Hacker News Reader

According to the map, Moffett field seems to be right at the coast. I've never been to that area. Is there no slope towards the coastal area of Moffett field?

Edit: thinking about it, the bay is subject to tides which probably affects the ground water as well. This would regularly press ground water from the coast inland and back again.

View on HN

I would doubt the groundwater contamination at Moffett Field would migrate inland. Groundwater in Mountain View moves in the direction of the bay.

The groundwater contamination in Mountain View proper comes from the many companies that manufactured semiconductors and other electronics in the '50s through the '80s. Many of which did a poor job disposing of the chemicals they used in electronics manufacturing.

And often had leaking underground tanks.

If you walk the trails around Stanford, both College Terrace and the Dish, you’ll see sampling tubes for monitoring soil quality because of this.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com