Incident of jet fuel dumped near Fallon reported by airport

Tuesday, April 17, 2001 | 10:21 a.m.

As a Navy officer testified last week that fighter pilots rarely dump jet fuel above Northern Nevada, a military aircraft apparently was dropping fuel over farm fields near the rural town.

Rear Adm. Richard Naughton told members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee meeting in Fallon Thursday that Navy pilots seldom dump their fuel over Churchill County. The panel was probing a cluster of leukemia cases in the town.

But an area airport dispatcher is reported to have recorded the incident with the Navy pilot. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who led the committee hearing, requested a copy of the audiotape.

Reid and fellow panel member Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., heard testimony from parents of leukemia victims, experts investigating the outbreak of leukemias and officials representing the Fallon Naval Air Station.

Some residents have asked that the naval base be investigated to see if toxic fuels and other substances used at the air base might be contributing to the leukemias. A dozen cases of leukemia in children ages 2 to 19 have been diagnosed since 1996.

Reid today asked for the Navy to cooperate in investigating the fuel dumping.

"The senator said he will not dictate what the Navy does," David Cherry, press secretary for the Senate panel, said. "Clearly, the senator has asked the Navy to be accountable on these things."

Navy spokeswoman Ann McMillan said base officials had no knowledge of the alleged fuel dumping.

"The base was not notified of the incident," McMillan said late Monday. "We haven't been told."

The Navy is cooperating in the state and federal investigation of the childhood leukemias, McMillan said. "We would certainly like to hear from any eyewitnesses. There has been no contact with us in the last five days."

Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga, D-Fallon, who represents the district, said she learned of the incident through eyewitnesses who saw a military plane dropping fuel over farmland.

No common environmental link has been found in the 12 cases of acute lymphocytic leukemia medical experts testified.

So far, municipal drinking water and some private wells have been tested. Soil and air testing and even tissue samples from the children are expected to begin in the near future.

The Fallon Naval Air Station has 7,200 military and civilian personnel, and Navy jet pilots are trained at the base, Naughton said. In reviewing 12 million records from 1977 to the present, only one case of childhood leukemia was discovered, he said.

No contaminants have been found in 208 ground water monitoring wells, the officer said.

The Navy has promised to share its records with Nevada health officials and investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.