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- [S23] Atchley Funeral Home, (http://www.atchleyfuneralhome.com/), 14 Sep 2001.
Zanley Isaiah Watson obituary
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 28 Apr 2004.
It's been about 15 years since residents near Old Sevier County Landfill Phases I and II last drank water from their wells, but they say it makes no difference - they believe the damage to their health was already done.
Residents like Sue Trentham, of Ridge Road, who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and suffers from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and Ben Cusick, of Rainbow Road, who has kidney cancer, point to 12 other neighbors known to have died of various types of cancer since 1997.
Both residents speculate all these illnesses may have been caused by the landfill.
Of four people who are known to be seriously ill, including Trentham and Cusick, one neighbor has serious joint problems and another has extreme osteoporosis.
Since 2000, 11 private wells or springs within a one-mile radius of the landfill have been tested at least once a year for contaminants. Landfill manager Tom Leonard hired Jeffrey Smith, project geologist with Draper Aden Associates of Blacksburg, Va., to conduct the testing.
In his December 2003 report, Smith said tests for 64 volatile organic constituents in the wells or springs show only Cusick's well still contains several contaminants.
Only one of those contaminants - vinyl chloride - is above accepted standards for drinking water, however, that contaminant is the most toxic, according to Smith, who explained it is the last step in the breakdown of various plastics and solvents tossed into the landfill.
It is not known whether vinyl chloride or any other contaminant was present while residents were still drinking water from their wells, because no water testing records from that period have been found.
Various sources found on the Internet, including the EPA, the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Wisconsin Department of Health & Family Services state that vinyl chloride is a known carcinogen that can cause the following: brain cancer; angiosarcoma, which is a rare soft tissue cancer that originates in the liver and can affect many areas of the body, including the kidneys, breasts, spleen, bones or heart; damage to the nervous system; blood disorders; disintegration of the bones in the fingers, arms and joints; leukemia; lung cancer; stomach or intestinal cancer; and an increased risk of miscarriages or birth defects.
Exposure to the contaminant, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health Environmental Health Fact Sheet, is not just through drinking contaminated water. The most common exposure to this colorless, flammable gas that has a mild, sweet odor is by breathing it from contaminated water while showering, bathing, cooking or laundering with the water, according to the fact sheet.
The Wisconsin Department of Health & Family Services Chemical Fact Sheet reports that vinyl chloride can also be absorbed through the skin while bathing or by handling vinyl products or contaminated soil, but that this is a minor route of exposure.
Information from a Web site for vinyl chloride cancer lawsuits indicates that following exposure to vinyl chloride, the latency period for angiosarcomas can be anywhere from 5 to 35 years.
Prior to area water wells being condemned in about 1989, the well used by Warren and Sue Trentham served three other homes occupied by Jonah Trentham, Ben and Justeen Maples and Zanley and Helen Watson. Jonah Trentham died in 1997 of cancer of the pancreas and Zanley Watson died of lung cancer in 2001.
The home of Eugene and Elzajean Finchum is located directly behind the Trenthams' on Ridge Road. Eugene Finchum died in 1997 of cancer of the pancreas. Another Ridge Road resident claimed by cancer was Billy Vance, who died in 2002 of rectal cancer.
Not far away at 803 Rainbow Road, where several members of Louise Dodgin's family lived in separate homes, there were four cancer deaths. Her husband James died of prostate cancer in 2001; lung cancer took her mother, Janey C. Loveday in 1981; and her sisters, Dorothy Fay King and Glenda Aguilar died of lung cancer in 1998 and 2001, respectively.
"We ate dust (from the landfill) for years," said Dodgin, adding she currently battles joint pain serious enough to require daily doses of quinine to ease her suffering.
Etta Rauhuff, of 722 Cain Hollow Road, who has lived in the same century-old home for 44 years, still mourns the loss of her husband, Mack, and her daughter, Iva Ann Rauhuff Brackins. Mack died in 2001 of colon cancer and Brackins died of leukemia in 2000 at the age of 50.
On Parlin Road, two members of the same household died of cancer. Betty Farr died of ovarian cancer in 1989 and her grandson Steven Parton, who had lived with his grandmother until her death, died in 2003 of cancer of the esophagus.
Two other area residents known to have died of cancer were Glenn Maner of Ridge Road and Tommy McCarter of Parlin Drive, but no family members could be contacted to say what type.
While affected residents recognize that some of the victims may have led less-than-healthy lifestyles such as smoking that can also lead to cancer, they say the one lifestyle they all have in common is having drunk and used the water and having been exposed to the dust and fumes from the landfill.
All of these deaths may be purely coincidental and there is no proof that any sickness can be linked to the landfill, but these families contend the landfill may be to blame.
Anyone who has a question related to cancer, its symptoms or detection may get information by calling the National Cancer Institute at (800) 422-6237 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays.
cgrimm@themountainpress.com
Could landfill have caused deaths?
- [S112] Census, 1930.
Name: Warner Trentham
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1930
Event Place: District 3, Monroe, Tennessee
Gender: Male
Age: 4
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Birthplace: Tennessee
Birth Year (Estimated): 1926
Immigration Year:
Relationship to Head of Household: Grandson
Father's Birthplace: Tennessee
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee
District: 0011
Household ID: 150
Sheet Number and Letter: 8A
Line Number: 50
Affiliate Publication Number: T626, roll 2267
GS Film number: 2342001
Digital Folder Number: 4548181
Image Number: 00263
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Head Henry Trentham M 35 Tennessee
Wife Ellen Trentham F 48 Tennessee
Son Sammie Trentham M 10 Tennessee
Son Frank Trentham M 5 Tennessee
Son Jonas Trentham M 22 Tennessee
Daughter Sarah Trentham F 23 Tennessee
Grandson Warner Trentham M 4 Tennessee
Granddaughter Hellen Trenthan F 2 Tennessee
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