BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
The city of Palo Alto apologized Friday for waiting to tell residents about Tesla spilling chemicals that ended up in Matadero Creek.
Residents were alerted to the spill on Tuesday night, when crews were out with tanker trucks, hoses, dumpsters and bulldozers in the North Ventura neighborhood next to Boulware Park.
The spill happened five days earlier about a mile way at Tesla’s research facility at 1501 Page Mill Road.
“In hindsight and with appreciation for the input received since, staff recognizes that we should have made public notifications sooner,” the city said. “We apologize for our delay in making notifications.” The city yesterday said testing showed the spill consisted primarily of a green dye and “Meras 1020,” a product that includes a solution of 1-2% borax and less than 1% sodium hydroxide, also called lye or caustic soda.
“The substance, at the levels of concentration observed, is not a risk to life or health,” the city said in Friday’s update.
Storage of sodium hydroxide requires a city permit, which Tesla had not obtained before the spill last week, the city said.
The sodium hydroxide was being used as an additive to water in Tesla’s cooling system for an AI supercomputer, the city said.
Sodium hydroxide is “very corrosive” to metal and tissue, according to a chemical safety report by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Also called caustic soda, it’s used to manufacture soaps, paper, explosives, dyes, and petroleum products, the safety report said.
Sodium hydroxide can cause serious eye damage and skin irritation, and it’s toxic to ingest, the safety report said.
Firefighters responded to the spill after a 911 call and found a green liquid flowing into the street. Firefighters recovered approximately 550 gallons of the mixture from the storm drain, according to a hazardous materials spill report by the California Office of Emergency Services.
Tesla reported 12 gallons of the substance released into the storm drain, the city said.
The exact quantities of the materials released are still under investigation, the city said./p>
How typical of PA’s huge and costly “communications” team for yet again failing to do needed outreach and, er, communicate with the taxpayers paying them their big bucks.
Why does the city need an expensive PR dept. when things like this happen?
Public relations are all about twisting the truth to make it sound less offensive than it actually is.
Why hasn’t the city fined Tesla for keeping a substance without permit on the property? They will gladly fine residents for small things but not big businesses.
In its physical appearance from the first images published online, the green substance resembles automobile antifreeze.