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Ne i* ghbors . inhu o er eadff Kelly Jones "We dont Want tO Press staff writer t panic. Everyone Residents in the California Collections subdivision in south- doesn t know how east Tracy are worried that the serious It is. It's just , toxic soil piled just beyond their �xA ti a back yards is lethal and nothing sitting back there. is being done about it. — Shelby Garcia, "We don't want to panic," said Gonzalez Street �.... Gonzalez Street resident Shelbyr5`+' (`3.s "� Garcia. "Everyone doesn't knowMac- how ry tween Central Avenue and Mac- 'r'� ��„#, , �';a wr•�'"�. how serious it is. It's just sitting Arthur Drive. back there." - � Lead-contaminated soil that is "Toxic dust is being blown 12 times above the normal levelsl down the street," said resident and three times beyond hazard- Cindy Muller. "There must be ous levels has been found in that ,'% '�=a" more than 30 kids on this street. area. Twenty contaminated We're really scared that our chil- areas owned by the railroad are ►, dren are at a high risk." being cleaned up. Industrial Compliance Inc. of Plots of the contaminated soil Sacramento began a cleanup for have been dug up and two large Southern Pacific Transportation hills of dirt sit inside a fenced John swaeuTracy Press Co. three weeks ago at the old railyard along Sixth Street be- See TOXIC, page A8 Quinn O'Brien, 5, plays near the lead-laden dirt mound. LEAD: Residents worry . 1 (Continued from page Al) She was also informed that chil- area. The piles are covered with dren between 6 months and 6 a tarp and bright yellow caution years should have blood tests. tape has been stretched around "They said when this is all the dig areas. gone and it's a done deal the "There are no signs that say lids should be tested again," 'Danger' or 'Stay Out' and there O'Brien said. "There are a lot of is no barbed wire on the fence,' kids. It's almost a prerequisite in said resident Janet O'Brien. this neighborhood that you have The tape is broken and flap- children. No one had been tell- ping in the wind. People take ing us to get our kids tested: No their dogs for walks back there one had been going out of their all the time and their kids go way to let us know anything." with them." Southern Pacific spokesman O'Brien and Garcia have been Mike Furtney said there is noth- In contact with five organiza- ing to tell. The hills of dirt in tions in search of information Tracy are being "aired out" to about the severity of the situa- get the lead levels down to 220 tion. They are worried that the parts per million. Hazardous families who live just rive feet waste is any material that ex- away from the lead-filled land ceeds 1,000 parts per million. have been poisoned. O'Brien Lead levels in the old railyard said she was instructed by the have ranged from nil to 2,800 San Joaquin County Department parts per million. Furtney said of Health Services to dust off the residents have nothing to windows and children's toys. worry about.