Last week’s announcement that a potentially harmful dry cleaning chemical called tetrachloroethylene (PCE) was found in the soil at Kennedy High School was by no means the city’s first case. Yet very few residents are aware of PCE, the extent of its presence in Richmond, or the health risks it could pose. How and when it will be cleaned up, and who will pay for it, remains unclear.
With so many questions swirling about the PCE discovery at Kennedy High — which has resulted in the shutdown of the campus until it’s deemed safe — Richmondside sought answers by reviewing 10 state PCE investigation reports and by visiting locations citywide where properties have tested positive for unsafe levels of PCE and other chemicals in soil, air and/or non-drinking groundwater.
The news that PCE is in the soil at Kennedy High School — and could be coming from a larger underground plume of the chemical — is just the latest reminder of the widespread contamination that exists in Richmond, caused by decades of industrial activity.
According to the newly updated CalEnviroScreen mapping tool that identifies California communities disproportionately burdened by multiple sources of pollution, most of the city is at or above the 90th percentile when it comes to its number of “cleanup sites,” areas known to have been contaminated by hazardous chemicals that can move through the air or groundwater, requiring cleanup.
While the mapping tool includes more than PCE sites, it provides a visual snapshot of dozens of legacy sources of pollution and juxtaposes that information with health and socioeconomic data. Collectively, the data reveals that Richmond’s residents have a greater chance of being exposed to potentially harmful chemicals than people in other cities; that chemical cleanup sites are generally located in neighborhoods that are poorer and home to more people of color; and that the land may take many years or decades to clean up.
A review of 10 Richmond and San Pablo PCE cases (the newest of which is Kennedy High) in Envirostor, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) database tracking cleanups, permits and investigations of hazardous waste facilities, revealed that the testing has taken a few years to complete. This is in part because the state is required to track down owners to get access to often-abandoned buildings (many of the businesses that caused the pollution were operating from the 1940s until the 2000s). When access isn’t possible, DTSC will test the soil, water and air in nearby public areas to verify if chemical levels are higher than what is considered safe.
Kennedy High isn’t far from three large known PCE sources
While the presence of PCE at Kennedy wasn’t discovered until July 31, the campus is not far from three locations previously known to contain potentially unsafe levels of PCE: The 14-acre partially-developed Miraflores Senior Housing development, where the soil was remedied but potentially harmful chemicals known as chlorinated volatile organic compounds persist in groundwater; the former 13-acre Montgomery Ward site (now Target), where a dry cleaner used to operate and where there are also chlorinated solvents from an unknown source in (non-drinking) groundwater; and the 14-acre Macdonald San Pablo Wall at Macdonald Avenue and Wall Street, where there’s PCE and multiple other potentially-hazardous compounds in the groundwater from an unknown source, possibly resulting from the city’s 1900s-era flower-growing industry, which was nearby.
coping with pollution
The Macdonald San Pablo Wall is what the state calls an “orphan” site, which means there’s no known party to hold accountable.
Worried about PCE? There are two upcoming meetings
WCCUSD school board: Tonight is the board’s first meeting since PCE was found at Kennedy High School. A discussion about it is on the agenda; 6:30 p.m., DeJean Middle School, 3400 Macdonald Ave. or online.
Second town hall: WCCUSD, the city and state officials plan to host their second cross-agency PCE meeting on Thur., Aug. 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the Richmond Memorial Auditorium, 403 Civic Center Plaza. The first meeting was livestreamed on YouTube and the second likely will be as well.
In addition to Kennedy and these three sites, the Envirostor database shows seven dry-cleaning sources of PCE either under investigation or at the enforcement and cleanup stage in the Richmond area. They were among 112 selected as part of the state’s Round I cleanup effort. Most of them are in the process of getting a cleanup order, which if not followed, could lead to an enforcement action. (One of the businesses, Omo’s, has been issued a fine of more than $100,000.) Two of the seven dry cleaners remain open in some capacity: Bob’s Cleaners in Richmond and Gordon’s Cleaners, now Samly Laundromat in San Pablo.
According to the DTSC, the sites in the Richmond area currently under investigation were identified as part of the state’s Cleanup in Vulnerable Communities Initiative (CVCI), aimed at protecting the health of communities determined to be most at risk due to their higher exposure to pollution sources, among other socioeconomic criteria, and those sources’ proximity to housing or other sensitive population centers such as schools, day cares or retirement homes.
What is PCE and how are people exposed?
