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Contaminated Soil Affects Levee Repairs

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A new problem has cropped up in the case of that troubling levee break in the Delta that flooded 12-thousand acres of farm land last month.

Newly released test results show that dirt the Port of Stockton sold to state officials to plug the levee is contaminated.

Now state scientists are looking for a way to keep the soil from leaching toxic metals into a waterway.

Steve Bond, a geologist and water-quality expert who examined the test results, says the sediments on the levee are potentially toxic to aquatic life.

President Bush declared a major federal disaster in the aftermath of a levee breach in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that destroyed crops and left farmworkers homeless.

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