Local hills hold precious resource

They’re not the White Cliffs of Dover, but they’re close.

Call them the White Cliffs of Lompoc.

In the green hills south of Lompoc lie some of the world’s largest and purest deposits of a chalky substance called diatomaceous earth.

Every time you brush your teeth, paint the house, drink a glass of wine, have a glass of beer or fruit juice, swim in a swimming pool or take a prescription medication, diatomaceous earth is involved.

Also called diatomite, it is also used as an insulator.

While largely unknown to laymen, “Virtually everyone in first-world countries uses some diatomite every day or at least uses a product produced with the aid of diatomite,” geologist Robert Norris wrote in his book, “The Geology and Landscape of Santa Barbara County.”

Diatomaceous earth is made up of the fossil remains of microscopic marine plants related to algae called diatoms, which built up into layers and were uplifted by earthquakes or volcanic activity millions of years ago, forming the so-called White Hills. Refined by mills into powder, it is used by countless industries.

“It’s the same material as that found in the White Cliffs of Dover,” said Dennis Headrick, executive assistant at the Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce, a sturdy two-story building on South I Street that is built of diatomaceous earth.

When the building was constructed in 1892, “they didn’t know what to do with it so they made building material of it,” said Headrick. The builder “was ridiculed for building it.”

The material is also known informally as Chalk Rock. “You can pick it up and draw on the sidewalk with it,” he said.

Large deposits of the material were found in the 1880s on the Balaam family farm in Miguelito Canyon south of Lompoc, according to the Lompoc Valley Historical Society.

A son, Arthur Balaam, who had studied mineralogy in school, discovered that “the Old White Hills,” as his father called the area, held a flaky substance that could be used in lighting fires. Digging hunks of material by hand from the ground, he shipped it to a buyer in San Francisco.

The first commercial shipment of diatomaceous earth followed on May 12, 1893.

Production grew into a large-scale operation covering thousands of acres and employing hundreds of Lompoc residents. Housing communities once grew up around the facility, said Karen Paaske, president of the Historical Society, whose parents worked at the mine, acquired by the Johns Manville Corp in 1928.

“To find good quality stuff is really rare,” said Paaske. “It’s very unique to Lompoc.”

The mining facility, owned by the Celite Corp. since 1991, is on Miguelito Road two miles south of Lompoc.