Temescal Creek, Emeryville, late 1980's or early 1990's. Most of Emeryville west of the railroad is landfill and toxic waste from Berkeley and Oakland. It used to be that wherever you saw all those acres of open space, you could be pretty sure it must be toxic (why else would otherwise prime business and industrial land lie fallow?). This particular site (next to the now-demolished pigment factory that used to emit some of the highest air-borne heavy metal concentrations in the country) has been heavily redeveloped in the past decade (see the next installment…), but it was always reassuring to see the guys in space suits who came out every year or so to take soil and air samples.