No Evidence Found Tying Environment to Coto de Caza Ills

A year after residents in Coto de Caza began to complain about a mysterious illness, state and local agencies that launched studies of the area’s air, land and water say they find no evidence of environmental problems.

Orange County’s epidemiologist, Dr. Thomas Prendergast, said his latest poll, mailed in June, has produced such a poor response that his investigation of the purported “Coto de Caza syndrome” is probably near an end. Of about 290 households polled, only 26 bothered to return the questionnaires.

“There aren’t many residents out there urgently concerned, and there aren’t more as time goes on,” Prendergast said.

“There are clearly some ill people out there, but whether they got anything from the environment--it’s harder and harder to believe that.”

Over the last year, county health officials have sent Coto de Caza residents a series of questionnaires asking them to keep track of any unusual physical symptoms.

And in June, a biologist with the state Fish and Game Department tramped through the Coto de Caza hills, bagged several fish, three gophers and one deer, and sent them to a Sacramento lab for testing.

Later that month, meteorologists from the South Coast Air Quality Management District set up seven samplers in the backcountry development to monitor the purity of the air.

But this week, the air samplers have been taken down and the wildlife tests were reported negative for pesticides or disease. Despite some lingering concerns, state and local agencies said they have found no evidence of trouble.

Adding to skepticism about the illness is the fact that as Prendergast’s inquiry has dragged on, the ailment’s symptoms appear to have changed. The first complaints last fall were of lethargy, dizziness and headaches, he said, but by May, there was a new, unrelated symptom: heart palpitations. Now, “there’s no way to define a case . . . it’s fairly ephemeral,” Prendergast said.

Also, some of the 40 residents who initially complained that they were sick have said they are well now--and they would like the notoriety that has accompanied the reported “Coto de Caza syndrome” to go away.

“Why should our property values be shot to hell? As far as I know, there isn’t anything that has been uncovered,” said Kris Martin, a Coto de Caza resident and mother of two who last year was one of the most vocal complainants.

Last fall, Martin experienced lightheadedness, nausea and “horrible headaches” that her doctor could not explain. But four months ago, she said, her symptoms disappeared as mysteriously as they came.

Also feeling better was veterinarian Dan Pettay, 44, another of the initial complainants. “I haven’t had any symptoms for about a month,” Pettay said Wednesday.

In August, 1986, Pettay, his wife and two sons had noticed a strange fatigue and “a fogginess, like if you’re on Valium.” At the Coto riding ring, the family compared notes with neighbors, Pettay said. There seemed to be a trend.

But after months of feeling ill, the family’s symptoms recently cleared up when they left for a two-week vacation in Europe. The dizziness has not recurred since they returned, Pettay said. But Coto’s residents, real estate officials and Prendergast say they are still perplexed about what happened.

Some people have blamed the dust from new construction, Prendergast said. And others claimed that “it was radiation drifting up the valley from the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant,” he said. So far, he has discounted those theories as well as claims that illness was caused by chronic Epstein-Barr virus, a virus that causes mononucleosis.

Martin, too, has heard her share of “crackpot” theories. One woman blamed the illness on “microwaves coming from the top of Saddleback Mountain.”

For all the concern, new home sales do not appear to have been hurt by reports of a “syndrome,” said Rod Gilliland, vice president of sales and marketing at Coto de Caza Realty. Since May, the firm has sold 199 homes in Coto de Caza for $170,000 to $420,000. And only a few prospective buyers have asked questions about the illness, he said.

Coto’s developers said they worked hard to try to find the cause for the complaints, however. “We tested the pond. We looked at pesticides and herbicides on the golf course and in the landscaping and everything was within regulation,” Gilliland said. “We looked at the domestic water supply from the Santa Margarita Water District and tap water from the clubhouse and everything was fine.

“Was it environmental? Was it the flu? Was it anything? We can’t really say. But at this point it doesn’t appear that there was an environmental situation.”