Soil Taint Milder Than Feared in Paradise Hills

Additional soil tests in a Paradise Hills neighborhood show high levels of toxic heavy metals, including lead, but indications are that the soil contamination may not be as widespread as originally feared, county health authorities said Wednesday.

Gary Stephany, deputy director of the county’s environmental health services division, said he now believes that the heavy metals and asbestos found last month in the neighborhood are confined to four residential lots in the 6000 block of Edgewater Street. Originally, health authorities feared that the contamination might encompass as many as

23 homes built on the site, which was once occupied by a chemical company.

“Right now, it seems to be isolated on these four lots,” Stephany said. “As soon as we go south of these lots, we’re getting clean samples. At least they look clean.”

The contamination was first discovered when excavation crews were digging a hole for a swimming pool in the back yard of 6025 Edgewater. The crew uncovered landfill debris containing asbestos and a band of black material, which tests last month showed to contain extremely high levels of copper, zinc and lead. One test showed copper to be more than 26 times the allowable level of 2,500 milligrams per kilogram.

Health officials searched land records and found that 23 homes in the area were built on the site of the old National City Chemical Co., which was shut down in the 1920s, subdivided and then built up in the 1950s.

Plant Unlikely Origin

Stephany said Wednesday, however, that it is unlikely that the chemical plant was the origin of the contamination, since the soil tests have shown no chemicals other than the heavy metals. “I think we’d be finding more chemicals if the plant were the cause,” Stephany said.

The health department originally ordered 15 additional soil tests for the neighborhood, and Stephany said Wednesday they were designed to start from the swimming pool at 6025 Edgewater and move throughout the neighborhood in rings.

Two of the samples were rushed through analysis and confirmed the high levels of heavy metals near the pool and at 6035 Edgewater next door, Stephany said.

He said lead was found in concentrations of 5,240 and 9,510 milligrams per kilogram--an amount that is still far in excess of the 1,000 milligrams per kilogram considered the allowable limit for the metal, which can cause anemia and mental disturbances as well as kidney, liver and nerve damage.

Suspicious Debris

Zinc, originally found in concentrations of 35,000 milligrams per kilogram, was down to about 7,230 and 7,830 milligrams per kilogram--still in excess of the 5,000 milligrams per kilogram deemed allowable. Copper was found in even weaker concentrations--6,700 and 1,820 milligrams per kilogram; the allowable limit is 2,500 milligrams per kilogram.

Stephany said soil tests also showed suspicious debris at 6021 and 6045 Edgewater.

Other than that, said Stephany, the last round of soil tests has shown no apparent contamination elsewhere.

Stephany declined to speculate on reports that the area was an abandoned site used by the Navy, saying instead that health authorities now believe the asbestos and heavy metals were included in some dirt used to fill in a gully and level out the residential lots.