vapors

Authorities ordered the evacuation of approximately 150 homes in a Ventura neighborhood Sunday because of “potentially dangerous levels of hydrocarbon vapors” and placed another 2,600 homes under a warning to possibly leave.

But plans are being delayed, and costs are rising since dangerous vapors were found in the soil.

Last year, however, a district-hired inspector discovered dangerous levels of toxic vapors percolating in the soil at the proposed construction site, a parking lot on the northeast end of campus.

Federal officials and regulators in New Mexico identified the alleged violations through field investigations and flyovers by helicopters outfitted with infrared cameras that can detect hydrocarbon vapors that are invisible to the naked eye.

As an underground fire burns deep within Chiquita Canyon Landfill, air regulators are raising alarms over the possible spread of toxic vapors.