This came from the Campaign for Responsible Technology (CRT) with a request
that it be circulated and reposted.
======================================================
Dear CRT Friend:
We are very excited about our latest project, the release of our new book,
SACRED WATERS:--LIFE BLOOD OF MOTHER EARTH-Four Case Studies of High-Tech
Water Exploitation and Corporate Welfare in the Southwest. This report is a
product of the Electronics Industry Good Neighbor Campaign (EIGNC), a
collaborative effort of two networks the Campaign for Responsible Technology
(CRT) and the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice
(SNEEJ). It is the culmination of many years of hard work, not just by CRT
and SVTC, but also SNEEJ and three other environmental justice
organizations (SouthWest Organizing Project, Albuquerque, NM; People
Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources, Austin, TX; and Tonatierra
Community Development Institute, Phoenix, AZ) in the Southwest that are
working in communities impacted by rapid high-tech development.
SACRED WATERS not only chronicles the history of high-tech development in
Silicon Valley, it provides information on the extent of groundwater
contamination in Santa Clara County. Each community--Silicon Valley, CA,
Phoenix AZ, Albuquerque, NM, and Austin, TX--has a separate story to tell,
but the common threat that binds us is the electronic industry's major
impact on the quality and quantity of one of our most precious resources--water.
The book was researched and written by people in each of the four
communities who are on the front-lines facing high-tech development.
Besides providing extensive documentation and well-researched data, the book
also takes the responsibility of making recommendations for communities,
industry and public officials to follow in an effort to promote sustainable
high-tech development into the 21st Century.
Attached you will find a copy of the Executive Summary which is also
available at our website at www.svtc.org/svtc/execsum.htm. If you would
like to purchase a copy of the book please send $10.00 plus $2.25 for
postage and handling ($3.00 if you want it send priority mail), to SVTC at
760 N. First Street, San Jose, CA 95112. If you want to put it on your
charge card, send us your card number, type (Visa/MasterCard), expiration
date and your name as it appears on the card. Fax this information to us at
408-287-6771, since I don't believe the IGC server is secure.
Please feel free to call me at 408-287-6707 if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Ted Smith
Executive Director
_______________________________________________________________________
Sacred Waters:
High-Tech Water Exploitation and
Corporate Welfare in the Southwest
Executive Summary
Introduction
While the benefits of the computer to the day-to-day operations of industry
and the general public are undeniable, so are the costs, as this
comprehensive study of the computer industry in America's Southwest makes
clear. This report is meant to sound the alarm for communities courting the
computer industry as the key to economic security - and as a call to action
for communities that have already succumbed to the siren song of
high-paying jobs and minimal environmental impact' of this fast growing
industrial sector. The report focuses specifically on the impacts of high
tech electronics manufacturing on the water resources and infrastructure of
four key high tech communities - Albuquerque, New Mexico; Austin, Texas;
Phoenix, Arizona; and Santa Clara County, California. The study documents
massive water pollution and water resource depletion by a who's who of
high-tech giants, including Intel, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Fairchild
Semiconductor, Advanced Micro Devices, Raytheon, Teledyne, TRW, National
Semiconductor, Motorola, and others. It also documents and challenges the
billions of dollars of 'corporate welfare' subsidies given away to some of
the wealthiest corporations in the world.
The Cost: Toxic Flight
Contrary to industry public relations, manufacturing of computers and their
components is anything but a 'clean industry.' The original Silicon Valley
in Santa Clara County, California has experienced a series of environmental
tragedies associated with the computer industry. Today, Santa Clara County
has more Superfund sites than any other county in the US (29), 80% of which
were caused by the high tech electronics industry. As of 1996, 20 of the 29
Superfund sites in Santa Clara County were directly caused by the processes
of producing silicon wafers and other high tech electronics components.
Another five Superfund sites were caused by related industries (equipment
manufacturers, chemical suppliers and waste disposal).
Over the past 20 years, as California strengthened environmental and labor
regulations to clean up the industry's mess, corporations have sought out
other southwestern sites as new technology growth centers. This 'toxic
flight' now puts Austin, Albuquerque and Phoenix in the environmental
cross-hairs of this highly polluting industry. The process of computer
manufacturing requires huge quantities of water, and produces a steady
stream of toxic waste. An inventory list of chemicals used and discarded
for any given company often shows dozens of pages of highly toxic chemicals
that have been shown to damage the central nervous system, reproductive
system and cardiovascular system of humans, as well as cause cancer. Many
of the new manufacturing sites are now located in poorer communities of
color, where people have little or no power to withstand the clout of
multinational computer giants.
