By DON THOMPSON, Associated Press Writer

GARDEN VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - As they turn over the soil to build million-dollar homes above San Francisco and in the Sierra Nevada foothills, developers are finding a problem naturally occurring asbestos.

Veins of asbestos run through the green mineral serpentine, which is so common it is the state rock. If inhaled, asbestos fibers can lead years later to cancer and a deadly lung disease called asbestosis.

For years, the presence of asbestos made little difference in the sparsely populated mountains here. Now, however, California's population is pushing into the mountains, and serpentine dust is flying as houses go up and road builders quarry gravel.

Some longtime residents living near quarries and gravel roads complain of respiratory problems that they suspect were caused by the clouds of dust 200 feet high and the grit that settled on houses and trees.

El Dorado County residents persuaded the state Air Resources Board last year to impose restrictions on road building. This week, the board will consider further restrictions that have alarmed the mining and construction industries.

"We're the guinea pigs,'' said Toni Johnson, 39, who for the past decade has lived a stone's throw from a mountain of crushed serpentine at a quarry near Rescue. Johnson and her 46-year-old husband, both nonsmokers, said they suffer frequent bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia.

Near the El Dorado County community of Garden Valley, Bill and Kalua Rothus, who live about 1,000 feet from a quarry, use inhalers to control lung ailments. "You almost have to die before they know if it's asbestos or not,'' Bill Rothus, a 70-year-old nonsmoker, said in a raspy voice.

Air Resources Board spokesman Jerry Martin said no deaths or illnesses have been definitively linked to the asbestos-laden dust. But the area's "pretty significant anecdotal history'' helped persuade the board last year to lower the allowable level of asbestos in roadbeds - a rule the construction and gravel industries call too extreme.

On Thursday, the board will consider safeguards at quarries, housing developments and even single-family homes installing a new driveway or swimming pool in affected areas. The regulations also would allow local air-quality agencies to require expensive air monitoring.

"We agree that there is more than enough science out there that asbestos in the air is a health concern,'' said Adam Harper, a policy analyst with the California Mining Association.

But he said the new rules could lead quarry operators and developers to shut down or go elsewhere because of the costs of compliance.

The mining, building and construction materials industries - allied as the Coalition for Reasonable Regulation of Naturally Occurring Substances - sued the air board last month over its roadbed restrictions.

Already there is not enough gravel and sand for homes and highways, and the new regulations will make that worse, the industry said.

Also, they said, the regulations the board will consider could cost a typical developer or quarry operator $800,000 for air monitoring - a figure disputed by the air board.

The industry is not contesting other proposed dust-control requirements it says many developers and miners follow already - wetting down soil, covering truckloads with tarps, washing trucks and paving access roads.

The board estimates 25 of the state's 799 quarries would have to make changes to meet the new rules. It projects it would cost a homeowner $55 to comply during a typical project, and developers $200 to $500 per lot.

El Dorado County residents who have fought the quarrying of serpentine since the 1980s feel vindicated by the proposed new restrictions.

Melissa Vargas, 40, who led a drive for the regulations, said she received death threats, was labeled a fear-monger and nearly went bankrupt from legal bills. She said she has put off having children until she is assured the quarry next door will not reopen.

"We're trying to prevent dead bodies rather than waiting for them to surface,'' she said. "We're never going to stop the developers from building. But doggone it, we should insist on some safeguards against a known carcinogen.''

On the Net
Air Resources Boardhttp  http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/asbesto2/asbesto2.htm
California Mining Association  http://www.calmining.org