RSS Feed
Add a Comment
Stay Connected
What's Hot
The Bay Citizen in Merger Talks
2 Years of Rules and Permits Later, an Ice Cream Shop Opens
Niners Headed to Santa Clara
New Tool for Hiring Techies Works a Little Too Well
When a Bookstore Closes, Where Do All the Books Go?
Outcry as State Rock Toppled
Serpentine, California’s state rock, is about to be dethroned, and for those who didn’t know there was a state rock, this a teachable moment.
That is what geologist Garry Hayes, a professor of geology at Modesto Junior College is saying on his blog. There, he explains the significance of the stone and more importantly, unearths questions about why serpentine is the subject of legislation to remove it from its prominence as state mineral.
Since July, the issue has been making the rounds in cyberspace as geologists and others interested in the state’s environment have wondered what is motivating legislators to knock serpentine. The issue is that serpentine contains chrysotile asbestos, which is one type of asbestos, but not the one associated with lung cancer.
Hayes and Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters suspect politics. State Sen. Gloria Romero (D-East LA) sponsored the bill, SB 624, and has said the purpose is to protect people from health hazards of serpentine. But Hayes and Co. note that prime movers behind the bill are from the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, which consists of many law firms that specialize in lawsuits on behalf of victims of mesothelioma—asbestos-related lung disease.
Into the fray has jumped Jon Christensen, executive director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University, who happens to be writing a book about serpentine and its place in California history. As he said in a press release he jointly released with Hayes, “It is connected to the Gold Rush, earthquakes, plate tectonics, and habitat for California’s iconic spring wildflower displays, as well as endangered species.”
Romero’s bill passed the Senate in May and its prospects for passing the Assembly seem good—unless the questions raised by serpentine’s defenders and those curious about the lawyer lobby’s influence in the matter carry the day.
Annette Fuentes, a native New Yorker, comes to The Bay Citizen from New America Media, where she was managing editor. A veteran news journalist, is the author of the forthcoming book, “Lock Down High: When ...
View Profile
About Us
Editorial Staff
Stay In Touch
- About Us
- Events
- Support Us
- Careers
- Corrections
- Letters to the Editor
- Privacy Policy By accessing this site, you accept our Terms of Use. Please read them.
- Steve FainaruEditor-in-Chief
- Jeanne CarstensenExecutive Managing Editor
- Mia ZuckerkandelNews Editor
- Queena KimCommunity Editor
- Zoe CorneliOnline Editor
- Reyhan HarmanciCulture Editor/Writer
- Zusha ElinsonStaff Reporter
- Shoshana WalterStaff Reporter
- Jennifer GollanStaff Reporter
- John UptonStaff Reporter
- Aaron GlantzStaff Reporter
- Trey BundyStaff Reporter
- Adithya SambamurthyStaff Photographer
- Marie McIntoshEditorial Assistant
- Andy WrightAssistant Culture/Community Editor
- Katharine MieszkowskiEnvironmental Health Editor
- Shane ShifflettNews Applications Developer
- Sydney LupkinData Researcher
Andrew Alden
This bill is far from passed. Romero pushed it SB624 through the Senate in May of <i>last year</i>, when it was about municipal compost. She then gutted it, substituted the kill-serpentine language, and snuck it through the Assembly committee. If the Assembly passes it, the Senate will hear it again.
The thing is, even the mesothelioma people admit that it's not about the (non)hazard of serpentine, it's about giving the rock a bad name. (bit.ly/aXHccS) But cities like Oakland and San Francisco have lots of serpentine that's clearly no hazard--unless some fearful or crafty plaintiff makes an issue of it. (bit.ly/aD0Hom)
By the way, New Yorkers may be interested to know that Staten Island is a notable serpentine locality. There are stripes of it the length of the Appalachians and wherever former continents were sutured together by plate tectonics.
DanRademacher
I edit Bay Nature magazine (BayNature.org), and I've always thought serpentine as state rock was one of the few times that such an arbitrary designation seemed worthy. So many of our native plants, even some that were once rare, now find refuge on serpentine soils. They can handle the tough growing conditions there, where invasive grasses and other weeds cannot. The issue over asbestos mining seems like a red herring, given that there are no such mines in CA today -- whatever the reason for the original state-rock designation, the fact is that the most noteworthy thing about serpentine is its role as a safe harbor for rare plants.
J.G. Preston
Hi, my name is J.G. Preston and I am the press secretary for Consumer Attorneys of California...we were asked to send a letter of support for SB 624 to Sen. Romero and did so as a symbolic measure showing our support for victims of asbestos-related diseases and their family members. We were not involved in writing the language for the bill and, while we are proud to support it, we have not lobbied on its behalf. Arguing the symbolic status of serpentine as the state rock is fine, and it's clear there is legitimate disagreement, but please, this bill is in NO way associated with any litigation, past, present or future. If SB 624 were to be signed into law it would not create the opportunity for a single lawsuit. Just because somebody may say that over and over again does not make it true. The "lawyer lobby" does not have an ulterior motive here. Let's discuss the symbolism of the state rock designation, but let's leave lawsuits out of it, because that has nothing to do with SB 624.
Andrew Alden
If you are correct that you only symbolically support asbestos victims, then I would say that consumer attorneys don't have a dog in this fight and should sit down. You may give your group's assurances, but the mesothelioma lawyers created this bill, which declares that the state finds serpentine to be a carcinogen, period. What could possibly go wrong? That is why landowners, developers and educators may detect a certain threat in that false finding.