American Spectator

Hillary Travels to Nevada

The Reason Is Not Divorce

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled almost 3,000 miles to tiny Fallon, Nevada, last week to hold hearings on a strange set of cancer clusters that have struck the community about 60 miles east of Reno. To date, about a dozen children have been diagnosed with lympatic leukemia. And while there are a number of theories as to why the cluster has occurred, researchers and doctors have been unable to finger the exact culprit.

So why did Hillary go so far to such an obscure town? She invited the New York media to follow her, and she ghoulishly posed for photos with sick children even though the families had requested that she not do so, because she claimed there were similar cancer clusters in her home state. One reporter asked her where the clusters were. "I'll have to have a staffer get back to you with that, " she replied. Apparently while she cares about a good photo-op, she hasn't spent any time in her own state's "cluster" communities. OG Note: Given the item I posted earlier today--following--about the high level of arsenic in Fallon's water, you don't suppose Hillary is getting ready to go after Bush on the arsenic question, do you? ("He's poisoning my constituents!") April 19, 2001, in the San Jose Mercury News

Fallon's water laced with arsenic

BUT BLASÉ NEVADANS SHRUG OFF EPA ORDER TO CUT NATURALLY HIGH LEVELS

BY TOM GORMANNKE
Los Angeles Times

FALLON, Nev. -- Fallon, population 8,300, is the arsenic capital of America.

A study last year of Environmental Protection Agency data from 25 states by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that Fallon's water system delivered more arsenic to its customers than any other similar-sized system in the country.

Yet without complaint, generations of Fallon residents have been drinking water with arsenic levels twice as high as the federal limit -- 50 parts per billion set by the EPA in 1975.

In Fallon, about 60 miles east of Reno, water out of the faucet contains about 90 ppb of arsenic. EPA officials ordered the city to cut its arsenic levels in half by September 2003 or face fines of $27,500 a day.

State Assemblywoman Marcia DeBraga, whose district includes Fallon, wishes the city would address the arsenic problem without further delay.

``I don't know if they're in denial, or firmly believe that since Grandpa Jones drank it all his life it's not a serious problem,'' she said. ``But they need to bite the bullet.''

The city grudgingly has begun designing a treatment plant and is looking for ways to pay for it.

Whatever steps the city takes, they won't help residents just outside city limits who rely on private wells in which the arsenic frequently reaches 700 ppb and, in some cases, more than 2,000 ppb.

Even when nine Fallon children were diagnosed in 1999 with acute lymphocytic leukemia no one began worrying about the arsenic. The state epidemiologist maintains that no link has been established between the two.

Tim Miller, 46, a heavy-equipment operator and second-generation Fallon native, looks at it this way: ``I'll die of something. It's called life. Once you're born, you start dying.''

Even residents who have been stricken with arsenic poisoning, or have skin cancer that may have been triggered by years of drinking arsenic-laced water, seem resigned.

Longtime Fallon resident Melba Gabiola and her daughter, Terry Bennett Jackson, have skin cancer they attribute to arsenic.

``I've had it for so long, when one shows up, I just have it removed,'' Gabiola said.

Her daughter, now 48, said she's not angry. ``It's in the well water,'' she said. ``They couldn't do anything about it.''

The family's well, outside the city, contained 2,750 ppb of arsenic.

No government agency at any level has oversight over private wells, and none warns such well users of possible risks.

Besides, said the state's health officer, Dr. Mary Guinan, some homeowners don't want to know what's in their water. ``If they knew, they'd have to disclose it when they sell their home, and they don't want to reduce their property values,'' she said.

And to test well water for all possible contaminants, as municipal water providers are required to do, costs about $3,000, she said.

``This is Nevada,'' Guinan said. ``It's the people's choice whether they test their water. They don't want to feel government is intruding in their lives.''

Scientists' findings notwithstanding, even one of the town doctors contends that the water is safe.

``I've been here for 20 years, seeing 30 patients a day, and I don't see a problem,'' said Dr. Gary Ridenour, an internist.

`` . . . I tell people ``that we eat cactus and rattlesnakes and spit poison darts.'' "These cancer clusters are cropping up all over America," says one of her aides. "Mrs. Clinton isn't just New York's senator, she's a national political figure who has every right to take these issues on where ever they may lead her, whether it is to California or Illinois or New York." And even Nevada, apparently.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001