There was nothing inherently toxic in the process that couldn't be managed with ordinary methods. These were the same processes used in all semiconductor factories at the time. The was the same process I initially set up at the Buck plant at El Cajon and later in the Buck facility in Idaho. Neither Buck facility had issues. The Buck facilities operated with equipment earlier designed and built in Aurum's Texas facility. In the Idaho facility, I updated the Buck etching process but the fundamentals are the same.
The problems with the original Aurum Etchings site existed before the facility was purchased. It was already contaminated. The contamination found in the soil were chemicals that Aurum Etchings did not use anywhere in its manufacturing process. They were dumped by the previous owner.
The site had been in use for several decades earlier by a company named METCERAM who manufactured parts for the electronics industry with lead and cadmium and certain chlorinated solvents. These had been leaking into the soil for years.
During the decade and a half we were there, our waste water streams from the process were monitored and documented by both the City and the EPA and were in compliance. What we did not know, of course, what was in the soil where METCERAM was dumping contaminated water directly into the soil under the building itself. The EPA did not blame us directly but regulations state that the company owning the property is responsible regardless. The building/property was then controlled by an investor. He chose not to clean up the property because it would have involved removing the building itself. The property passed to the City. The EPA didn't actually clean the site but simply reclassified it. The contamination under the building was simply declared no danger to people in the building.
They simply hosed down the interior and repainted everything. It was really a tempest in a teapot. Aurum Etchings did not cause it. The two Buck knife etching sites the facility at A & A have never had environmental issues and used equipment designed and built at Aurum Etchings in Garland.
Samuel Shortes
President/Founder Aurum Etchings
