Asbestos, Toxic Metals Discovered in Paradise Hills

Asbestos and extremely high levels of toxic heavy metals, including lead, have been found in the soil of a Paradise Hills neighborhood that county health officials say was built on the site of an abandoned 1920s chemical company.

County health officials late Thursday sent letters to 23 homes in the neighborhood, which centers on the 6000 block of Edgewater Street, warning residents that the analyses of soil samples taken last week show asbestos, as well as levels of lead, zinc and copper up to 26 times the allowable limits for human safety.

Gary Stephany, director of the county’s environmental health services division, said there is no way to calculate what long-term damage, if any, the asbestos and heavy metals have wrought on the health of residents, several of whom have lived in the neighborhood more than 20 years.

‘High Potential for Risk’

“If it was underground and stayed underground, there is virtually no risk,” Stephany said. “If it comes to the surface, kids play in it, make mud pies and breathe it, there is a high potential for risk.

“Unfortunately, the exposure is done and we can’t do anything about it.”

Gloria Price, who recently bought her mother’s home at 6025 Edgewater, said Friday she is alarmed by the hazardous residue, which was first discovered in her back yard late last month. She and her family have since moved out. Price blames the material for a number of cancer deaths in the neighborhood, including that of her father in 1979.

“I have a daughter, 22 years old, that lived here every day of her life,” she said. “I have a granddaughter who has lived here since she was born last October. I cry myself to sleep every night because I worry what she was exposed to.”

Problems in the soil were discovered Oct. 26 when a contractor was digging a hole for a swimming pool in Price’s back yard and uncovered landfill debris containing asbestos, which is not dangerous to the touch but can cause cancer if breathed.

Excavation was halted immediately, and, when the county health department took a closer look, it found a foot-thick black band of material in the ground, Stephany said. The department ordered two soil samples of the black material to test for 110 priority pollutants, including hydrocarbons, pesticides and volatile organics, Stephany said.

The results, delivered late Wednesday to the health department, revealed excessive amounts of lead, copper and zinc in the soil.

Lead in High Concentrations

For instance lead--which can cause anemia and mental disturbances, as well as kidney, liver and nerve damage--was found in concentrations of 10,000 milligrams per kilogram. That is 10 times the acceptable limit of 1,000 milligrams per kilogram, Stephany said.

Zinc was found at 35,000 milligrams per kilogram, seven times the allowable limit. Copper, tested at 66,000 milligrams per kilogram, was at more than 26 times the allowable level of 2,500 milligrams per kilogram, he said.

While they waited for the test results, health officials joined forces with the county assessor’s office to search land records for the area and found that 23 homes in the neighborhood were built on the site of the old National City Chemical Co. The company was shut down in 1928, Stephany said, and the first homes in the neighborhood went up in the 1950s.

Stephany said Friday that it is not clear whether the defunct chemical company is the source of the asbestos and heavy metals. Although health officials don’t believe the land was used as a dump, he said it is possible that solder from old tin cans may be responsible for the extreme levels of heavy metals.

Baffled, the health department has appealed to neighborhood residents to help track down the former owners of the chemical plant or to provide further clues to the origins of the toxic residue.

Department Should Do More

Price, however, said Friday that she believes the health department should be doing more to remove the hazardous material from the home she bought from the estate of her mother, who died in August.

She said she felt “deserted” by state and local health authorities, who have left the job of removing the asbestos up to her. She bought the house from her siblings, but hasn’t moved in because of the problems discovered in the soil.

“I hired security guards on Halloween night to keep the kids out of the area all on my own because I feel it is a health risk,” Price said. “Somebody, the health department, should take an interest.”

Price said she and her husband have paid $16,000 to a private contractor to remove the carcinogen from the front yards of her home and the house next door.

The cleanup started Wednesday, and both front yards on Friday were enclosed by plywood walls and ceilings, which were then covered with thick black plastic. Workers, looking much like astronauts, wore special suits as they moved inside the enclosed yards to scoop up the last contaminated dirt.

Back Yard Under Plastic

A similar cleanup will not be possible for the back yard, where the problem was first detected, because the couple doesn’t have the additional $29,000 for the job, said Price, an employee at the North Island Naval Air Station. For now, she said, the back yard will remain under thick plastic covers to prevent the spread of asbestos through the air.

Aside from the cleanup costs, Price said she is worried that the existence of asbestos and the other hazardous materials may have contributed to a number of deaths in the neighborhood.

“You should check and see how many people around here died of cancer,” she said.

Among the deaths were those of her mother and father, who lived in the 6025 Edgewater home since 1962. Price said her father died in 1979 of lymphatic cancer; a coroner’s report said Price’s mother died Aug. 7 of a heart attack caused by hypertensive heart disease.

Kerry R. Tepper, an attorney retained by the Price family, said Friday that he will ask the coroner to re-examine the autopsy results on Price’s mother in light of the discovery of asbestos on the property.

“It should be reviewed to see if some asbestos-related disease played a role,” Tepper said.

Considering Legal Remedies

He also said his clients are considering several legal remedies to recoup the cleanup costs, as well as making up for any loss in property value because of the presence of the hazardous materials.

Across the street from the Prices, Tom and Yolanda Durrance said they are concerned about the health department’s findings because of the effect it could have on the value of their home.

Worries about health problems were less pressing, they said, since they only moved into their home eight months ago and discovered no asbestos or heavy metal residue when they poured some concrete alongside their home. They said they don’t intend to keep their children, ages 4 and 8, from playing in the yard.

“My biggest concern, my very biggest concern is my property value,” Durrance said. “Will we be able to sell this and make some money?”