June 29, 2023
Chris Turner, Associate Planner
Community Development, City of Menlo Park
701 Laurel Street, Menlo Park, CA 94025
Via email: crturner@menlopark.gov
Cc: planning.commission@menlopark.gov
Subject: Comment on NOP for 1005 O’Brien and 1320 Willow Road Project
Dear Mr. Turner,
The Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter’s Sustainable Land Use Committee (SLU) advocates on land use issues in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. In that role, we have spent a lot of time researching the upsurge of Life Science / Biotech buildings and campuses in San Mateo County including Menlo Park. Thank you for considering these following public safety issues and environmental concerns in your NOP.
The Initial Study and the Notice of Preparation of an EIR will not properly assess the human health and environmental risks from locating this Life Sciences project in an area with seismic liquefaction potential and in a FEMA flood zone, adjacent to residences, schools and day care. This is because CEQA requires study of a project’s impacts on the environment, but NOT the environment’s impact on a project.
This public safety vulnerability is of particular concern as the rapid proliferation of biotech labs in heavily populated areas is an issue of nationwide concern1 due to the inherent risks of research involving potentially lethal airborne pathogens that can escape into the community. This concern is exacerbated by the fact that the new Life Sciences district, created in Menlo Park, is located along an existing residential area of East Palo Alto with schools and day care centers and in close proximity to the Belle Haven neighborhood, a mature, existing working-class residential neighborhood.
For public safety, international protocols carefully differentiate between the dangers of different types of life sciences labs, dividing them into four biohazard safety levels2 from biosafety level 1 (BSL-1), researching the least risky agents, to biosafety level 4 (BSL-4), so dangerous that there are no known cures for these diseases.
- BSL-1 facilities work only with biological agents that do not usually cause disease in humans.
- BSL-2 facilities work with agents that pose a moderate risk to human health, such as influenza and salmonella, with known cures, though people do die from these diseases.
- BSL-3 are high-containment facilities that work largely with air-borne infectious agents that can cause serious or lethal disease via inhalation, such as HSN1 flu, SARS-CoV2, anthrax and West Nile virus.
- BSL-4 high-containment facilities work with lethal, highly infectious agents with no known cures such as Ebola and Marburg Fever and are under strict federal control. There are currently no BSL-4 labs in California.
There are only BSL-1 and BSL-2 labs currently known to be on the Peninsula, though no one can be certain of this fact.3 The exception is BSL-3 labs in the local universities. Menlo Park’s Life Sciences ordinance, however, does not differentiate between the four biosafety levels. Human error, a predictable event, is easiest managed by avoiding courting danger.4 For public safety reasons and because of the proximity of residential neighborhoods, San Carlos decided to ban the riskier high-containment BSL-3 and 4 labs. It was noted that the National Institutes of Health’s guidelines for BSL labs are mandatory only for federally financed labs but are voluntary for private labs such as the speculative project envisioned at 1005 O’Brien/1320 Willow Road.
Describe how public safety impacts from the 3 proposed biosafety level labs will be avoided or mitigated. Would an appropriate mitigation be for the City to consider allowing BSL-1 and BSL-2 labs and a ban on BSL-3 and BSL-4, which are high-containment research labs, within city limits?
Describe whether the facilities will include live animal research (A-BSL labs) and testing, and if so, what special facilities are required to sustain the animals in the event of natural disasters and what the impact of these would be on the environment and residential neighbors.
Describe the potable water needs of the facilities. Biosafety facilities use large amounts of potable water.5 Life Sciences labs may be unable to significantly minimize water use due to clean water requirements for lab operations and sterilization procedures. A similar proposed 410,000 square foot Life Science development in San Carlos projects using 27 million gallons of water per year.6 The City of Menlo Park needs this information to determine, in advance, whether emergency water supplies are adequate, to determine the cumulative needs of the current approved life sciences projects and also needs of the build-out of the Life Sciences District. Will the cumulative demand require more emergency water storage, strain water allocations or potentially lead to rate increases for residents?
Describe the energy needs of the facilities. Biotech labs consume 5 to 10 times the amount of energy that office buildings consume.7 This is because Life Sciences research is heavily dependent on electrically operated equipment such as refrigerators, centrifuges, biocontainment cabinets, fume hoods, freezers, hot plates, autoclaves, incubators, purifiers and a variety of analysis equipment. In addition, the HVAC systems service clean room conditions with single pass air to avoid contamination, and multiple exhaust systems for containment cabinets, therefore adding to the large energy loads. BSL-3 high containment labs are even more dependent on mechanical ventilation, exhausts and fail-safe backup systems. Since this is a speculative development, make appropriate assumptions of office space versus labs space as well as the lab biosafety levels to make reasonable assessments of energy consumption requirements in order to determine the cumulative load requirements for the project, as well as Life Sciences buildings approved and in the pipeline. Will the building be all- electric except for lab research needs? What percentage of the energy load will be met by locally generated solar energy? How do the energy requirements of the Life Sciences project and the cumulative demands of the district impact the GHG reduction goal of the city’s Climate Action Plan?
