Hearings set on BLM closure of rec area

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(05-07) 17:09 PDT HOLLISTER --
Off-road enthusiasts who loved to race around 31,000 estate of dirt-bike eden in the hills sou'-east of Hollister will have got a opportunity to ventilate their choler tonight at federal functionaries who set the country off-limits last hebdomad because it is choked with naturally occurring asbestos.

The Agency of Land Management closed about one-half the Clear Brook Management Area in the Diablo Scope on Friday, after the Environmental Protection Agency issued a study saying asbestos in the country posed a serious malignant neoplastic disease hazard to those who work, hike, camp, hunt, cod gemstones and drive soil bikes. Officials will explicate their determinations tonight at a meeting at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

"Frankly, we were surprised at how high the degrees of asbestos are at Clear Creek," said Jere Johnson, a Superfund undertaking director for the Environmental Protection Agency who worked on the study. "What we establish is that there is a batch of asbestos in the soil, and when you upset the dirt it presents a wellness risk."

Clear Brook incorporates the biggest sedimentations of asbestos in the United States because of its alone combination of faults and volcanic rock, said Matthew Arnold Den, a senior scientific discipline advisor for the EPA. The mineral was once widely used as a reaper binder in insulation, brake pads, flooring and other merchandises and was popular with makers because it makes not burn.

When asbestos dust is inhaled, however, it can have got deathly effects. Asbestos atoms can do malignant neoplastic disease of the lungs and throat, called mesothelioma, and scarring of the lungs that interferes with breathing.

No surveys have got been conducted on malignant neoplastic disease rates among Clear Creek's dirt-bike riders, Lair said. But a 2005 UC Davys survey establish that people living near naturally occurring asbestos had a significantly higher malignant neoplastic disease charge per unit than those who don't.

Hundreds of off-road enthusiasts, tramps and campers flock to Unclutter Brook on weekends, exploring the 50-square-mile area's old excavation roads, rare vegetation and fauna, and rugged scenery.

Last weekend, BLM workers stationed at the Clear Brook chief entranceways turned away off-road enthusiasts who had not heard about the closure. The country will be off-limits for at least a few old age while the agency finishes its ain study.

The soil rockers were not happy. They said that the type of asbestos establish at Clear Brook is not toxic and that the authorities is denying them entree to public land.

"The diversion community is in a state of shock," said Don Amador, a frequent visitant to Unclutter Brook and Horse Opera representative for the Blue Ribbon Coalition, an off-road advocacy group.

"It's unprecedented, as far as public land issues go. We're going to desire to struggle it, either administratively or in court."

No Clear Brook habitues have got go ill because of asbestos exposure, Amador said.

"We're asked our friends and household in the off-road public if they've heard of anyone getting mesothelioma, and we haven't establish one case," he said.

Den countered that the authorities is taking no chances.

"The underside line is, asbestos is a very cogent carcinogen," he said. "We don't desire to wait around and count the bodies. We'd rather forestall the organic structures in the first place."

Clear Brook meetings

The federal Agency of Land Management will throw a public meeting tonight to explicate the grounds for shutting the Clear Brook Management Area. The meeting will be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center, 5001 Great United States Parkway, from 6 to 9 p.m. It will be preceded by an unfastened house from 3 to 5 p.m.

Additional meetings are scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. May 19 at Veterans' Memorial Hall, 649 San Benito St., Hollister; and 6 to 8 p.m. May 21 at the St Martin Martin Luther King Jr. Library, Room 225, 150 E. San Fernando St., San Jose.

For more than information, travel to the bureau's Web land site on the closure, at .

E-mail Carolyn Mother Jones at .