San Diego

U.S. Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) has asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the asbestos and heavy metal contamination recently found in the soil of a Paradise Hills neighborhood.

In a letter dated Monday, Bates asked the EPA to coordinate cleanup of the site and to trace the origin of the contamination. The county health department earlier this month sent letters to 23 homes in the neighborhood, which centers on the 6000 block of Edgewater Street, warning that recent soil samples show asbestos and levels of lead, zinc and copper up to 26 times the allowable limits for human safety.

Health officials have found that the neighborhood was built on the site of a chemical company abandoned in the late 1920s, but they have appealed to residents for any additional information that would unearth the origin of the contaminants.