A lot of the stuff in El Dorado was stirred up with explosions for building.
An excerpt.
Asbestos dust case settled in El Dorado
By Chris Bowman - Bee Staff Writer Published 12:00 am PST Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Prosecutors have reached a $350,000 settlement with a pair of El Dorado Hills developers and a construction contractor accused of numerous public health offenses in blasting open hillsides that bear a particularly toxic form of asbestos.
Angelo K. Tsakopoulos and Larry Gualco, whose companies form West Valley LLC, and DeSilva Gates Construction of Dublin were accused of but not formally charged with 47 violations of air and water pollution laws based on documented observations by local environmental enforcers, according to Deputy District Attorney Gloria Mas.
The most serious allegations concern the thick dust clouds from explosions in areas the county had designated as known or likely to contain naturally occurring asbestos, Marcella McTaggart, head of the El Dorado County Air Quality Management District, said after signing the settlement Friday.
Left alone, asbestos poses no risk. Blasting, drilling and bulldozing, however, churns it up and releases its tiny fibers into the air. Breathable-sized fibers can lodge in the lungs, setting the stage decades later for debilitating, if not fatal, respiratory disease.
Air district inspectors photographed many of the explosions and issued several warnings in the past two years as excavators carved out building pads and roads for the 1,400-home Valley View subdivision south of Highway 50, air district records show.
In several instances, the thick dust clouds drifted far beyond the job site, "vastly" exceeding the permitted limit, according to the air district.
