Cari Templeton, a member of the Planning and Transportation Commission who is currently running for the City Council, observed the cleanup effort on Tuesday night after hearing from a resident who lives in the area. She saw large trucks pumping liquid out of the channel near Boulware Park and in the area around the former Fry’s Electronics site on Portage Avenue. She said she was “shocked at the amount of activity happening in our creek and in our city for a chemical spill.”
“On the site, I saw two tanker trucks, major hose lines connected to a nearby fire hydrant running into the creek bed, bulldozers and several dumpsters apparently filled with silt from the creek,” Templeton said in an email.
Templeton, a former resident of both Ventura and Barron Park, took photos of the work site and notified the media about the Tesla spill and the cleanup effort. She also reached out to Valley Water, the jurisdiction in charge of the creek, and learned that the water agency was not aware of the spill.
“After learning of this incident, I worked with members of the community and with professional water and environmental leaders in the area to determine what we currently know about the spill,” she said. “While I have located the (OES) report … I am concerned about how little we know about the chemicals that were spilled, and the lack of communication about this incident between appropriate agencies and to Palo Alto residents.”
She said in a phone interview that the work was taking place after 11:30 p.m., with bright lights installed in the channel, and loud noise.
“None of the neighbors had been notified about what was happening,” Templeton said. “I have obvious concerns about this chemical that’s unknown being spilled into the creek but there’s an additional area of concern, which is: Why weren’t people notified?”
Cari Templeton, a member of the Planning and Transportation Commission who is running for council, said she’s concerned about how little residents know. She learned about the spill last night when a concerned resident reached out.
Templeton said she reached out to Valley Water this morning and the agency didn’t know about the spill.
“We need better communication when environmental incidents occur, such as this one,” Templeton said in an email. “People shouldn’t have to dig this hard to find out when a chemical cleanup is happening next to their home and in their city, and how it will affect their families and children.”
Templeton said she has a lot of questions: “Why didn’t the Palo Alto Fire Department report this incident to Valley Water directly? Exactly what chemicals were spilled? Are these chemicals dangerous? Was this spill reported when the incident occurred, or was there a delay between when it occurred and when it was reported? How did it get into the creek — was it dumped? And who is the clean-up crew accountable to — the government or Tesla?”