El Dorado Residents Oppose Development in Amphibole Formation

In El Dorado Hills, a bedroom community of 43,000 residents northeast of Sacramento, California, residents are protesting the proposed construction of 135 homes on a ridge that contains a particularly toxic form of asbestos known as amphibole.

Asbestos in rock formations is nothing new in California. Similar formations are found near earthquake faults in the foothills of the Coast Range, the Klamath Mountains of northwestern California, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains which neatly divide the state into mountain dwellers and ‘flatlanders'. However, epidemiologists (those who study disease vectors) consider amphibole asbestos at least 100 times more likely to cause mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases than the commercially used chrysotile fibers.

The identification of amphibole asbestos in El Dorado began in 1998 when first the Sacramento Bee newspaper, then the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA (in conjunction with the University of California) began examining El Dorado rock formations for the substance.

Subsequent new stories inspired the California Dept. of Transportation, or CalTrans, to ban the sale of serpentine road gravel, which often contains asbestos. They also sparked the first nationwide identification and mapping of asbestos rock formations under the aegis of the U.S. Geological Survey. California also instituted special dust-control measures to protect residents from construction and mining activities in residential areas known to contain asbestos, and required real estate agents to begin disclosing the presence of asbestos formations when selling a house.

Development in asbestos zones over the last decade has proceeded with little or no opposition from California residents until now, so this newest backlash is both surprising and heartening after a decade of seeming indifference. The renewed concern may focus on the fact that excavation operations for the development will take place near Oak Ridge High School sports fields.

Parents of students attending the school are concerned, and their concerns are echoed by geologists and environmental health experts, who agree construction is likely to contaminate the air with amphibole fibers. Breathing these fibers, even for brief periods, can be enough to cause mesothelioma, a lung disease which typically doesn't become symptomatic for decades and then commonly kills its victims within a year or two of diagnosis.

In fact, none of the major health monitoring and reporting agencies (the Centers for Disease Control, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the American Cancer Society) has ever established minimum, safe levels of asbestos exposure. A day or a lifetime can trigger mesothelioma, and children are particularly at risk because of their developing lungs and extended life expectancy.

The builder, Parker Development Co., argues that dust controls have already proved adequate on construction sites elsewhere in the area and will be equally as effective. Residents are not convinced. In fact, many built their homes only after 1997 plans for development along Oak Ridge were killed the first time. Now that the project has been resurrected, some are literally up in arms, especially as the directors of three out of five local homeowner's associations also work for Parker, which residents view as collusion.

Two months in, disgruntled homeowners have already formed a group, hired a lawyer and found an expert to sample and analyze asbestos fibers. The group has about 13 months to marshal all its resources before El Dorado County planners review the Parker development proposal. In spite of time constraints, the protestors expect success, primarily because health and environmental officials have a better understanding of the risks of amphibole fibers than they did a decade ago.

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