Group Sues Plant Over Cancer Deaths

A group of Bell Gardens residents who believe a local chrome-plating plant has contaminated the neighborhood with deadly toxins announced Tuesday that they are suing the company and demanded that public officials ensure the safety of the area.

Neighbors and community organizers contend that hazardous chemicals produced at Chrome Crankshaft have sunk into the ground water and polluted the two schools next door, causing an elevated risk of cancer and other health problems.

Twenty-two students and six teachers at Suva Elementary and Intermediate schools near the chrome-plating facility have been diagnosed with cancer in the last eight years, organizers said. A number of teachers and residents have reported miscarriages.

The lawsuit is the latest move made by residents in a decade-long battle to discover the source of the ailments plaguing their community. Although county health officials were not available Tuesday to comment on whether the number of cases is a statistical abnormality, residents flatly blamed Chrome Crankshaft and another nearby chrome-plating facility that closed in 1990.

“What we want is a safe and clean environment,” said Joe Perales, whose 14-year-old son Alex died of lymphoma in October 1997. Standing with a group of residents in front of a chain-link fence encircling the Florence Place facility, Perales said, “If this company cannot clean up and stop putting our children at risk, it must go.”

On Tuesday, Chrome Crankshaft released a statement that the company had ceased operations at the site Jan. 11. Company officials refused to comment on why the plant shut down, saying only that it was an internal business decision, not one forced by state regulators.

An environmental health organization that has tried to mobilize residents for the past year filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming that the plant has violated Proposition 65 and the state Unfair Business Practices Act by releasing chemicals into a potential source of drinking water.

Last fall, four former students who have been diagnosed with cancer and the families of two students and a teacher who died of cancer filed a personal injury lawsuit against the company and various government agencies.

“These chrome-plating facilities are not in Brentwood, not in Malibu, not in Santa Monica . . . but just because these communities are poor does not mean they should be exposed to this,” said Gideon Kracov, an attorney representing the students and families.

The environmental group Communities for a Better Environment, based in San Francisco and Los Angeles, contends that the Montebello Unified School District and government officials failed to protect the neighborhood. On Tuesday they called on Gov. Gray Davis to visit the site and take up their cause.

“We are here to ask all agencies, all elected officials, for justice,” said Carlos Porras, Southern California director for Communities for a Better Environment. “It is about time that the agencies that are supposed to protect our health protect all communities equally.”

Chrome Crankshaft and another chrome-plating plant began operations in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

In 1988, the South Coast Air Quality Management District tested the area and found relatively high levels of hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen. However, officials said the level of contamination was not high enough to require closing the campuses.

Residents started asking questions about the chemicals again last year, when Perales began hearing from local families that had lost children to cancer.

“The kids who died of cancer all had one thing in common: They attended [Suva Elementary] school,” he said.

Under pressure from parents, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control and other agencies tested the area in the fall and found high levels of hazardous waste in the plant’s soil. Last month, the state ordered Chrome Crankshaft to clean up the contamination.

In addition, the tests turned up traces of hexavalent chromium in three spots on the Suva Elementary School playground, said Ron Baker, an agency spokesman.

The soil was removed during the school’s winter break, Baker said, and the agency is working with the company to better control chemical pollution.

A spokesman for the Montebello school district said the district has been told by state officials that there is no need to shut the elementary school.

Parents and residents say they hope that the suits trigger new state legislation requiring stricter environmental protection near schools.

“If it weren’t for this company, I would have my son right now,” said Mary Saucedo, whose 16-year-old son, Joseph Gamez, died of brain cancer in August 1996. “As long as these companies are still operating, these kids don’t have a future. We need to do something before more children die.”