Lockheed, Leukemia, TCE & PCE

“Lockheed Propulsion Company (LPC) began operations in 1961, after acquiring the site from Grand Central Rocket Company (GCRC), which began operations in 1954. The site consisted of approximately 400 acres which were leased from the City of Redlands…In the 1980's trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent, was detected in groundwater wells in the Redlands area.“

“In April 1997, the San Bernardino District field staff of the DDW began testing public water supply wells in areas where perchlorate contamination was suspected to exist. Because Lockheed used solid rocket fuel, the DDW field staff in the San Bernardino office sampled wells located to the west, downgradient of the Lockheed facility, including two wells of the Victoria Farms system. The well samples were processed by the CDHS Sanitation and Radiation Laboratory located in Los Angeles, with a quantification limit of 4ppb. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) provisional action level for perchlorate in drinking Water is 18 ppb, at which the water purveyor would have to notify their water customers.”

Reference:
LOCKHEED PROPULSION COMPANY
(aka LOCKHEED MARTIN PROPULSION CORPORA TION)
REDLANDS, SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, CALIFORNIA CERCLIS NO. CAD980893093
FEBRUARY 11, 1999
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES


“Since the mid-1970s, several epidemiological studies have suggested an association between organic drinking water contaminants, especially chlorinated volatile compounds, and an increased cancer incidence. In Woburn, Massachusetts, exposure to the solvents trichloroethylene  (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE) were linked to a leukemia cluster, primarily acute lymphocytic leukemia among children, while another recent study in Massachusetts observed an association between leukemia and PCE.”

Reference:
Drinking Water Contamination and the Incidence of Leukemia and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Perry Cohn, Judith Klotz, Frank Bove, Marian Berkowitz, and
Jerald Fagliano

New Jersey Department of Health, Environmental Health Services, Trenton, New Jersey 08625