Document 65YgJow4MdJ5yYvw9vrXEaryE

7 Pesticides used heavily for years tainted water supply Second o f two parts Ily D an F a g in STAFF UTirrEtl W hen she was 28, she Joined the teem ing m ig ra tio n th a t carved Long Island's potato Helds into subdivisions. When she was 67, she lost most of her left breast to .cancer. Tt never occurred to Genevieve Frey that there might be a connection he- tween the two.* I3ut there could be a connection, he- causa the same pesticides that drenched pest-plagued potato fields in the years ju st before Long Islands suburbaniza tion are now being tentatively linked to breast concur by researchers. What's known is that some of those now-banned pesticides were used in particularly heavy doses here, and did seep into underground drinking-water supplies. What isn'L known is how bad ly they contaminated the tap water that Long islanders like Frey drank. 111 n Neivsdny examination found evidence that suggests many suburban pioneers were exposed to high levels o f those cheniicnlR, according to govern ment records, well test results, inter views with dozens ofexperts ami a com puter model prepared for Nowaday hy the U.S. E nviron m en tal P rotection Agency. The com puter model -- based on 1-nng Island's unique hydroponic* ond N m & w Ft!i- PfioW Those barrels contained the pesticide D -D , used against nematodes on the Wesnolske potalo farm on Iho East End In 7975 the traits of two nnw-hnnnrrt pesticides tha t wore used heavily on local potato Helds -- cstimnles that drin king water was severely tainted w ith thnse chemi sho bought with her husband In 1952. "N ow I have to warty about my daugh ters, and nhiiul all the other peuple who imps most significantly, some oT the most toxic chemicals were banned by the slate starting in 1979, when local health day's standards. In mie program, llu* U.S. Department of Agriculture spent 528.4 m illion and injected more than a cals. bnih o f which arc known to cause lived in this area. They drank that wa officials began looking for pesticides in million gallons of now-banned chemi breast cancer in lah animals. In fact, ter, too," underground water supplies -- and im cals directly into muro than 10.0(10 acres according to tho model, pesticide con Today there's no indication that pesti mediately Taund them. or nemntodc-inTested potato fields on centrations in ground water were doz cides ore a major problem in drinking B ut d u ring the 1940s, 1950s and Lone Island -- and nowhere lse, ens o f times higher than the current water on Long Island, except in o few 1960s. not one drop o f Long Island's tap f i n"two nemntodo-killora that were federal safety standard after those po farming areas in eastern Suffolk Coun water was tested for pesticides, and ex used in that foderai program -- 1,2- tato lields were treated. ty. Lawn and golf course pesticides atijj perts scoffed at the notion tha t weed- dichloroprnpnne and 1,3-dichlaropro* Out heciitiso pesticide testin g o f turn up In groundwater, but punlic wa- and bug-killers could penetrate the soil pone, both o f which wore found to seep -dainking-wajifr didn 't begin un til Id' ter supplies are now tested for enmman barrier and reach aquifers. Hundreds o f into grnundwatcr by the EDA computer years ago. Long Islanders are left w ith pesticides, and filters remove any that thousandsofpeople got the ir water from model -- have been shown to cause unanswered questions about how ex are detected. Wells have been deepened shaitnw private wells, and even public . b re ast cancer in rats. And human tensive the contamination really was to avoid the shallow aquifers that ore welts w ere unfiltered and were often less breast cancer has been linked to the during the suburban boom years. most vulnerable to con tam ina tion. then 200 feel deep. The region was car insecticide D D T, banned in 1972, "Nobody can tell me why I got breast There is little cropland left, and the few ' peted by hundreds o f farms, which were which was also heavily used on Long cancer." said Frey, 63, who still lives in farmers who till it have learned to get by repeatedly doused w ith pesticides in Island but is not found in In^al ground- the same tm.-t houso in Hicksville that w ith much lower pesticide doses. Per- doses hundreds of times higher than to w ater. M ore im p o rta n t, a grow ing number o f pesticides-- including DDT, chlordane and methoxychlor -- are now being shown to hove ih e ability to ^ m im ic estrogen in a woman's body. All three wore common on Long Island, and methoxychlor is s till 'widely used here. The connection is important, be cause high lifetime estrogen exposure is A S p e c ia l R eport the common thread that tics together all o f breast cancer's known risk fac tors, except fam ily history. Third In a series on the disease and Its toll on LI Breast cancer is a complex disease, and no single factor is likely to explain the 70 percent of cases that cannot be traced to any nfthc known risks. So far, Tbt Series Ss far J uke 37;Are Hera at greater risk? Study finds an average cancer risk but higher death rate, J u it 23: Fran and Je rry le n io 'a Story, no pesticide has been d e fin itiv e ly shown to cause human breast cancer. Yet the signs of past pesticide con tamination on Long Island are strong enough th a t federal scientists have made pesticides an important focus o f their upcoming environmental study oT breast cancer on the Island and other ports o f the Nnrthenst. Researchers af- Sept 5: The Pesticide Connection ready know the disease has a long InNr**(Jiy i K.itfiy KmnnleeX Genevieve Frey, a bre^sl cancer survivor, In Ironl.of her Hicksville h o m o ............................ , Please see. PESTICIDES on Page .70 NEWSDAY. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, t993 f 30 Farm Reached PESTICIDES from Page 7 tcncy period; decades can pass between oxpodure to a carcinogen and Lumor de velopment. " It appears tha t in order for Long 13- land to be built up as a habitable place, in order to make it suitable for large- scale development, housing was bu ilt an land that hud been heavily treated w ith pe sticides," said Dr. Sumuel Broder, director o f the National Cancer Instituto, which w ill run the study along w ith the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, " From a scientific point o f view, there has to be an extremely high prior ity attached to the presence of estro gen-like products in the environment,1' Brnder said. " We need tn got to the bot tom of this question o f the application o f pesticides on Long Island. T h a t w o n 't be easy. Federal re searchers face a daunting, i f not impos sible tusk in trying to quantify past pes ticide exposures on Long Island, Nowaday found. Blood samples can be tested for residues o f long-lasting pesti cides -- a technique tha t is likely to bu used. But those residues ore dctcctahle only for certain pesticides, and they are often sn minuto that measuring them is difficu lt and expensive. W ithout measurable data, research ers arc luft with statistical clues that point in cnnilictjng directions. Among thu troubling clues is that Long Island's breast cunccr rote is well above the national average. In addition, a 1000 slate study concluded that long time Nassau County residents face a Wither risk of breast cancer than do w m in'ii svfm are the snmu age hut ai" veil here inure rewndy. Women who have Jived in Nassau ol least >Ul years' are much more likely to get breast cancer than women of the same ago who haven't lived here that lung. The added risk drops from 72 per cent to 16 percent for women who have lived in Nassau for 20 to 39 years, and Island's potato fields -- which dom inat ed local agriculture for a half-century -- have been repeatedly treated with an array of high-doso pesticides nimed at eradicating beetles, aphids, blight and the golden nematode. Farming is the source of most pcsti- ,cide use. And nationwide, potato farm-, ers used more pesticides per aero than anyone except fru it growers, a 1930 federal report shows. Dosages were un usually high on Long Island, In 1979, for example. New York (mostly Long Island) had 25 percent o f the N orth east's potato acreage bu t used GO per cent of the potato pesticides, according to another report. That's significant, hydrologists say, because pesticides are fur more likely to reach groundwatur if they are applied intensively in one urea. In fact, Long Island was the only site of one o f thu most intensive posticidcuse campaigns ever ulLuniptcd In the NiH'thuuiit, and porliups in the country. Fur -K>years, the golden noinniotle was lho target of a massive barrage orches trated by federal and state agricultural officials, who were determined to eradi cate the tiny crop.destroying culworm, or at least confine it to Long Island. Neither goal wus fully achieved, and there fs no extra risk Tor women who hy the time groundwaierconuiminatiun have lived in Hie county less than 20 forced the treatment program's aban years. No such tre nd was detected donment in 193-1. more than 250 potato amung Suffolk women. fields had been fumigated w ith more 'Nobody really knows why length of than 1 million gallons of pesticides. The residence is a risk factor in Nassau nematode-killers were Injected directly County," said Roger Grimson, a biosUt- into tho sail G inches holow the surface, tis iic ia n a t the State U niversity at and tho standard dosageof90 gallons (or Stony Brook who is fam iliar w ith tha 900 pounds) pur acre is staggering com breast cancar data. " I t seems,to me to pared w ith current pesticide doses, typi bo a proxy for an environmental factor, cally about one pound per aero. or for something else." On the other hand,-Long Island's breast cancer rate, w hile high, is not greater than the rotes o f many other The vulnerable water supply. Long Island's sandy soil, shallow aquifers and high population density make it acutely vulnerable to drin king water alTluenlsuburban areas, which suggests contamination. lifestyle may matter more than pesti When pesticides wore found on the