AIr quality at the camelia street properties - Updated September 22, 2023

In 2021 we learned that the Southern part of the building housed a dry-cleaning business in the late 1970's early 1980's. Throughout the course of business the dry-cleaning facility used the solvent PCE (also known as tetrachloroethylene) which has polluted soil, groundwater, and soil vapor (the air space between the individual soil grains) at the building.  PCE is also found in some common household products, such as stain removers, glues, and metal cleaning products.  PCE is a regulated chemical that could potentially cause health concerns if one were exposed to it for long enough at certain concentrations.  

For approximately 20 years, the landlord of our building has been under environmental regulatory oversight by the City of Berkeley, and later by the Regional Water Quality Control Board.  However, indoor air testing at our building only recently became a focus of the regulators and landlord, and to our knowledge, no indoor air data was produced for BBT's space until July, 2021.  We were never informed about the presence of PCE in the soil or the testing by the landlord.  We heard about the issue very recently when we were CC'd on a notice of violation from the Water Board to the landlord.

The acceptable number for PCE long-term exposure in indoor air is 2 micrograms of PCE per cubic meter of air (ug/m3) and applies to both children and adults. The measurement of 2 ug/m3 PCE is a conservative value set at an excess lifetime cancer risk of one-in-a-million, if exposed for eight hours per day for a period of 20 years. 

The property owner submitted a Subslab Vapor Mitigation Pilot Test and VIMS Design Report on September 30, 2022. The Regional Water Board approved the VIMS report on October 19, 2022, and is preparing a directive letter requiring an installation and startup report, and an operation, maintenance, and monitoring plan for the VIMS.

Installation of the VIMS is completed at the Property and preliminary testing indicates PCE levels in the building are under the regulated number.

This information continues to have our attention and we have been working with the Regional Water Quality Control Board to learn more and assess the risk to the BBT community. 

 You can learn more about the air quality in the Camelia Street Property building which houses BBT on the California State Water Resources Control Board Geo Tracker: https://geotracker.waterboards.ca.gov/profile_report.asp?global_id=SL600192746