Residents Still Feeling Effects of Toxic Spill : Health: Six weeks after a train dumped pesticide into a river, people in Dunsmuir complain of headaches, rashes and respiratory problems. The reports of two miscarriages also scare townsfolk.

Janet Norton is 17 weeks pregnant and worried. Six weeks ago, she became ill when a chemical cloud from a derailed Southern Pacific train drifted down the Sacramento River. The 33-year-old mother of two still gets headaches almost every day.

Most of all, she is afraid for her unborn child. Long after the toxic cloud blew past town, state health officials warned that the fumes could cause birth defects. Now come the reports of miscarriages possibly related to the chemical--two already in the sparsely populated area.

“I wish we’d evacuated,” Norton said. “I think about it every day. There are things I’m not going to know until he’s born.”

For many people in this small mountain town on the upper Sacramento River, the weeks since the train derailment have given them much to worry about.

Besides the two miscarriages, which state health officials are investigating, more than 100 people along the river still suffer symptoms from exposure to the chemical cloud unleashed when a tank car filled with metam-sodium spilled into the river, local health officials say. The complaints from residents include rashes, respiratory problems and headaches that linger.

“There’s an awful lot of anger,” said Agnes Coons, who runs the Rustic Trailer Park on the south end of Dunsmuir. “We don’t know but what 10 years down the road we might all have cancer. We’ve heard about miscarriages and they say there’s a possibility of deformities.”

Concerned by the reports from Dunsmuir, state Health Director Molly Coye announced last week that the Department of Health Services will investigate the continuing illness and track all pregnancies in the community to determine if the spill has caused miscarriages or birth defects.

“We’re taking it very seriously,” said Dr. Richard Jackson, a top risk-assessment specialist with the California Environmental Protection Agency.

One of those who has become ill is Jim Youngblood, a 63-year-old developer in Dunsmuir who was exposed briefly to fumes from the spill when they were at a high concentration along the river.

He was already suffering from pneumonia, which may have made him more susceptible to the pesticide. Now he reports a severe cough, difficulty breathing, a sore throat, diarrhea and inner-ear problems that have made him lose his equilibrium. Youngblood said his doctor told him that he had been “chemically poisoned.” Always a workaholic, he has been unable to work for six weeks.

“It’s an effort to shave or brush my teeth,” Youngblood said. “It’s an effort to do anything. It scares me, because I don’t want to be an invalid.”

Dunsmuir, nestled in a river canyon in sight of towering Mt. Shasta, owes its very existence to Southern Pacific.

Founded by the railroad more than 100 years ago, the town originally was named Pusher because it was here that engines were added to northbound trains to help push them over the mountains.

The railroad tracks and the Sacramento River run side by side through the heart of town like two major arteries. Historically, the railroad brought jobs; the river, with its coveted native trout, attracted fishermen and tourists.

Now, the derailed tank car has cast a pall of sadness, bitterness and suspicion over the community of 3,000 people.

The fish are dead--wiped out by the metam-sodium--and the anglers who once lined the banks of the river are gone. The people in town, attempting to recover from the catastrophe, find themselves deeply divided. Some whose livelihood depends on the tourist trade wish the whole thing would quietly go away. Others who feel wronged by the spill want revenge.

“I feel Southern Pacific should pay what it costs--they should pay to put it back the way it was,” said Elmer Test, who retired after working for the railroad for 43 years.

Scores of residents have joined to file six lawsuits against Southern Pacific seeking compensation for their health problems and loss of work or business.

Within days of the spill, an associate of flamboyant San Francisco attorney Melvin Belli arrived with a mobile office and signed up dozens of townspeople for a class-action suit.

Other residents settled for a $300 payment from Southern Pacific and signed a waiver saying that they would seek no further compensation.

City Manager Jim Arata said the rush to collect money by some “lowlife” residents has contributed to the growing rift in town between business people and other victims of the spill. Some people who were not harmed by the spill, he maintained, are trying to make a fast buck by claiming ill health.

“These groups of attorneys are just feeding these people like crazy,” Arata said. “I really believe some people have these symptoms, but it gets so distorted by the outsiders coming in.”

At the same time, some residents are critical of government authorities for not evacuating the town after the train derailed about two miles upriver. Fumes from the chemical quickly spread down the river canyon and enveloped the town.

Authorities called for a voluntary evacuation and advised residents that they could leave if they wished. Given what they viewed as a mild warning, many chose to stay. For days after the spill, however, motorists on nearby Interstate 5 were stopped on the freeway and advised to avoid the river area.

“The thing that makes people mad is they told everybody on the freeway to roll up their windows and drive on by,” Norton said. “And we were here.”

At the time, health officials said the chemical would not cause long-term harm--an opinion they later reversed. Norton’s husband had to work, and so the couple and their two children remained in town.

“I stayed in the house and kept the windows closed,” said Norton, who lives 30 yards from the river. “It was a real stressful, hard week. I was going crazy.”

Down the street, Keith and Lilly Jones are still angry about the spill. They blame the chemical cloud for killing one of their hunting dogs and ruining the fishing that was an attractive feature of life here.

“Before, we could walk across the street and catch our limit in a couple of hours,” Keith Jones said.

Lilly Jones said she still has occasional attacks of nausea. “I would really be concerned if I was pregnant,” she said.

A few blocks away, Juanita Lacunza stood in what was once her prosperous garden and pointed out the casualties from the chemical disaster.

The strawberries died. So did the zucchini and the corn. The leaves of the pear tree withered. A small peach tree died. And the tiny grapes on their vines just stopped getting any bigger.

“It was like watching babies die,” said Lacunza, a teacher’s aide at Dunsmuir Elementary School who depended on the garden for food. “I’m hurt. I don’t know how to handle this.”

Lacunza’s house is right on the river, and the day after the spill she watched dead fish float downstream. In the days that followed, she began working in her garden and said she soon developed a rash on her hands--even though she was wearing cotton gloves.

“My hands were so bad,” Lacunza said, “I couldn’t tie my shoes or hold my toothbrush.”

The state Department of Forestry has taken samples from her garden to test for the pesticide. But the uncertainty about the dangers of the chemical has left Lacunza--and many of her neighbors--anxious.

“All the unanswered questions are puzzling,” she said. “The town doesn’t know. But at least I don’t cry anymore.”