California Chemical Exposure Research Tools
Chemical Release Sites
Unfortunately, chemical release site information is maintained in numerous databases and websites. The data occasionally overlaps, but often does not. If you're interested about a specific location, I'd encourage you to search for it in all the sites as some are likely to have information that others do not.
Unfortunately, chemical release site information is maintained in numerous databases and websites. The data occasionally overlaps, but often does not. If you're interested about a specific location, I'd encourage you to search for it in all the sites as some are likely to have information that others do not.
- CA DTSC Map: https://envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/
- CA DTSC Hazardous Waste Site List: Link
- CA DTSC Land Use Restrictions: Link
- CA Water Boards Map: https://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov
- CA Water Boards Leaking Underground Storage Tanks: Link
- CalEnviroScreen Pollution Burden and Health Trends: https://oehha.ca.gov/calenviroscreen/maps-data
- Tracking California: Informing Action: https://www.trackingcalifornia.org/main/maps-and-data
- Bay Area Air Quality Monitoring: https://www.baaqmd.gov/about-air-quality/interactive-data-maps
- EPA Superfunds: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live
- EPA Chemical Release Sites: https://www3.epa.gov/myem/envmap/find.html
- EPA Env Justice Screen Map: https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen
- EPA Env Atlas: https://enviroatlas.epa.gov/enviroatlas/interactivemap/
- Toxic Sites, https://www.toxicsites.us/index.php
- Dept of Defense Clean Up: www.denix.osd.mil/cleanup/home/
- Dept of Energy Clean Up: https://www.energy.gov/em/mission/cleanup-sites
- CDC National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network: https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/showHome.action
- Bombs in the Backyard, https://www.brookings.edu/bombs-in-the-backyard/
- Active Nuclear Power Reactors: https://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/maps/operating-nuclear-power-reactors
Understanding Vapor Intrusion & Chemical Exposure Vapor intrusion occurs when there is a migration of vapor-forming chemicals from any subsurface source into an overlying building. [EPA]
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Understanding Superfunds (CERCLA) & Chemical Release Sites
EPA’s Superfund program is responsible for cleaning up some of the nation’s most contaminated land and responding to environmental emergencies, oil spills and natural disasters. [EPA]
- EPA's Community Guide to EPA's Superfund Program, https://semspub.epa.gov/work/HQ/175197.pdf
- EPA's What is Superfund?, https://www.epa.gov/superfund/what-superfund
- EPA's History of the Superfund Program, https://www.epa.gov/superfund/superfunds-40th-anniversary-look-back-decades
- CHEJ, Superfund: http://chej.org/superfund/
- Do You Live Near Toxic Waste? See 1,317 of the Most Polluted Spots in the U.S., https://time.com/4695109/superfund-sites-toxic-waste-locations/
- NatGeo, Toxic Waste Explained: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/toxic-waste
- EPA, Learn the Basics of Hazardous Waste: https://www.epa.gov/hw/learn-basics-hazardous-waste
- The Guardian: Toxic Trail: How a landmark cleanup program leaves its own toxic legacy [Silicon Valley], https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2014/mar/-sp-toxic-waste-silicon-valley-trail
Chemical Release Sites & Climate Change
- Groundwater Beneath Your Feet Is Rising With the Sea. It Could Bring Long-Buried Toxic Contamination With It: https://www.kqed.org/science/1971582/groundwater-beneath-your-feet-is-rising-with-the-sea-it-could-bring-long-buried-toxins-with-it
- Groundwater Rise: An International Problem that California Must Solve [Ashley Gjovik], https://citizenyang.com/2021/04/22/groundwater-rise-an-international-problem-that-california-must-solve/
- The Sea Beneath Us: Sea level rise has a gotcha-from- behind twin: rising groundwater. It’s already here. And some experts maintain, we’re not ready for it. https://baynature.org/article/the-sea-beneath-us/
- What Threat Does Sea-Level Rise Pose to California? https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4261
- The Looming Superfund Nightmare. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/09/the-looming-superfund-nightmare/539316/
- A growing toxic threat — made worse by climate change: www.nbcnews.com/specials/superfund-sites-climate-change/
- Superfund: EPA Should Take Additional Actions to Manage Risks from Climate Change: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-20-73
- GAO: 60% of Superfund sites at higher risk in climate change: apnews.com/article/dc5ac3832512435cb863897b5c1a0fe6
- PBS: Climate change imperils 60 percent of Superfund sites, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/climate-change-imperils-60-percent-of-superfund-sites
- Biden will inherit hundreds of toxic waste Superfund sites, with climate threats looming, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/biden-will-inherit-hundreds-toxic-waste-superfund-sites-climate-threats-n1252276
- As Tech Empire Ravages Environment, Wealth Cannot Protect Silicon Valley From Climate Change, https://truthout.org/articles/wealth-cant-protect-environmentally-ravaged-silicon-valley-from-climate-change/
Books
- The Contamination of the Earth: A History of Pollutions in the Industrial Age (History for a Sustainable Future): https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262043831
- Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change, https://www.amazon.com/Merchants-Doubt-Handful-Scientists-Obscured/dp/1608193942
- Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats, Kristen Iversen, https://www.tatteredcover.com/book/9780307955654
Movies
- HBO, Atomic Homefront (radioactive waste exposure in St. Louis from the West Lake landfill & Coldwater Creek), https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/atomic-homefront
- Dark Waters (DuPont & Teflon), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9071322/
- A Civil Action (Beatrice Foods & TCE), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120633/
- Erin Brockovich (PG&E and hexavalent chromium), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195685/
- Merchants of Doubt, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3675568/