Trail Closing Angers Off-Roaders
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009
Last year the U.S. Bureau of Land Management closed a 48-square-mile recreation area in California’s Fresno and San Benito counties. The Clear Creek Management Area (CCMA) is in the Diablo Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast mountain range. By all accounts it’s a gorgeous area, with stunning rock formations and fields of wildflowers.
The area was popular with hikers, campers, and most especially off-road vehicle enthusiasts. CCMA has been named one of the top 10 off-road areas in motorcycle magazines, and closing its 800 miles of trails angered many of the off-roaders in particular. They complain that big government is keeping them from rightfully enjoying public land. An organization called the Blue Ribbon Coalition has been preparing a suit to have CCMA opened to the public again.
Along with its natural beauty, CCMA is also home to the biggest natural asbestos deposit in the United States. Asbestos was mined there years ago, and asbestos permeates creeks and soil. In years past CCMA was closed during the dry months of summer, when asbestos-laden dust filled the air. For some time Bureau of Land Management employees working in the area have worn respirators on dusty days and decontaminated at the end of the day.
Last year the Environmental Protection Agency finished an on-site study in which EPA employees rode the trails on dirt bikes and in SUVs with the windows down, taking air samples. They also hiked the trails carrying air sampling equipment at the level at which a child might breathe the air. The air samples contained dangerous levels of chrysotile, tremolite and actinolite asbestos. The asbestos is especially thick when dust is stirred up by off-road vehicles.
Chrysotile asbestos is the type most commonly used for industrial purposes. It is a type of serpentine asbestos, meanings its fibers curl. Tremolite and actinolite are types of amphibole asbestos, meaning their fibers are straight like needles. Chrysotile fibers seem not to settle in the lungs quite so easily as amphibole, but that doesn’t make it safe to breathe. Because it is by far the most commonly used type of asbestos, it’s safe to say the majority of people who develop asbestosis and mesothelioma from exposure to asbestos in a workplace were exposed to chrystotile asbestos.
But the off-roaders who want back into CCMA argue that most of the asbestos present in the air is chrystotile, and chrystotile is not dangerous, they say. Lawyers working for the Blue Ribbon Coalition contend that the EPA analysis was flawed. At least one blogger calls the closure “enviro-tyranny” and blames “special interests.”
And there are some who argue that even if CCMA is dangerous, it isn’t government’s place to protect people from themselves. In short, if the damnfools want to kill themselves, go ahead and let them do it. I can see the argument for that. But many won’t have the sense not to take children with them. And chances are some portion of them will eventually succumb to asbestos-related disease and become a burden on our already overtaxed health care system.
I haven’t been able to determine if the EPA or BLM have any plans to decontaminate and reopen the CCMA site, or if decontamination is even possible. The two old asbestos mines within the CCMA were designated Superfund sites, but work on both has been completed, according to the EPA website. For now, the Clear Creek Management Area remains closed.