The Cost: Disappearing Water
The high tech electronics industry, as it currently functions, has proven
itself to be a highly unsustainable industry, especially in the desert
environment of the Southwest. Besides the massive amounts of chemicals
used, the process of chip manufacturing requires massive amounts of water
-- millions of gallons per day in the newest chip plants! On average, the
production of each six-inch silicon wafer uses the following resources:
* 2,275 gallons of deionized water
* 3,200 cubic feet of bulk gases
* 22 cubic feet of hazardous gases
* 20 pounds of chemicals
* 285 kilowatt hours of electrical power.
In addition, vast amounts of groundwater reserves are contaminated in the
chip-making process. In Arizona, for example, about 25-30% of the
groundwater beneath and around Phoenix has been contaminated resulting in
15 mile long toxic plume - 70% of this by the high tech electronics
industry. The explosion of high tech development in the Southwest means
that the region's already sparse water supplies must meet the needs of one
the world's fastest-growing - and thirstiest - industries.
The Cost: Corporate Welfare
To lure high tech companies to their jurisdictions, officials in Austin,
Phoenix, Albuquerque and Santa Clara County have provided an array of
incentives to corporations, including property tax relief, infrastructure
improvements, off site sewer and water systems, and direct water subsidies.
These subsidies have been extracted from the communities as local
politicians scrambled to respond to industry's whipsawing tactics and have
occurred during an unprecedented growth spurt - semiconductor industry
estimates project that over 100 new chip plants will be built over the next
few years, each costing between $1 and $3 billion.
In many jurisdictions, individual residents now pay higher rates than
corporate users, providing an enormous indirect subsidy to high tech
companies. In addition, the costs of cleaning up contaminated sites and
water supplies often fall on local and state governments costs again borne
by average citizens and which make corporate claims of overall economic
benefits to the region questionable. Many of the costs of high tech
development are consistently passed on to the communities, workers and
environment, and increasingly to communities-of-color. This kind of high
tech corporate welfare has become a sophisticated chess game played
increasingly by large high tech companies to reduce their costs of
production and gain an advantage over competitors. More often than not, the
jurisdiction that lured them is the loser.
This report describes the high-tech Pandora's Box being opened in
communities across the arid West. These industries are extremely resource
hungry and create toxic by-products which will become the burden of
communities long after the silicon boom ends. But with commitment and
conscience, the computer industry can become a responsible member of the
community: first, by adopting a policy of "sustainable development;" and
secondly, by taking responsibility for previously externalized costs, be it
for the real cost of water resources, or of environmental pollution. The
report concludes with a call to action for the industry, regulatory
agencies and communities to meet this formidable challenge to endangered
western water supplies.
A Collaborative Report From the Grassroots
To study and challenge the impacts of high tech development and to attain
sustainable development and responsible manufacturing, two networks, the
Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, and the Campaign
for Responsible Technology have come together in a collaborative effort to
strengthen the work of four local organizations-the Silicon Valley Toxics
Coalition in California, People Organized in Defense of the Earth and Her
Resources in Texas, the Southwest Organizing Project in New Mexico, and
Tonatierra in Arizona- in developing common strategies to affect high tech
industrial development. Discussions between CRT and SNEEJ in the early
1990's led to the creation of the Electronics Industry Good Neighbor
Campaign. The EIGNC is a community-based, multi-racial collaborative effort
to address environmental and occupational health and safety protection,
labor rights, and economic development concerns facing electronics workers
and their communities.
Lessons from California and Arizona
Silicon Valley (San Jose, California)
Any questions about the true costs of high tech manufacturing can be
answered with an in-depth look at the experience of the original Silicon
Valley since the first technology boom of the 1960s. Many of the
corporations seeking their place in the Southwest sun have fled Silicon
Valley, leaving behind a shameful legacy of pollution, waste, and
exploitation. Massive contamination of soil and water supplies led to
stricter environmental and labor regulations - and to the 'toxic flight' of
high tech companies to areas more willing to overlook the dark side of the
computer chip revolution. Among the companies that EPA has listed as
Superfund clean-up sites in Silicon Valley are Intel, Advanced Micro
Devices, Fairchild Semiconductor, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, National
Semiconductor, Raytheon, and Siemens to name a few. Many of these same
companies have moved production, or are looking to expand, to the other
'silicon sites' of the Southwest.