cides. Epidemiological studies have re peatedly shown that the Island is rich in risk factors for the disease, including having a large Jewish population and a high number of women who have their first child relatively lata in life. There is also some conflicting evi dence on the question of pesticide expo East End in 1979, it was one of the first times significant amounts had been found in groundwater anywhere in the United States, according to a federal re port. And the same hydrologic traits that promote contamination Tn Muttituck generally also apply in Melville and -most o f western Long Island, hy way to know for sura, bu t welt lest re sults and a computer model both strong ly suggest that groundwater contamina tion was prevalent during the years when pesticides wore used most heavily. By the tim e testing far pesticides started in 1979, farming had virtually disappeared from most of Long Island. sures. For one thing, researchers have drologists say. In v irtu ally atl of the Is But those well tests quickly showed not detected unusually high breast can land there's no bedrock or heavy clay widespread contamination in the only cer rates in heavily farmed areas else loyer to stop pesticides from moving area that was still dominated by agricul where in the country where, presum freely once tnoy have penetrated a few ture: the East End, w ith sporadic con ably, more pesticides were used. feet of soil. That's why some pesticides tamination elsewhere. To date, pesti- But the key issue for cancer research are being detected a decade or mare cidos have been detected at levels above ers isn't the quantity o f pesticides put after they were banned, and at depths federal safety standards in about 50 into the soil, b u l the quantity Ingested several hundred feet below the surface. publlcand 4,10Qiprivato drinking-water by Long Islanders. Moreover, u n til the 1960s and 1970s, wells in eastern Suffolk. That total Is far For the past six months, Nowaday most Long Islanders got their water higher than anywhere else in the Btate has looked closely at the question o f from the shallowest aquifers, which are and many regions of the country, al how high pesticide exposures really 60 to 200 feet below the surface. A t though it's partly due to the fact that were. T h at examination found a s trik those shallow depths, pesticides are Suffolk's sampling program is.among ing confluence o f n a turo l and man likely to be round in higher concentra the most extensive anywhere. made circumstances that pu t Long Is tions because they have had less time to And in western Long Island, a com landers at risk: dissipate and chemically degrade.. ,.. puter. modal af the local hydrogeology l ,< Pesticidas Bind potato fields. Long . i* iig n in f contaminntiun^Thore'SDO augpjsia graundjwmqr, contamination i-s , ' r i v -V ' ; .1'' >1 :; Tr :-V -; Photos cauncsy or the U S. D epartm ent or A tm cutiur Insecticide being applied lo a Long Island (arm in the 1860s lo battle nematode infestation. Dosages of pesticide were unsually high on Long Island. In one year, New York (mostly Long Island) had 25 percent of the Northeast's potato acreage but used 60 percent of (he potato pesticides, according lo a report. Female nematodes become golden in color as Ihey allach lo ro d s . The golden nematode was the target ol a massive barrage ol fumigants by lederal and stale agricultural officials, By 1964. more lhan 250 potato fields had been fumigated with more than 1 million gallons of pesticides. was extensive ju st after the peak farm ing years there. That model, prepared for Newsday by the U.S. Environm en tal Protection Agency, predicts that n any raven year, groundwater beneath one-fourth o f all the fields fumigated that year w ith the two chemicals used in the anti-nematode program -- dichloropropane and dichloropropene -- contained concentrations o f those chemicals that were at least 26 times higher than the safety standard o f 5 Ea rn per billion, There's no way to now how long the pesticides stayed in a particular place, bu t they can persist in the shallow aquifers for years. The links lo breast cancer. There is no proof that any pesticide ruses breast cancer in hitmans, bu t many of the pesticides th a t were used most heavily on Long Island have been iden tified 03 prime suspects, Dichloropropone and dtchloropropane, which are both found in Long IsUrid groundw atktW d are kiitnlm to uc--> SEPTEMBER 7. IB90 m- BREAST CANCER ON LI 31 Water cumulate in human fatty tissue, are among the relatively small group o f pesticides that has been linked to in creased breast tumors in laboratory rats. Other posticidea that have been used locally, including mothoxychlor and chlordane, are known to mim ic natural estrogen, and chlordane has been shown to cause liver cancer in mice. M othoxychlor is a litl used on Uing Island; 1.3-dichloropi opene is still used in other parts o f-th o country. Chlordane and 1,2-dichloropropono have been banned nationwide. The pesticide that was probably used most heavily of