- PCE is a volatile, colorless liquid. Short-term exposure from ingesting the liquid or inhaling the vapors may cause nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, drowsiness, and tremors. Skin contact with the liquid induces irritation and blistering. Both the liquid and vapor forms of PCE are irritating to the eyes.
- Liver and kidney toxicity are potential chronic effects of exposure to PCE, which is listed as a known carcinogen under Prop. 65.
- PCE and similar chemicals turn into gas that can enter construction trenches and the indoor air of properties. The gas may spread through pathways such as underground pipes and ventilation systems.
- Because it impacts both soil and groundwater, there is a potential for people to touch, consume or disturb it.
Source: California Department of Toxic Substances Control
The CVCI enforcement program focuses on current and former dry cleaning locations where chemicals may have been released into the environment, presenting “unacceptable risks,” to those populations. The investigations have included additional sampling to further define the magnitude and extent of contamination, and they note that the next steps are to develop and implement cleanup plans. If possible, they aim to identify a responsible party for the cleanup.
faq about pce at kennedy and more
The effort dates back to 1991, when the California Air Resources Board (CARB) identified PCE, sometimes also referred to as perchloroethylene or perc, as a toxic air contaminant and carcinogen, according to the DTSC. Dry-cleaning operations were found to be a major source of PCE exposure at the time. The chemical’s use was officially banned in California in January 2023.
Health experts, school officials say PCE at Kennedy not an ‘immediate risk’
PCE is a problem because when it is spilled or dumped, it can form vapors that travel through the soil, reach under buildings and contaminate the indoor air. Vapors can infiltrate indoor air through cracks in foundations, utility pipes, and sewer lines. If groundwater is contaminated, it can spread farther and affect buildings and homes at a greater distance.
doctors discuss pce risks
In a webinar held Tuesday about the potential health impacts of PCE, UCSF physicians and district officials reassured the Kennedy High community that it’s unlikely that the level of PCE found in the soil would cause any health problems.
In a new FAQ shared with the public Tuesday, the DTSC states, “There are many other places where there is more than double PCE underground than at the school, and the PCE did not get from underground into the air inside buildings above it.”
However, indoor air testing is important because, “While there is no immediate risk, there can be health effects related to long-term exposure to PCE,” according to the FAQ.
The agency also stated that, regarding the neighborhood surrounding Kennedy High, “Where we have examined indoor air in the neighborhood, we have not found any vapor intrusion issues. Nonetheless, our analysis will continue.”
Miraflores PCE case dates back 20 years
Richmond. Courtesy of DTSC
Richmond’s ties to the Miraflores site cleanup go back 20 years to when the former Richmond Community Development Agency (RCDA) entered into an agreement with affordable housing developers Eden Housing and the Community Housing Development Corporation (CHDC) of North Richmond in the mid-2000s to clean up the site and develop a mix of affordable senior housing, condos and a park on the 14-acre property.
The RCDA used $7.6 million from a mix of bond funds and tax-increment financing to acquire the property. And in 2010, the agency received grant funding from the California Pollution Control Financing Authority to help in the clean-up efforts.
In 2011, however, the city of Richmond came into control of the Miraflores site after California passed AB x1-26, which dissolved local redevelopment agencies. Richmond became the successor agency, assuming legal responsibility for the remediation efforts at Miraflores.
At one point, however, the site’s future was murky.
In 2012, according to city records, a dispute arose between the city’s Successor Agency Oversight Board and the state’s Department of Finance, putting the status of state funding for the cleanup operation into question. At that time, city staff estimated that more than $13 million in state, federal, and local investments had already been spent on the 14-acre site, including for the original 2006 acquisition, environmental review, historic preservation work, and the testing and treating of polluted soil and groundwater.
The city challenged the Department of Finance’s denial of funding, submitted legal arguments that Miraflores met the state’s requirements for a hazardous waste cleanup, and eventually won.
In June 2015, DTSC issued a certificate confirming remediation was complete at Miraflores and declaring the area fit for unrestricted residential use, clearing the way for construction to begin on the planned affordable senior housing. But the certificate came with a catch: DTSC required the city to continue post-remediation groundwater testing indefinitely, a condition that made the city responsible for environmental oversight there almost a decade after the housing was built.
Eighty affordable senior units opened at Miraflores in 2018, and the requirement to continue post-remediation testing proved prophetic: Within a year of opening, groundwater samples on nearby properties again tested positive for PCE, and by the 2020s the DTSC was formally raising concerns about chlorinated solvents in groundwater and soil vapor near the site.
