Sand Canyon Health Study : No Toxics Link Found in 4 Cancer Deaths

Health officials said Wednesday that they have found no evidence to back up allegations that toxic chemicals illegally dumped by a Santa Clarita defense contractor contributed to four cancer deaths in a family that lived nearby.

But officials from the state and Los Angeles County also said that the recent deaths of Robert Hercules and his stepdaughter, Charlotte Hercules Aitken, constitute new evidence that they will consider as they re-evaluate a 1988 health study concluding that the chemicals posed no threat to neighboring Sand Canyon residents.

The officials spoke during a 2 1/2-hour forum attended by more than 200 people at Santa Clarita City Hall. Some people asked whether their tap water was safe to drink or for explanations of what could have caused so many deaths in one family since 1983.

“What are the odds of something like that?” asked Marian Baxter, who lived next door to the Hercules family. Recent allegations leveled by relatives of the Hercules family against the defense contractor, Space Ordnance Systems, have “really gotten everybody panicky,” she said. The firm produces explosive devices and flares.

Pleaded No Contest

In 1986, the company pleaded no contest to 10 misdemeanor charges of improperly storing, disposing and transporting hazardous wastes and was fined $300,000.

The Hercules family lived in Sand Canyon between 1978 and 1985. Christopher Hercules, 20, died in 1983 of leukemia. His sister, Denise Hercules, died three years later, also of leukemia, at age 20.

Denise Hercules’ twin sister, Charlotte Hercules Aitken, 23, died of leukemia this month. Their stepfather, Robert Hercules, died of kidney cancer in February at age 39. Hercules’ first wife, Diane, died in 1984 at age 39 of what relatives said was a rare blood disease.

Chester Webb, father of Diane Hercules, said family physicians warned his son-in-law that tests had found toxic chemicals in the family’s tap water. The doctors told the family not to use the swimming pool and to shower rather than take baths, Webb said.

But at Wednesday’s meeting, John Lewis, a representative from the state Regional Water Quality Control Board, said the agency tested tap water in the Hercules household in 1984 and found no pollutants.

Bill Manetta, president of the Santa Clarita Water Co., said that the Hercules family used company water, not a private well, and that the company, which serves most residents in Sand Canyon, has never found threatening concentrations of pollutants in its water.

Monitoring Committee

Lewis and Manetta were among a dozen officials who joined members of a monitoring committee created by the county Regional Planning Commission in 1985 to oversee the cleanup of SOS plants in Sand Canyon and in Mint Canyon, 15 miles away near Agua Dulce.

The committee’s chairwoman, Santa Clarita City Councilwoman Jo Anne Darcy, called Wednesday’s meeting to relieve public fears about the SOS plants. Members of a task force, created by citizens after the dumping was discovered, also attended the meeting. Dennis Dickerson, a state toxic control specialist, agreed that public fear is unwarranted.

“These deaths are a tremendous family tragedy,” Dickerson said. But it is “neither proven nor probable” that chemicals dumped by SOS caused the deaths, he said.

Dickerson said that a study, prepared in June, 1988, by USC School of Medicine researchers, concluded that SOS could not be tied to cancer cases in the community. But the researchers also wrote that the study could have missed evidence linking SOS to health problems because their test sample was too small or because insufficient time had passed for cancer to develop.

When health and law-enforcement officers raided the two SOS plants on March 8, 1984, they found more than 1,000 barrels of illegally stored waste. The company also had dumped chemicals in nearby riverbeds and sprayed tainted water through sprinklers.

The current controversy erupted June 18 when the Newhall Signal newspaper reported the recent death of Charlotte Hercules Aitken and recounted her family’s history.

Criticized Coverage

Dickerson and other officials criticized the newspaper’s coverage, particularly an opinion column by editor Chuck Cook that incorrectly said that a state arbitration panel had determined that SOS was primarily responsible for the deaths.

In reality, Dickerson said, the arbitration panel said SOS was responsible for paying the bulk of the $1.7-million cleanup cost at the Sand Canyon plant. Signal staff writer Sharon Hormell, speaking on behalf of Cook, apologized to the officials at the meeting for the error.

The medical experts who prepared the USC study could not attend Wednesday’s meeting, but Dickerson said the county and state would organize another public meeting where medical personnel will be on hand to answer questions from the public.