U.S. Water News Online
SALT LAKE CITY -- Cancer rates for Davis County resident who live near contaminated groundwater plumes around Hill Air Force Base are not higher than in other places, a study by the Utah Department of Health and the Davis County Health Department show.
The study looked at cancer rates around the Layton base from 1973 through 2001.
The groundwater there was contaminated with trichloroethyle (TCE) and other solvents used for maintenance at the base. Contamination is not in the area's water supply, but residents could be exposed to chemical vapors seeping into basements, health officials say.
However, some environmental studies by the base have shown minimal exposure to contamination in groundwater for residents living over the plumes. Hill officials are monitoring and plan a clean up that will be overseen by the health department.
TCE has been known to cause cancer in some laboratory animals, which caused concern in the communities affected by the contamination.
The communities with contaminated groundwater include Syracuse, Clearfield, Clinton, Roy, Riverdale, Sunset, South Weber and Layton.
Using 2000 census estimates about 53,500 Uthans live above contaminated plumes, said Dr. Wayne Ball, manager of the state health department's Environmental Epidemiology Program.
"The shallow groundwater in this location and in all the plume areas is contaminated with various chemicals coming off the base," said Davis health director Lewis Garrett. "It's no longer occurring, but it has occurred. It's an environmental concern for our county."
Garrett says concerns over the cancer rates go back several years, but a 2003 report comparing cancer rates in Sunset and Clinton to those across Utah didn't answer specific questions about the plumes.
But further study didn't identify a correlation between cancer rates and living in proximity to the plumes.
"We didn't really find any associations to elevated cancer rates and those communities associated to the plume," Ball said.
Cancers are more common that most people realize, Ball notes. About half of all men and one-third of all women will get some form of cancer, he said. And exposure to environmental toxicants accounts for only a small percentage of cases.
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