all on Long Island, tho banned insecticide DDT, is also tho only one sn far that has been associated with higher risk ofhum an breast cancer. But DDT U almost never found in ground water, because i t is not soluble in water. Tho must common way people ere ex posed to DDT is by eating tainted meat or lish. The insecticide is so persistent that its residues are slit) detectable in the blood or most Americans 21 years after it was hanned. But even though D1)T was used extensively here on farms, in homes and in mosquito-infest ed swamps, there's no particular reason to believe tan g Islanders wure exposed to more DDT than other Americans. Chlordane and mulhoxychior also are not often found in groundwater, hul ta n g Islanders could have been ex posed to them by breathing their va pors. Subterranean termites thrive in the lstand' damp sandy soil, so the teriiiiiic iile chlordane was used pervasive ly here u n til it was bmihim!. Methuxychlur is still popular w ith gardeners and thriller* ns u tree spray. The Nematode Crusade Genevieve Frey, o f course, d id n 't know nbm u any o f th a t when she moved from New York City to Hicksvilla in 1952, and neither did hundreds o f thousands of other participants in the post-war suburban boom. And nei ther did tho only people who might have been expected tn have some in kling of the possible threat to ground water: local water-supply oiTiciala, and the Cornell University scientists who worked closely w ith Long Island farm ers ns they used more and more pesti cides. ` It's true thaL there wasn't the rigor ous testing that we da now," said M i chael LoGrunde, chairman o f the Suf folk County Water Authority, " I don't (iiicstion that things that were not con ducive to good health were in the public und the private water supply in those years." "The groundwater situation ju s t ncv-. cr even came up," recoiled Maurie Semet. TO. a former Cornell entomologist who worked w ith Long Island formers fur decades. "Wo were ju s t trying to help the farmers in any way we could." Potatoes hove been grown on Long Island for more than a century, but the acreage greatly expanded during World War 11, and by the end of the war tho Nassau-SufTulk region was the biggest potato producer in tho nation. In the peak year of 1947, potato vines carpet ed more than 60,000 acres -- 10 times more acreago than was planted with any other crop. Today, potatoes still cover more acreage than any other local crop, but less that 7,000 acres are left, almost all on the East End. " In lhose years, from Hempstead to Fanningdale there w asn't a single store." suid W illiam Mui, 76, a' retired Cornell plant pathologist, " I t was all fields as far as you could see." Despite tho signs o f success, it was a struggle to grow spuds on Long Island. Potato beetles, aphids and blight. Wire a . continual threat, And. then'.camp, th p , ' A computer model prepared (or Newsday by the U,S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated how aquifers were affected by a program halted in 1984 ** that fumigated more than 10,000 acres of potato fields infested with the golden nematode, which was found only on Long Island. . . . The estimates ere based on soil and weather conditions in Hicksvilie; and the characteristics of the " pesticides most used in the anti-nematode campaign: 1,2-dichloropropane and 1,3-dichloropropena... Hicksvilie was a potato center during the early years of the program, and the area's hydrogeology Is similar to most of Long Island. j ; '-.y": ;>i; i,-,, ,y .'-v1' '' - / ; > ' :V , .,... ' Potato . Field 44ii] CV5 ! The EPA mode! estimates that i groundwater underneath abouit . { half the potato fields that were -, fumigated in a given year ; contained at least 70 parts per ; billion of the pesticides. And j underneath 10 percent of the ; fields, the concentration was a1 Jeast 210 pads per bilJion, The PA's safety standard it Hicksviljp.b egl pul go : ^ o , VjOJeet belduy )? surface^ mt.h..oe..v.pe-ewstiitchidtheppgarroticulnedsw'^a' tei>r: fifi Water flow.'. ' X| S' | i & c ^ T a l i l 8 . cr> . !rT;>>`,v \i j .?. .u,", ` -v . / ': * T* 1 r " c 5. The tainted groundwater either moves downward into the deeper aquifers or is ` pumped into water welts. In Hicksvilie, 'public-supply wells generally were about .150 feet qeep until the 1960s. And as |q NewKday/Richard Unirli Jr. golden nematode. For seven years, Charles Oellwciller had watched the potato vines w ither in one corner of his farm on Bloomingdale Road in Hicksvilie, Finally, in 1941, a Cornell graduate student identified the reason: the golden nematode, named Tor the color of the fomalcs. The col- worm is harmless to humans, but is po ten tially devastating to potatoes be cause the worms form cysts th a t gradually destroy tho vines. By the end of the war, the nematode had spread throughout hundreds o f acres of potato fields in the Hicksvilie area, and federal and state agriculture officials decided twos time faran oll-ou t campaign against it, They quarantined all infested fields, and