Firm to hunt
pesticide link
to ailments

A state contractor will test
soil at Village Park and
West Loch for chemicals

By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Star-Bulletin

Village Park and West Loch Fairways residents soon may find out whether pesticides, herbicides or other chemicals are the cause of ailments in their neighborhoods.

Ogden Environmental and Energy Services, under a contract with the state Health Department, will begin soil testing in the two subdivisions at the end of the month. Results are expected by the end of the year.

The Health Department will have a public meeting tomorrow night to discuss the methodology being used for the sampling, analysis and evaluation of the soil.

The state Legislature this past session appropriated $220,000 for the study at the urging of the Community for a Safe Environment, a group made up primarily of Village Park and some West Loch Fairways residents.

Residents have complained for more than a decade that their communities have been beset by an unusually high amount of health ailments, including Down's syndrome, heart abnormalities, leukemia, and speech, language and hearing disorders.

A prime suspect has been the pesticides that were used in the Del Monte pineapple fields of Kunia, about five miles north of Village Park.

In 1977, 495 gallons of ethylene dibromide, which contains dibromochloropropane, spilled near Del Monte's Kunia Village.

Several years later, EDB and DBCP were detected in the Kunia II water well. The well was closed until 1986, when a filtration system was installed.

Exposure to EDB and DBCP, both of which are now banned, has been known to damage the reproductive organs of males and cause other ailments.

There has been no evidence, however, that Kunia's pesticides found their way into either the water or soil in Village Park or West Loch Fairways.

In addition to looking for EDB and DBCP, Ogden will see if soil samples contain trichloropropane or tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, two other chemicals found in pesticides.

According to the field sampling plan: "These chemicals are not believed to have been capable of remaining on the site for extended periods after their application ... However, to address community concerns, analysis of some of the soil samples for those pesticides is planned."

Other chemicals being tested include chromium, lead, arsenic and copper.

Ogden will study 100 samples in all -- 75 from Village Park and 25 from West Loch. Samples will come from both private and public properties. Sampling will be limited to surface soil of no more than six inches deep.

Residents and Life of the Land, which is helping the residents in their plight, have called for studying deeper soils.

But the money allotted precludes that, according to Keith Kawaoka, manager of the Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Office. He noted that surface soil poses the greatest potential risk for residents.

Meanwhile, a law firm querying residents of Village Park has to date received more than 600 of 2,000 surveys it mailed out.

The survey by Masry and Vititoe asks residents if they have ailments they suspect may be related to contaminants. Responses are being sent to an expert in California to determine if there is enough evidence to warrant a lawsuit.

A meeting to discuss the results has been scheduled for Sept. 16.