Woman Sues Navy, Builder, Pool Firm Over Toxics in Yard
A woman whose Paradise Hills property was found last year to be contaminated with asbestos, lead and other heavy metals filed suit Wednesday against the Navy, the man who built her home and the swimming pool company that dug up the toxins.
In a 23-page complaint filed in U. S. District Court, Gloria Price and her family claimed that ever since Sylvan Pools found contaminants in her back yard in the 6000 block of Edgewater Street last October, they have lived in fear of contracting serious illnesses.
The suit contends that deadly pollutants have been buried on the Prices’ lot since the 1930s, when the Navy allegedly contracted to dump hazardous wastes at a junkyard that then occupied the site.
The suit, which accuses the defendants of negligence, fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other things, seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and a jury trial.
Among the items found in Price’s yard during the excavation, Price and her attorney have said, are a Navy knife and coffee cup, asbestos-laden gaskets and insulation, a porthole and several boiler bricks commonly used on ships. The suit contends that the Navy also deposited paint containing lead, copper and zinc at the site.
Analyses of soil samples on the site have found 10 times the acceptable limit of lead, which can cause anemia and mental disturbances, as well as kidney, liver and nerve damage. The samples also revealed seven times the allowable limit of zinc and 26 times the allowable level of copper, metals that can accumulate in the body and damage the cornea and nervous system. The asbestos in the yard, unearthed when the contractor dug into the landfill, is not dangerous to the touch but can cause cancer if breathed.
Cmdr. Doug Shamp, a Navy spokesman, said Wednesday that he could not “unequivocally say we didn’t dump back in 1930.” He said that, when Price’s allegations first surfaced several months ago, an “initial records check” by the Navy found nothing to confirm that the Navy had contracted with the junkyard to dump waste where Price’s home now sits. Now that the suit has been filed, Shamp said, a more thorough records search will be conducted.
“It certainly is not going to be the easiest task in the world, to reconstruct something that happened 58 years ago. But we’re going to try,” he said.
On Wednesday, Price said the lawsuit was only the latest battle in her yearlong war to focus attention on the problem and make sure that the toxins do no further damage. During that time, the 44-year-old grandmother has moved her family from the contaminated property to the home of her sister, Elizabeth Jean Bolton, who is also a plaintiff in the suit. The quarters are cramped: Six adults and two children now share Bolton’s three-bedroom house.
Paid for Cleanup
Besides moving expenses, Price has paid thousands of dollars for a county-mandated cleanup of her property. Before the state Department of Health Services agreed in June to perform $380,000 worth of interim cleanup in the area, Price spent about $30,000 to have some of the waste removed from her front yard. And she has watched the property value of her $120,000, 1,600-square-foot home plummet.
What is worse, she said, are the sleepless nights she spends worrying about the health of her 23-year-old daughter and 2-year-old granddaughter, both of whom spent nearly all their lives in the Edgewater Street house.
“For a whole year we’ve lived miserably,” she said, adding that her family is undergoing medical monitoring. “I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve gone to bed crying. And I still have to worry about the next 30 years. The Navy has to realize that this stuff is going to come back to haunt them. I might be the first one here (to uncover waste), but I won’t be the last.”
Builders Named
Also named in the suit are Harry and Marguerite Moses and their son, Michael, who built the one-story house in 1959 and sold it to Price’s mother and father in 1962. The suit contends that the Moseses should have found the contaminated soil during the original grading of the site.
Reached at his home in Auburn, Wash., Harry Moses said his family takes no responsibility for what Price found in her yard.
“I didn’t know what was under there, either,” he said. “The city gave us the permits to build and they passed inspection. Everything was legitimate. I don’t see how they could hold me responsible.”
Moses said he does not plan to hire a lawyer to respond to the suit. “I’m 83 years old--I haven’t got no money. I couldn’t afford to go down (to San Diego), let alone give them any money,” he said.
The pool contractor, Sylvan Pools Inc., is a Pennsylvania-based company that no longer has an office in San Diego County. The lawsuit contends that Sylvan employees knew asbestos might be found on the property, but dug it up anyway and then abandoned the job, leaving large piles of exposed, contaminated soil.
A spokesman for Sylvan Pools could not be reached.
