Asbestos removal - El Dorado County
El Dorado Hills, an unincorporated community of 50,547 (2020 census), is where federal health agencies studied naturally occurring asbestos in the community. In 2004 EPA found actinolite, chrysotile and tremolite asbestos in exposed soils at Oak Ridge High School on Harvard Way, and its sampling showed people doing ordinary outdoor activities could breathe elevated levels. Most homes are newer (median year built 2002), so here the asbestos question is usually about the ground, not the house.
The work at Oak Ridge High School on Harvard Way ran from 2004 to 2006. EPA’s 2004 activity-based sampling collected air while people carried out typical outdoor activities, and compared the results with reference samples. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry then reviewed that data. Its technical sheet, circulated as a draft for comment in 2010 and dated 2011, focuses on amphibole asbestos and concludes that breathing them over a lifetime has the potential to harm health.
ATSDR’s practical advice for residents is simple: clean with a wet rag rather than a dry duster, wet garden soil before digging, and stay on paved paths and trails.
El Dorado County AQMD regulates naturally occurring asbestos under its Rule 223-2 and the county’s Asbestos and Dust Protection Ordinance. The key boundary is the county’s Asbestos Review Area. Not every El Dorado Hills parcel is inside it, and we have not checked which ones are, so look up your parcel on the county map.
The county page also points to the two state measures, CARB’s construction and grading ATCM (17 CCR 93105) and its surfacing applications ATCM (17 CCR 93106).
For asbestos in building materials, the county AQMD has no delegated authority. Notifications for a regulated demolition or renovation go to U.S. EPA, with CARB. The housing makes this a smaller issue: only 12% of homes predate 1980 and the median year built is 2002. The pre-1980 share belongs to the oldest part of the community, which grew from the villages Allan Lindsey laid out starting in the early 1960s. Building permits come from El Dorado County Planning and Building, since El Dorado Hills is unincorporated.
For lot work in the review area, the plan comes before the shovel. Houses from the original villages can still call for building-material testing and ceiling texture removal before a remodel, and older structures coming down need pre-demolition abatement with an EPA notice. West across the county line, Folsom has its own mapped volcanic units under Sac Metro Air District rules.
Asbestos testing and removal across Sacramento, Placer, Yolo and El Dorado counties:
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