Wilmington Cancer Study Families: Time For The EPA To Act

WILMINGTON, MA — For the families affected by Wilmington's contaminated 1990s water, the release of the state study finding a link with a cluster of childhood cancers provoked mixed feelings, but one thing was clear to them: it is time for the EPA to act.

The study, published March 24, found a link between maternal, pre-natal exposure to the chemical n-nitrodimethylamine (NDMA) in Wilmington's water and a cluster of childhood cancers including leukemia and lymphoma during the 1990s.

There was no federal limit for NDMA concentration then. There still isn't.

"Right now the goal is to establish a federal standard for the concentration in drinking water," said Lee Brooks, a Wilmington resident who lost a son to cancer. "They have to do this now, and enforce it."

Brooks lost her son Paul in 2006, when he was 23. He was diagnosed with leukemia as a teenager and was sick for four years, she said.

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Nicholas Eaton, a Wilmington native who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1992, agreed that an NDMA limit is a must.

"What needs to happen is to get the states involved, or at the federal level, to have an agreed-upon level in groundwater, and test for it," Eaton said. "They must demonstrate they have the teeth to enforce it by holding the companies involved responsible."

Eaton, now 35 and living in New Hampshire, was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 7.

"I was one of the lucky ones and had fairly unremarkable health since then," he said.

The NDMA in Wilmington's water was sourced to the Olin Chemical site, a former acre rubber and plastics facility that closed in 1986 and is now an EPA Superfund site. Currently, Massachusetts has a legal limit but there is no nationwide standard for the chemical.

The town's wells were capped in 2002 and the EPA approved a $48 million cleanup plan for the Olin site April 1.

But that doesn't mean the fight is over, Eaton and Brooks both said. Now that the plan is approved, the EPA begins negotiations with Olin and other companies on how the plan will be enforced.

"Wilmington now has clean water because it gets water from outside sources," Eaton said said. "But the fact is there's a contaminated well in town."

"They have to clean it up," Brooks said. "That to me would be the best thing that could happen."

The agency should set an example in Wilmington, Eaton argued.

"Now we have irrefutable evidence that NDMA got into the water, poisoned families, and caused cancer," he said. "If the EPA wants to clean that water, they need to hold the company responsible accountable ... Come down on them as an example of what would happen to a company if they get caught doing this in the future."

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Both Brooks and Eaton said their feelings were mixed about the study results. Eaton said he was looking for validation, but it also brought back residual anger. Brooks said she had hoped there was no link, but after the study found one, she hopes people will learn from it.

"My son would've wanted people to come together in understanding," Brooks said. "I'm hoping this helps."

The EPA's discussions with Olin and other potentially responsible parties could take up to nine months and design for the groundwater treatment system is not expected to begin until 2022, the agency said.

Christopher Huffaker can be reached at 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.