banned the sole of all seed potatoes from Long Island. But the heart of the elTart was a chemical assault. The chosen weapons were huge doses o f two volatile petrole um derivatives that smelled like chloro form. Tho chemicals, 1,2-dichlodropropane and 1,3-dichIoropropene, hud been developed during the war and were marketed by Shell in a gaseous mixture known as D-D, About 1,500 acres around Hicksvilie were fumigated with D-D in 1946, the firs t year o f widespread treatments, program records show, B ut the nema todes kept coming back. So by 1950, the same year tho nomatodo was first iden tified in Suffolk County, the dosage had been doubled to 90 gallons per acre. "They used tremendous quantities end enormous dosages, and I think the nematode program was one of the high est," said Cornell entomologist Dave Pimentel. Meanwhile, another chemical developed during the war -- DDT -- had become a favorite of potato growers, They discovered it worked wonders against a pest that was even more widespread than the nematode: the Colorado potato beetle. W ithin a few years, as the beetles grew increasingly resistant to the chemical, farmers were spraying their Helds w ith DDT as often as every z 9 j g w g ft 3 9 Please see PESTICIDES Nexi-Pge js 8 s 32 BUEASTCANCERONLI Pesticide. Use Haunting LF^ PESTICIDES from Preceding Pago decade, Ihcchcmicals have been found in 23 public wells at depths as great as TOO feet two weeks during tho growing season. "D O T wns the miracle chemicnl, You sprayed it nn nnco and that was the end o f it." remembered Raymond Wcsnofsko, 55. a Bridcehampton potato grower whoso fa ther formed in Hicksville. " A t first the us age w asn't particularly heavy, b lit then as they grew resistant to it you'd get more and more henvily into it." Potato farmers w eren't the nnly people using DDT. As it was in other pnrls of the country, DDT spraying un til the mid* 1350s was a major part of county mosquito-con trol and gypsy moth programs, and was also w idely' used on vegetable crops, in backyard gardens and even inside houses. The termitieide chlordano also began to be used pervasively during the 1950s on h<mg Island. Like the nematode-killers, below the surface, though always at low lev els. I t 's possible that some or those detec tions may be due to industrial pollution, because dichloropropane was also used ns n pnlnU t ripper and is still used as an interme diate in chemical manufacturing. But all six wells in which the chemical has (icon detect ed more than once are in parts of Nassau, that wero once infested by tho nematode. Those wells nro now filtered to remove any o f the detected dichloropropane. ami in most eases the concentrations before filte r ing arc below the federal standard of 5 parts per billion. But not always. One now-aban doned East End well sampled shortly after groundwater testing began registered 550 parts per billion, the highest concentration of dichloropropane ever found in groundwater anywhere, according to the ERA. chlordnne typically was injected directly underneath tho topsoil. By the early 1950s, farm ing was in rapid decline in Nassau. S tarting in 1947. W il liam Levitt had enticed thousands of veter ans and their families to move into 58.900 ennkie-cuttar houses. And while much of the land that became Leviltnwn was not in active potato cultivation just before it was developed; many other builders did subdi vide Ihotisands o f acres of ncmabido-infcttlod fields in the surrounding areas. In Suffolk, meanwhile, the war mi the Looking for Clues Given whot's known about the pesticides! that are stilt showing up in wells, it's possi. ble to draw some conclusions aboni water contamination in the early years, before pesticide testing began, experts pay, For one thing, those pesticides are prov ing to bo remarkably persistent Pnd arc be ing delected at progressively greater depllix. For example, a 508-root-decp well nn Woodchuck Hollow Rond in Ifim lm ptnn Staliim began routinely registering low Inv- nematodes was intensifying. Tho dosages ela of dichloropropane "in 1086-- mnre (ban grew higher as the insects deielnped bio 20 years after potato farming ended in tlm logical resistance, and as federal regulators area. adopted tho policy o f repeatedly treating T h a t's a significant clue that "pesticide potato fields u n til not a single nematode levels in groundwater remained high in could be detected. areas where potato fields were replaced by "We had some farm fields that wero just housing, according to Sy Robbins, county h o rre n d o u s , so much R ltiff had been hydrogcologist in the Suffolk health de dumped an it." said Tom M arlin, n ground- partment. water specialist w ith the Suffolk health de partment. A 17-acro farm in Jamesport, for example, got <(.100 gallons in a single year. Long Island's consistent geology is an N*w*diy m<t Photo other clue, he said. The water table is un A stale conservallon officer confiscates banned Insecticides In 19 72 usually high on the Enst End. but what 195.1. An 18-acrc fnrm in Bridgehamplnn