County Orders Inquiry Into 4 Cancer Deaths

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered the Department of Health Services to investigate allegations that toxic chemicals dumped by a defense contractor in the Santa Clarita Valley led to four cancer deaths in a Sand Canyon family.

The board, at the urging of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, ordered the department to study the cancer rates around two plants operated by Space Ordnance Systems in Sand Canyon and Mint Canyon. SOS was convicted on 10 misdemeanor charges of violating hazardous waste laws in 1986. Investigators found evidence of illegal storage and dumping of hazardous chemicals.

Members of the Hercules family charged in Sunday’s Newhall Signal newspaper that the chemicals had caused four family deaths since 1983. Three siblings--Denise Hercules, 20, Christopher Hercules, 20, and Charlotte Hercules Aitken, 23--died of leukemia. Their stepfather, Robert Hercules, 39, died of kidney cancer in February.

State and county officials monitoring the cleanup of the SOS plants have said they found no evidence tying the chemicals to illnesses among residents.