calif.--Froilan Chan-Liongco didn't hear the explosion that incinerated his clothes and left him with second and third degree burns on the lower part of his body. As a welder at Romic Environmental Technologies' hazardous waste recycling facility in East Palo Alto for 16 years, he'd seen his fair share of chemical fires at work, but this one caught him by surprise.

After months of recovery, Chan-Liongco feels burned in more ways than one. Suddenly, the 64-year-old Filipino immigrant -- who resigned because of the company's handling of the incident -- finds himself working with protesters he was once told to ignore by company managers.

For the past 15 years, Romic has been embroiled in a fists-up fight with residents of East Palo Alto, who claim the company has been polluting their community with toxic waste and avoiding closure of its plant by holding regulatory agencies at bay.

One of those agencies, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), slapped Romic with 28 violations from 1999 to 2004 -- everything from mislabeling chemicals to storing them in unauthorized places -- resulting in a 2005 settlement of $849,500 in penalties. Another, the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (CalOSHA), discovered 57 violations at the plant from 1988 to 2004, totaling $163,360 in fines.

Incredibly, Romic's DTSC permit expired in 1991; despite some extensions, it has been operating with a provisional permit for the last 11 years. Community members who oppose the plant believe that in Chan-Liongco, they've found the smoking gun whose testimony could shut it down for good.

After years of mounting pressure from local community groups, the DTSC is finally investigating whether or not to approve Romic's operating permit. Chan-Loingco's accident is one of the factors the agency will consider in its deliberations.

High Tech's Dirty Laundry

Underneath the controversy over Romic is a larger story about one of Silicon Valley's least-talked-about exports: toxic waste. Romic specializes in industrial recycling of liquid waste -- solvents, inks, acids and other dangerous chemicals that are involved in the production of computer parts. The importation of this waste into their community has East Palo Alto residents worried, and many believe it is no coincidence that Romic's plant is allowed to continue operating, despite multiple safety violations, in an area whose residents are 97 percent people of color.

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