Navy to exchange water test results in leukemia investigation

Thursday, Jan. 25, 2001 | 11:03 a.m.

The Navy agreed Wednesday to make information on potential water pollution from a nearby base available to Nevada health officials investigating 11 cases of childhood leukemia discovered in Fallon.

State epidemiologist Dr. Randall Todd said the Navy agreed to exchange test results from more than 100 monitoring wells around the 130,000 acres that make up the Fallon Naval Air Station. The Navy has been collecting data from the wells for decades.

More meetings were scheduled for today between the parties and Gov. Kenny Guinn, federal experts and local officials to coordinate efforts and speed up the investigation.

All of the cases of acute lymphocytic leukemia, the most common form of the disease in children, were diagnosed between 1996 and 1999. The only link is the children and their families lived at some time in Fallon, 60 miles east of Reno.

The leukemia, which destroys bone marrow, has afflicted children from 2 to 19 years old.

An expected rate of such leukemia is three cases for every 100,000 people in five years. About 25,000 people live in Churchill County, where Fallon is located.

The state Health Division has had a staff of three combing medical records and interviewing the families involved in the leukemia outbreak. Last week the state officially requested federal help from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

"Hopefully, we will rule out any contamination is happening," Todd said. "I think the Navy is taking this seriously."

Todd said he met with two medical doctors, one an environmental expert based in San Diego.

The Navy records could shed light on the extent of contamination in the ground water.

"If the contamination is there and not affecting humans, I have a dozen other things I am looking at," Todd said after the meeting.

There is the possibility that the cause of the leukemia cases may never be found, Todd said.

The Navy base, which has trained fighter pilots and other aviation specialists since 1955, has been cited by the state Division of Environmental Protection for contamination of gasoline, diesel fuels, solvents and a pesticide at six sites on the base.

However, the Navy maintains any chemicals or hazardous materials dumped into the ground 30 or 40 years ago have not flowed beyond the station's borders, base spokeswoman Anne McMillin said.

The Navy has found small amounts of such chemicals in the shallow aquifer on site, she said.

The records collected over the years from the monitoring wells "will prove there is no smoking gun there" linked to the leukemias, McMillin said.

"It's slowly migrating," she said, but there is no evidence it has left the site.