matters more js that throughout I he Island got 6,655 gallons in 1967 and 1,815 gallons in 1973, new and w ildly successful hcctlc-killer, nldicarb, in 10 the sail barrier is relatively thin, nnd there is nn layer M artin said. wells on East End potato farms. They d id n 't expect to o f clay or bedrock to protect the aquifers. I f rainwater The dosages in the fumigation program were so find it. After all, no one thought pesticides could reach carries pesticides down through the soil barrier rela intense that by one estimate, that of retired Cornell groundwater. tively quickly, before the chemicals degrade, the pesti plant pathologist Martin Harrison, the anti-nematode To the ir surprise, they found high levels or nldicarb cides can then move freely and quickly w ithin the so- program represented about one-fourth of alt the agri in every one o f tho 10 wells. called unsa turn ted zone between the soil and cultural pesticides used an Long Island at that time.' "Peoplo have a mindset, and they think they under groundwater. That menne the depth from the bottom There's no way to know for sure how much D-D stand the way things work, and it takes a long time o f the soil barrier to the top nf tho water table doesn `l was really applied. Records o f the federal-state pro for people to understand that they're w ro n g .' said influence pesticide contamination very* much, Rob gram go back only to 1955 so they don't includo most Rosemary Loria. a plnnt pathologist at Cornell. " I bins said. of the Nassau acres that were treated, The records think that's what happened w ith groundwater con I f anything, he. said, exposures may have been high show that frnm 1955 to 198*1, 8,677 acres nn Long tamination nnd pesticides," er in western Long Island than on the Enst End. In Island were fumigated w ith nhnut 960,000 gallons of By 1980. nldicarb had been withdrawn from Long the west, groundw nter descends twice as* slow ly D-D. and about 150.000 gallons or related fumigants. Island. Tho insecticide hnd heen used for only three through the aquifer system as it does on I he East "The U5DA guys were on a crusade." M artin said. growing seasons, but Suffolk health officials have sub End. Groundwater typically moves about 6 inches per "F o r years and years, they were dumping this stuff, sequently found it in more than 3,500 private wolls, day in western Long Island compared with 1 foot nn and Lha nematodes were still there." Today, about 10 new tainted wells ore Identified each the East End, so pesticides would remain longer in By some measures, the treatment program was a month, and each well Is fitted with protective filters portions of the aquifer that are tapped by wells. success. Like DDT and a succession o f other potato paid for by aldicarb'e manufacturer, Union Carbide. "The equlfer material isn't substantially different pesticides, D-D helped keep Long Island's potato in With aldicnrb showing up in such huge quantities, on the East End and the west end. except that the j dustry alive. It also prevented the golden nematode health officials quickly decided to look for other pesti residence time in the aquifer is much longer in the from spreading anywhere else except a few isolated cides. too. In 1980, they took samples from 12 private west," Robbins said. pockets of upstate New York. And research funded wells on farms near the Southold Town lan d fill, And there's a final clue: In the day's before pesticides under the onli-nematode program led to the develop which the USDA had been using to store chemicals were detected in groundwater, public water wells were ment o f nematode-resistant potato strains used on used in the nematode program. Alt but one of the routinely dug near farms, and were quite shallow. Lang Island today. samples came back positive for dichloropropane. When Genevieve Frey moved into her now house in " It's one of the rare times that a quarantine worked, By that time, D-D had given way as the fum igant of 1952, for example, tho Hicksville Water District was and I'm extremely proud o f it," said Mai, the retired choice to Telone. which was a different m ixture o f tho relying on seven public wells that were all less than Cornel! plant pathologist. "When tests were adequate two nematode-killing chemicals. But the news that 170 feet deep, sold Robert Holzmacher, a consultant to find it (pesticides) in the groundwater, then we Tctone was reaching groundwater forced its w ith to the district. There were also numerous private totally altered the program. You can't look ahead and drawal from Long Island. And in the early 1980s, oth wells that were 60 feet deep or less. Today, all o f the see things that you don't know are coming," er fumigants were abandoned or banned when they d istrict's wells are at least 500 feet deep. A Surprise In the Groundwater too were detected in groundwater. In 1084, the U.S. Agriculture Department ended its EThe first h in t of what was coming occurred in 1976. 