Most recently, state investigators found PCE near the senior apartments in 2024 and oversaw indoor air quality testing for vapor intrusion at the site in 2025. That testing determined that the chemical is “not moving from underground to indoor air, therefore vapor intrusion is not happening,” according to a DTSC notice published earlier this year.
Richmondside reached out to the city’s Director of Community Development, Lina Velasco, and to spokespeople at NV5, an environmental consultant working with the city; Eden Housing, the developer; and EKI Water and Environment, a company supporting the remediation efforts, to determine the work’s status but did not hear back by publication time. We also provided a list of questions to DTSC about the overall citywide PCE issue but did not receive a reply by publication time.
PCE contaminations persist in busy Richmond neighborhoods
Richmondside in recent days visited several of the neighborhoods shown on the state’s data map to be impacted by PCE and other contaminants, to get a better understanding of their make-up and who might be impacted.
Most of the sites under investigation are in higher-density areas with homes and small businesses in close range. There are churches, parks and single-family homes alongside mom and pop convenience stores and restaurants.
Gordon’s in San Pablo, one of the dry cleaning businesses where a higher-than-allowed level of PCE was detected, which is now called Samly, was busy on a recent Monday afternoon. It’s nestled at 2071 23rd St. in a small strip mall anchored by a Grocery Outlet store, a chain pizzeria, a meat market, an ice cream and juice shop, a Mexican restaurant, a hair salon and liquor store. The Wildcat Creek Trail runs behind it, with homes bordering the creek, along with a church. Shoppers in the area told Richmondside they didn’t know anything about a possible chemical contamination.
According to the DTSC report, testing as of November 2025 showed the business had elevated PCE concentrations “exceeding residential and commercial screening levels, consistent with and in some cases higher than those observed during the initial discovery investigation. Cumulative cancer risk estimates increased for both commercial and residential receptors, indicating a continued vapor intrusion concern at the Site.”
A February 2024 DTSC report (leer en español) noted that there was possibility that PCE vapors from Courteous Cleaners, 2022 Barrett Ave., which it said operated there until 2001, could be spreading to indoor air of surrounding businesses and noted that in 2023 it issued a Prop. 65 notification to Contra Costa County to alert the public of this potential threat to human health and the environment.
Richmondside found there’s now an auto shop at this address, where a man working there, who did not want to share his name, said he “got the place six months ago” and “knows nothing about pollutants.”
Richmondside found a Courteous Cleaners about a half mile away, at 3017 Macdonald Ave., across from Nicholl Park. A sign on the door said they were closing Aug. 15 after 23 years in business. It’s unknown if it’s the same company that was on Barrett Avenue or if they’ve used PCE. The Yes to Nature nonprofit is building its new youth center next door, and there’s a residence at the back of the property.
At a city and school district town hall meeting held Aug. 13 for residents impacted by the PCE discovery at Kennedy High, some expressed never having heard of PCE or a PCE plume, while others wondered why nothing has been cleaned up. Many expressed concern about their and their children’s health. Another town hall is set for Thur., Aug. 13.
PCE, a carcinogen banned in California in 2023, is still being marketed as a “high-purity solvent for dry cleaning and degreasing” to markets in Africa by an industrial chemical company called Zenco.
Richmondside also spoke on Sunday with a handful of Kennedy High neighbors, many of whom either didn’t know anything about PCE or said that they had heard of the school’s issues from the news but hadn’t heard anything from the city.
“In reality, I only have Saturday and Sundays off of work and I work in San Francisco so I’m not tuned in with what is going on,” said Ever Salgado, a 20-year homeowner in the Laurel Park neighborhood. “I haven’t received any kind of information from the city but I’m also not looking for it.”
Salgado, who lives on South 47th Street, said that communications from the city are often scarce but said that as a homeowner he’d like more information about contamination he might be living near.
Another resident, Chaeuk Ko, who has lived with his parents for the last eight years on Berk Avenue in Laurel Park, said he also wasn’t aware that PCE was found at Kennedy.
“I don’t really know if I have any concerns because there hasn’t been really any communication, you know? I didn’t really even know about it,” Ko told Richmondside. “If there was communication, it wasn’t extensive. Like if there’s a (PCE severity) scale of 1 to10, I don’t know how bad it is.”
Ko, whose parents bought their home in 2018, said that he didn’t believe the family was aware of any nearby contamination sites when they came to Richmond.
“I don’t think the real estate person said anything or that we were even thinking about that,” he said.
Richmondside reporter Kleigh Carroll contributed to this report.
