[CPEO-BIF] "Autumnwood [California]: A Community Living in Toxic Fear and Uncertainty"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Autumnwood: A Community Living in Toxic Fear and Uncertainty

By Daniel Ross
Truthout
April 16, 2014

Autumnwood is a show-home suburbia of stucco fronts and primly kept  
lawns nestled in the heart of Wildomar, California, about an hour and  
a half southeast of Los Angeles. Tranquil, sleepy, Autumnwood could  
be a poster-child for any modern housing tract. But beneath the  
façade, Autumnwood is a community riven by a fear held by many that  
the land on which the houses were built is contaminated with toxic  
chemicals. And despite the findings of two separate governmental  
agencies, more questions continue to be raised than have thus far  
been answered.

Since the first tenants moved into Autumnwood a little over eight  
years ago, a rash of serious illnesses, sometimes fatal, have  
pockmarked the community. Take Amaryllis Court - an eleven-home cul- 
de-sac bookending one corner of Autumnwood. In those eight years at  
Amaryllis Court alone, two women in their thirties have died from  
complications arising from pneumonia, while a number of families have  
fled their homes and many of their belongings after suffering for  
years with chronic illnesses.

...

What has fueled this climate of fear and uncertainty is what some  
regard as negligence on the part of the one agency that should have  
provided swift answers: the Department of Toxic Substance Control  
(DTSC). Despite concerns about toxic contamination arising as far  
back as the early part of 2012, the DTSC didn't conduct their own  
study at Autumnwood until November of last year. But as certain  
residents and experts pore over the raw data of that November study,  
they say that a number of findings are emerging that suggest that the  
investigation was flawed and that the DTSC have doctored the data to  
mask the full extent of the contamination. As the question marks  
continue to hover over Autumnwood, the closure that many residents  
desperately want seems an all-too-distant and expensive mirage.

...

For the entire article, see
http://truth-out.org/news/item/23134-autumnwood-a-community-living-in- 
toxic-fear-and-uncertainty

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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