In California, state efforts at control have been hampered by a lack of both money and knowledge. Although the California legislature ordered the Department of Health Services to develop a hazardous-waste management program more than two years ago, little progress has been made. Until TCA was found in public drinking water, regulating hazardous chemicals just wasn't a priority.
So the residents and the local governments are taking matters into their own hands. Ross and 15 of her neighbors have sued Fairchild, Great Oaks Water, and pertinent public entities, charging negligence.Lawyers for the residents expect as many as 100 more people to file suits. State and county officials are investigating the incidence of birth defects. San Jose has been trying to develop a model ordinance on handling and storage of toxic materials. The Palo Alto City Council is considering an ordinance that would require local companies to disclose the types and amounts of chemicals they use and store at their plants.
For companies, the solutions are going to be expensive. The Fairchild tank that leaked has been removed, and Fairchild is spending millions of dollars to dig up all its other underground tanks and place them in cement storage vaults that presumably would contain leaks if they occurred. But for the people like Ross it is a little late. And the residents will never look at the high-technology companies in quite the same way.
"I'm not anti-semiconductor industry," says Lorraine Ross. "But I don't want my health adversely affected by their profit-making. Companies should be willing to invest a portion of their profit to ensure they aren't damaging the environment." Curiously, lack of regulation made the industry more vulnerable. Public glorification of the industry made the fall harder, the residents more bitter.People expected more from this new industry. Many in Santa Clara County seemed to think it could do no wrong.
There are growing suspicions across the country that maybe this adoration has not been healthy, that maybe high technology does not have all the answers, that, in fact, it creates problems of its own. Toxic wastes brought this possibility to the attention of the residents of Santa Clara County. But there are other problems attracting national interest, problems like the transfer of high-technology secrets and products to the Soviets and to other powers not friendly to the United States.
Six years ago David Henry Roberts was the kind of guy the electronics industry likes to hold up as proof that in Silicon Valley opportunity exists for everyone. He was a local boy, born and brought up in Watsonville, a small dusty town about 40 miles from Mountain View, where he got his first job. He had started out in the warehouse at Elmar Electronics shortly after graduating from high school in 1970. He worked his way up to become a sales rep, earning more than $20,000 a year.
Roberts worked at Elmar for five years before he started job-hopping among components distributors. He moved to Hamilton Avnet Electronics, another distributor, back to Elmar, to Hamilton Avnet again, and then to Western Microtechnology Inc. He worked at Clear-Com Intercom Systems Inc., a San Francisco electronics manufacturer. In some fields the job changes might have been a sign of trouble, but in the electronics industry mobility is thought to demonstrate initiative. Besides, Roberts was a producer. He became known as a guy who could get components faster and cheaper than anyone else.
In 1978, Roberts supplied $100,000 worth of integrated circuits to Larry Lowery, president of a series of small electronics companies, called, in chronological order, L&M Electronics, Brut Electronics, and O.C.S. It was a quick deal -- Roberts had set up the sale before he obtained the parts. But there was one problem: The circuits had been stolen from Elmar Electronics. And the police knew. In fact they had set up the employee who stole the chips and brought them to David Roberts. They found out that Roberts had received only $612 for the goods, a fraction of what he would have gotten for legitimately procured parts, and they arrested him. As it turned out, that time Roberts was lucky. The case against him was dismissed on a technicality.
The arrest was a setback, but it didn't keep Roberts from continuing to work in electronics. Although the industry grapevine is generally considered effective, Hamilton Avnet didn't know Roberts had been arrested. He had a job there when he was arrested a year later for another theft, this time from Hamilton Avnet. He had forged invoices written on his employer's account. Again Lowery was the man behind him, but the police didn't have enough evidence to prosecute. However, Roberts's luck had run out. He was sentenced to 10 months at a work-furlough program at Elmwood Rehabilitation Center. And he found himself blackballed by the industry.He couldn't get a job in the distribution business. He started calling himself Hank Roberts and got a job with an industry headhunter. He even told his employer he had been involved in a court case. The headhunter was giving him a second chance. Roberts was bringing in $20,000 a month.