Describe the wastewater (sewer) demand for the facilities. Will high water usage result in high sewer use? Will this result in increased capacity requirements of the waste treatment facilities used by the City. Will gray water be able to be reused for flushing and irrigation to decrease wastewater treatment demand and for recharging the aquifer using low-impact development strategies (LID)? What is the cumulative effect of projects in the Life Sciences district at build out?
Describe and analyze the zero-waste strategies of the facilities. Zero waste is an important sustainability goal. Biotech labs usually have a high dependency on single use plastics, creating huge waste streams of single use plastics.8 How will the cumulative waste stream affect the Climate Action Plan and sustainability goals of the City?
Describe how lighting will be controlled, considering lighting impacts from within the building, because labs often operate through the night and lights are often on 24/7. Can automatic blinds close off the glazed areas at night facing towards residences to allow rest at night? Parking structure lighting should be dimmed unless needed to be brightened by motion detection. Also describe how all exterior lighting will be controlled for dark sky considerations. Lights attract migratory birds at this location near the bay and controlling lighting is important for bird-safe design.
Describe how deliveries and noise or disturbance from deliveries will be contained since the site is close to residential neighborhoods. Biotech labs work around the clock and deliveries can be very disturbing for neighbors and children who need rest. Can deliveries be minimized, regulated and restricted to daylight working hours to avoid disturbance?
Describe the level of noise from HVAC systems and multiple tall exhaust stacks. Biotech labs are required to have very robust air handling systems and multiple exhausts. These are relatively very noisy compared to office buildings. The higher the biosafety level, the more demanding the air handling and exhausts. Would it be possible to establish measurable maximum noise levels to control noise? Can a mitigation be to replace mechanical equipment screens with solid concrete noise containment walls around the large mechanical equipment area housed on the rooftop?
Will there be pollutants in exhaust systems from labs? The exhaust systems use hepa filters which need maintenance. To avoid accidental releases of pollutants, will there be reporting requirements in place to ensure that filters are being replaced, cleaned and inspected regularly and are being effective in removing pollutants? Sensitive receptors are susceptible to pollutants and asthma and other respiratory diseases can be triggered by pollutants,9 such as from improperly maintained exhaust systems from biolabs.10
We greatly appreciate your thoughtful consideration of these critical public health and environmental safety issues.
Respectfully submitted,
Gita Dev, co-Chair
Sustainable Land Use Committee
Sierra Club Loma Prieta
Cc: Menlo Park Planning Commission
James Eggers,
Executive Director
Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter
Gladwyn d’Souza,
Conservation Chair
Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter
1 The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have formed an advisory committee, the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB). The NSABB has held meetings in 2022 and 2023 on Biosafety, with specific focus on Potential Pandemic Pathogen Care and Oversight (PC3O) and Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC). In a transcript of a NSABB Sept 2022 meeting, a board member notes: “We have to deal with the problem of domestic research that’s not funded by the US government. That’s a big chunk right now, especially out here in the west with Silicon Valley.”
2 CDC and NIH—Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories—6th Edition
3 There may be BSL-3 labs in some large companies but, since private BSL labs are not regulated, this information is not made available. Hospitals do not have any BSL labs except for university research labs associated with a university hospital.
4 You should be afraid of the next “lab leak,” NY Times Nov 23, 2021. “.... In fact, the most concerning aspect about high containment biolabs is that, considered as a collective, they may only be as safe as the worst lab among them. A breach or a breakdown at one could imperil us all.”
6 642 Quarry Road Life Science Project City of San Carlos Response to Comments April 2023
7 https://www.savills.com/research_articles/255800/345762-0 Pacific Gas and Electric Company estimates that, in the US, laboratories can consume five to ten times the amount of energy used in typical offices. https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/life-sciences/energy-intensive-life-sciences-labs-havent-discovered-transparent-esg-reporting-117694
8 https://cen.acs.org/environment/sustainability/laboratories-move-away-single-use/97/i43
9 Residential Proximity to Environmental Hazards and Adverse Health Outcomes” December 2011, National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information.
10 An example might be: Boston University, June 1, 2016: “A malfunctioning network switch at BU’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) resulted in a shutdown of parts of the lab’s ventilation monitoring system ...The University has suspended BSL-3 research until the outside engineers review recommended remedial work to prevent future ventilation system malfunctions.”