38-year anti-nematooo fumigation program because " In those years, the wells were so shallow, and tho umping was so heavy, thatsom eofthe pesticides may avc been removed from the groundwater by pumping when the first tests of local groundwater for volatile of the groundwater contamination. them out -- by drin king them ." said Robbins. chemicals showed tha t public wells near Crumman's Bui the program's legacy lives on today; D uring the The groundwater model prepared for Newsdny by Bethpage factory were tainted w ith the solvent te- past 13 years, dichloropropane has been found in more the EPA demonstrates how the massive use of pesti trnchloroethylene. Just as they had w ith pesticides, than 30 public wells nnd at least 527 private wells In cides would have affected Long Island's groundwater. health officials had assumed that the soil barrier Suffolk County, mostly on the East End but also in Dix Tho computer model, known as PATRIOT, simu would hold tho chemicals long enough for them to Hills, Melville, Mnnorville and Mt. Sinai -- ail arena lates the way chemicals move into groundwater, nnd volatilize harmlessly into tho air. Instead, they found that were infested w ith the nematode. predicts the concentrations in which those chemicals out tha t moisture was carrying the solvents down And even in Nassau, where the last nemntodo fiim i- w ill be detected. The model is used by the U.S. Envi through the soil into the aquifer, where tho chemicals gation was in 1967 (except for a single field that was re* ronmental Protection Agency In its own groundwater pi(rsisted for years. ; trqai^d ip, 1,975 brxjprpp^n.e^ordichlqrppropeno^ ^studies, and at Newsdo^'s requesKhe EPA used it to 3 irim 9 7 9 ,C t)m d l'tlJ'dw1<3BistsiJedchxfta look fa r o - ' ape'still noingirotcifua in pub lie wel Is.'u u n ng cKft pVn **-*p tV xful d*h upperi*ta jjJroddiWaWr fiehW. h mewsqav, ruesoAv, September t. B flA SfA tiC ER OH U 33 Suburban Pioneers Lang Island potato field that had been treated with 90 Perhaps most significantly, both chemicals can be gallons per acre of dtchloropropane and dich lorepro stored in human fatty tissue, where they can gradual pane, The model Is based on the chemical chnrnctorln- ly accumulate, Some researchers believe cancer risk i tics of both pesticides, os well os Long Island's rainfall increases w ith this bioaccumulation, magnifying the pattern ana the characteristics of ono o f the Island's chemical's effects over time. most common soil types, called River head, Bioaccumulation is the reason virtu ally all Ameri The results showed that w hile the chemicals de cans have DDT In their bodies, and why DDT has graded relatively quickly while s till in the sail barrier, been linked to cancer in humans. In an article pub losing half their potency w ithin about 15 days, they lished in A pril in the Journal o f the National Cancer moved so quickly through the soil tha t high concen Institute, Wary WnlfT of New York's Mnunt Sinai trations were s till reaching the sandy earth beneath Medical Center analyzed blood samples from 229 the topsoil. Once the chemicals h it that sandy unsatu- women and found that the 10 percent o f women with rated rone they degraded much more slowly, and the highest amount o f DOT residue in their blood there was nothing to prevent them from moving were four times ns likely to get breast cancer as the 10 downward into the water table. percent w ith the lowest. "T he amount of material that was applied is so Aldicarb, on the other hand, does not bioaccumu* overwhelming that it's getting into groundwater," Into and the EPA does not consider it o carcinogen. said Robert Corsal of the EPA's environmental re However, some researchers consider it a possible sus search laboratory In Athens. Ga.. which constructed pect Tor breast cancer because it has been linked to the modal for Ncwsdny. "N in e ty gallons an aero is hormone-related effects in animals, such as decreased horrendous." testicle weight in dogs exposed to aldicarb. A system Inflllrallan Uiwwfi y / K it h r Knvmlcfk Hauppeuge The model calculates the probability of contamina What isn't known about the pesticides found in lo tion in a particular place. For the nematode-killers used on Long Island, the model predicted that in groundwater beneath h a ir the treated fields, the chemicals wnu|d ba found o t concentrations of nt least cal groundwater is whether they are estrogenic -- whether they initiate the same chemical reactions in human cells that are triggered by natural estrogen. O f the local pesticide suspects, only chlordnne and LI Water: 70 parts per billion. And for 10 percent o f the Helds, DDT have so for been Identified by researchers as the concentrations would bo at least 210 pnrts per estrogenic. The others are s till w aiting to be tested, a billion. The EPA'a safety standard for both chemicals task that n New York City researcher hopes to com in groundwater is 5 parts per billion. plete w ithin n few months. How Safe? The model docs not predict bow long the chemicals stayed in the shallow aquifers that were pumped for drinking water. But