Too much exposure to barium can cause tremors, breathing problems, diarrhea, irregular heartbeats, paralysis and death.
Who could blame people for worrying if they live near huge mounds of soil laced with it?
The prospect of dust kicking up from those mounds when crews finally start building a freeway segment on top of them is causing some anxiety in neighborhoods west of downtown Modesto.
"We don't know if there is enough research to prove it's not harming people now," said Manuel Valdez, whose home is near the berm — and his grandchildren live even closer.
A state analysis says neighbors, trespassers and construction workers have little to fear. But a state geologist refused to answer questions Wednesday at a town hall meeting on Highway 132 improvements, and a former city councilman has joined a growing number of concerned neighbors.
Leaders from throughout Stanislaus County seemed exasperated at a half-century of inactivity when they recently threw their united funding support to Highway 132. If approved, the first phase would be a four-mile bypass with no stops, from downtown to Dakota Avenue and Maze Boulevard, hopefully helping to raise Modesto's business profile with the Bay Area.
Since the 1950s, officials have envisioned a new alignment paralleling Kansas Avenue; they bought much of the land needed for a new expressway. Figuring it would fly over cross-streets such as Emerald Avenue and Carpenter Road, they formed a tall berm down some of the right of way.
About the same time — 1961 — state crews needed to dig a lower path through Modesto for the road that became Highway 99. They scooped dirt from waste-water ponds at the former FMC plant just east of the new freeway and dumped about 120,000 cubic yards in three large mounds on either side of Emerald, a convenient quarter-mile away.
FMC had processed chemicals such as barium and strontium used in television picture tubes and safety flares, and dealt with arsenic, sulfide, sulfate and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. The heavy metal compounds also help produce paint, bricks, tile, glass and rubber.
FMC closed the plant in 1984 and has worked for years to clean soil and groundwater contamination.
Not much attention was paid back then to health effects from toxic soil. Neighborhood children scrambled all over "The Hill," as they called it, even digging forts into its side before it was fenced off, and afterward found ways in to continue their adventures.
The prospect of barium danger at the berm last became an issue in 2004 and 2005, when the California Department of Transportation ordered soil assessments after confirming elevated concentrations. Scientists concluded the contamination posed no threat to people.
Officials continued compiling information, and the state Department of Toxic Substances Control issued a new analysis two years ago with similar findings. But this time, the agency said Caltrans should continue keeping people away and must consult with the agency and with state water control officials before any roadwork begins.
"Soil stockpile material used in ramps and roadways will need to (be) managed in a manner that is protective of human health and water quality," senior engineering geologist Randy Adams wrote in the 2009 report.
At Wednesday's open house, people fretting about barium were referred to Richard Stewart, a Caltrans engineering geologist. But he referred questions to Adams, who did not attend, and calls placed Friday to Adams' office were not returned.
Caltrans literature urges people with input to call two officials; neither could be reached Friday.
Former Councilman Bruce Frohman, a West Side resident for decades, said the state told him the berm would be capped with concrete to prevent future exposure. But contaminants are known to seep through soil to groundwater, and "we don't know how much has migrated already," Frohman said.
"It makes me sick to think that I did not know about this toxic waste when I was on the City Council. I would have initiated a full investigation and action plan," he said in a subsequent e-mail. "I don't know how a freeway can safely be built without disturbing the pile during construction."
Frohman suggests trucking all of the soil to a toxic waste dump — an expensive prospect. He said a state geologist told him it's not safe to move the soil.
"If the dirt is so unsafe that it cannot be moved, then it is also unsafe to be located next to residences," he said.
Other neighbors, including Maureen Dick, have engaged transportation officials in telephone and e-mail exchanges. "It scares me as I wonder if it's just barium in these mounds," she wrote, urging testing "for every chemical FMC was involved with."
On the Net: www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/profile_report.asp?global_id=50280024
Bee staff writer Garth Stapley can be reached at gstapley@modbee.com or (209) 578-2390.
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