Those jurisdictions would do themselves and their citizens a huge favor by
consulting the information contained in this report. In the City of Santa
Clara, for example, the high tech electronics industry alone used almost
24% of the City's water in 1994/1995. Of the top waste water discharging
companies in Santa Clara County in 1994, 65% were electronics companies.
Today, Santa Clara County has more Superfund sites any other county in the
United States (29) - 80% of which were caused by the high tech electronics
industry.
Silicon Desert (Phoenix, Arizona)
The Silicon Desert was developed long before the costs associated with the
high tech industry were well understood by the general public. And in this
way, many of the patterns evident in Santa Clara County have also been
revealed in the desert around Phoenix.
Every major urban area in Arizona, as well as the entire agribusiness
industry, depends on groundwater for at least half of their supply of
water. Based on available supplies and projected growth, the demand for
water will exceed supply as early as 2010 at current growth rates. Yet the
city of Phoenix persists in luring the water-intensive high tech industry
to its environs, without any increase in water supply on the horizon. In
September of 1995, for example, Sumitomo Sitix, a huge Japanese wafer
manufacturer, chose north Phoenix for a $400 million plant. They were lured
to Phoenix by a promised property tax cut of 80%, duty free import/export
privileges, $7 million in immediate infrastructure improvements, $5.5
million for off site sewer and water systems, and $1.5 million for street
improvements. This same Sumitomo plan is projected to use 2.4 million
gallons of water per day - or 750,000,000 gallons per year. Sumitomo will
also be discharging contaminated water to the public treatment plant,
requiring additional investments by the city of Phoenix.
Today, a fifteen mile plume of contamination floats in the groundwater
underneath Phoenix, Arizona. Contamination has reduced the overall
availability of groundwater by about 25% in and around the Phoenix area.
Today, there are seven Superfund sites in the Phoenix area - three caused
by high tech manufacturing. These high tech Superfund sites have
contributed to well over 60% of the total contaminated groundwater area in
the Phoenix area. The cost of cleaning the aquifer beneath Phoenix has been
estimated as high as $800,000,000 -and clean up efforts have been glacially
slow as the companies responsible for the pollution have resorted to legal
maneuvers to resist paring cleanup and health costs. Public officials
estimate that another 20% of the city's water supply will be lost to
contamination over the next fifty years. A hazardous waste facility on the
Gila River Indian Reservation containing toxic residues from the
manufacture of computer products also poses serious concerns about
groundwater contamination, soil and air pollution, as well as long term
health effects.
The New Silicon Rush: Texas and New Mexico
The third and fourth sections of the report describe areas that have seen
the most industry activity over the last five years, with the most generous
government subsidies, water and tax deals. Now that the costs of computer
manufacturing are more out in the open, the dirtiest and hungriest (for
access to resources) sectors of the industry - semiconductor and circuit
board manufacturing and assembly - are locating with increasing frequency
in communities-of-color and low-income communities, where costs can
continue to be minimized.
Silicon Hills (Austin, Texas)
There are currently 17 major high tech electronics companies in the Austin
area, including IBM, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Applied Materials,
Motorola, Sematech, Apple, Advanced Micro Devices, and 3M. Most of these
companies have only started operating in Austin over the last 15 years,
after the extensive contamination was discovered in Santa Clara County,
California and Phoenix, Arizona. The consumption of water by the high tech
industry has tripled in just 3 years, supported by an industrial water rate
that is less than two-thirds what residents pay for water. These firms have
also been enticed by generous tax breaks - most recently $125 million to
Samsung.
As high tech companies continue to relocate to Austin, the consumption of
water by high tech electronics firms will continue to increase. According
to an Austin American Statesman article, "Austin could exhaust its current
water allocation by 2030." The cost of water scarcity will subsequently be
transferred, as is currently occurring, to residential users, impacting
most significantly the low-income populations around Austin (the majority
of whom are people-of-color) who can least afford it. According to EPA's
Toxic Release Inventory from 1985, Austin's high tech industry legally
emitted over 730,000 pounds of toxics into the environment - about a ton of
toxics per day. Most of this impacted poorer communities of color. Also,
the four major wastewater facilities for the City of Austin are located in
communities of predominantly lower-income people-of-color. More and more,
we have seen that the many costs associated with high tech development in
Austin are borne by low-income, people-of-color, whether it is in the form
of additional wastewater treatment plants, higher water prices, or access
only to the lowest paying, most dangerous jobs in the computer industry.