unless the pesticides were dis turbed by well pumping, i t 's likely that they moved at the samo speed as the groundwater -- about six inches per day. How Big a Bisk? No one can soy for sure w hat kind of a cancer risk "T hey're all on my lis t." said the researcher, H. Loon Bradlaw. director o f the laboratory o f biochomi-. cal endocrinology at the Strang Cornell Cancer Re search Laboratory. " It's certainly worth investigating because of what we already know about pesticides and breast cancer. Hopefully, we ll have some results be fore tho end o f the year." And then, probably sometime next year, federal epidemiologists w ill begin their 30-month environ By Dan Fngin STAFF WTUTEd For women concerned about breast can cer, here are soma questions and answers about pesticides and tho water supply to day: Question: Should I w orry about pesticides t would be faced by someone who drank water tainted mental study of breast cancer in the Northeast, in In my drinking water now? by a pesticide. cluding Long Island. Tho scope or that study still Answer, For the 95 percent oi Long Island Dichloropmpnnc and drchloropropene, for example, has not been decided, bu t the congressional b ill ers who gel (heir water from water-supply bath have been labeled probable human carcinogens that authorized It specified that researchers must companies or local aulhorilies, Ihere's no by the EPA, Federal researchers at the National In s ti look at a ir pollution, electromagnetic Helds, hazard sign that pesticides are a major problem. tute or Environmental Health Sciences have conclud ous wasto sites, landfills, Incinerators -- and pesti Peslicide testing of public water supplies ed that dichloropropane causes breast cancer In fe cides. began in 1979, and routine testing was in male mts and liver cancer in male rata. And the EPA In Hicksvillc, Genevieve Frey w ill be waiting and place by the mid-1980s. Low levels ol pesti has identified "positive trends" that lin k exposures o f welching. She'll be worrying about her three daugh cides are still frequently delected in the wa dichloropropcne to the rate o f breast, thyroid and ad ters, and about a relapse of her own cancer. "I've ter supply, but wherever they are found. Al renal tumors In rots, but concluded that the strongest learned a lot about this in the last two years, What I'd ters are installed to remove them. Also, links were to stomach tumors in rata, and stomach, really like to know is why it happened. Does anyone water wells are much deeper now, and thus bladder and lung cancers in mice. know why? less vulnerable to contamination. Farms, where pesticides are used most intensively, are largely confined now to eastern Long Island. And some of the most toxic pesti cides were banned when tests began re vealing they were present in groundwater. _ 11r-pi-} h- homes, swamps and elsewhere,. ^ntam inatlng morejhan 3,500 w&Oe (moEt^ofthdrirt ' : S ta te Banned.ln the United States in 1972, DDT is TM 'r ' ' V manufactured for export and Is heavily used In only from 1977-1580, - reart' India andot-her -Th.ir..d...W.. orld nlaaitlioonnss.. v " ir *:. aldicarb Is. s.till. fre,q-uen, tly- lLfo-und- ,,In- loi,c.al g- ro-urn--dr*jV- .s ^ Possible links l o t cancer: Women with high i ' Us? ,n 0 l h 6 r Q \ levels ol DDT !n their blood have heen s h o w n to ho i Possible links to breast cancer Haa not been s h o w n , to cduse cancer and haa not been tested tares trends Q: What if I gel my water from a private well? A: Unless you have your well regularly test ed. there's no way to know whether or not your drinking water Is contaminated. Almosl all ol Ihe private wells remaining on Long Island are in central and eastern Lang Is land, and pesticides have been delected in more than 4,000 of them. Private weiis are often In farming areas and are usually less than ICO feet deep, which makes them par ticularly vulnerable to pesticide coniaminalion. Q: How can I get my backyard well tested? A: The Suffolk C ounly Department of Health charges S85 to screen a private well lor pesticides and other contaminants. The number to call Is (516).853-3075. But be prepared to wail a few weeks to be tested, and at ieasl a month alter that before get ting any results. Private testing firms are much faster, but are also generally much more expensive. In Nassau, where there are few private wells left, the health department typically tests them only when there is some evidence of a health hazard. Q: Am 1 less likely to be exposed to pesti parisJ iv t v r ' '. State WHhdfswiv frafrijoftgjlsiand.tri'4S84' Qi./ -- 1-- :widely used In other of the couritr.'ttKii'^i^ cides if 1switch to battled water? A: Pesticides are no more likely to be in pub -PralIe finks to brent cancer: Has been inked to ' lic water than in domestically produced bot )breast cancer l/i lab''animate,'.but etrongei1-animal.,* tled water. Both are regularly tested for pesti cides. Regulation is less slrict, however, for imported botlled water. TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 7,