Silicon Mesa (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
New Mexico is the third most arid state in the nation. Yet the high tech
electronics companies are being welcomed by local politicians, agencies,
and residents for the short-term gains they create: jobs, higher wages for
a few, and a perception of an increasing sophistication of their cities.
Eighty seven percent of the water used by the top industrial users in the
Albuquerque area is by the five high tech companies: Intel, Philips,
Sumitomo, Motorola, and Honeywell.
And the demand for water by high tech industries continues to grow, fueled
by generous subsidies from government officials. The average residential
user in Rio Rancho (a suburb of Albuquerque) pays $1.75 per 1000 gallons of
water. Intel pays, on the average, 41 cents per every 1000 gallons it uses
- four times less than residential users. Not surprisingly, Intel is using
enormous amounts of New Mexico's scant water supply. Today, Intel is using
between 4 to 4.5 million gallons per day (1.6 billion gallons per year),
and is expected to increase this amount to 5.5 to 6 million galls per day
(or 2.1 billion gallons per year).This will be equal to about 6% of all the
water used in the city of Albuquerque. This increased drawdown of
Albuquerque's water from the Rio Grande and its underground storage areas
threatens the traditional irrigation system in northern New Mexico called
acequias. The acequias have sustained subsistence farming for indigenous
peoples, Mexicans and Chicanos, for more than 400 years.
In Albuquerque, corporate welfare has grown increasingly complex and
difficult to track (one obvious example was the $250 million tax incentive
and $8 billion Industrial Revenue Bond awarded to Intel).What is not so
difficult to see are the long-term impacts of the high tech electronics
industry on the water resources and infrastructure of Albuquerque. This
includes the threatened destruction of ancient cultural practices and value
systems;water pricing mechanisms and policies which penalize residents in
order to reward high tech companies; the depletion of Albuquerque's
life-blood aquifer, and extensive contamination of precious water
resources.
A Call to Action
The alarming facts regarding water usage and toxic contamination of a
computer industry rapidly expanding throughout the Southwest has led to the
creation of the Electronics Industry Good Neighbor Campaign. The time has
come to demand candor and honesty from these highly profitable industries
that have never been "clean." Communities of color especially, who have
taken the brunt of the toxic waste and resource mining of the computer
industry, must be heard. The people currently being threatened by water
shortages and environmental toxics constitute more than a public relations
problem. They are the future of the Southwest. A sustainable electronics
industry must benefit communities as well as corporations for the
long-term. Creating a new way of doing business will require the
commitments of industry, government and community working together.
The report concludes by outlining a far-reaching vision of what needs to be
done:
Corporate Responsibility
* Adopt closed-loop industrial re-use of treated waste water.
* Develop toxics-use reduction plan to phase out of the use of toxic
chemicals.
* Zero discharge of treated waste water into aquifers.
* Reduce water use by increased investment into water-saving technologies.
Regulatory Responsibility
* Initiate closer monitoring and inspection of high tech facilities
* Provide access to company records on chemical discharges,
permitting language, chemical inventories, actual chemical usage,
and any other information the surrounding community could use in the
protection of its health.
* Penalties for contaminating our environment must be SIGNIFICANT
enough that the polluting companies find it in their best interest to
innovate environmentally friendly products.
* A system must be developed to protect the workers, the most
"at-risk" population to high tech chemicals, from chemical exposure.
Community Responsibility
* Recycle and Reuse computer products. Upgrade, but don't discard.
Buy environmentally safe products where practicable.
* Develop a full cost pricing system to reflect the true costs of
business and its impact on the host community.
* Public subsidies of companies must be accompanied by a strict set
of conditions such as chemical use reduction, local employment of all
diversities of people, long-term investments in the community, and a
commitment to stay.
Commitment to Environmental Justice
* Maximum participation by ALL interested residents in any community
decision.
* Environmental and environmental justice guidelines must be adhered
to by the companies to ensure that:
1) low-income workers of color are not exposed to toxic chemicals;
2) contaminants are not shipped for disposal toward the path of
least resistance (to low-income, communities- and countries-of-color);
3) facilities moving into low-income, communities of color are not
subject to less stringent environmental regulations than those in affluent
or white communities.
Leslie Byster
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
760 N. First Street
San Jose, CA 95112
408-287-6707-phone
408-287-6771-fax
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>NOW AVAILABLE AT OUR WEBSITE -- New information on the
>grassroots politics of regulatory reinvention. Includes
>a new chart comparing Project XL other models of community participation.
Also information on the the impacts of high-tech industry.
>
> http://www.svtc.org/svtc/
>
>
