Suit by leukemia victims' kin

Daily News
By Chrisena Coleman
Nov.24, 2003

Suit by leukemia victims' kin going to trial

The parents of 11 children who have either died of leukemia or are fighting the disease have won a 10-yearbattle to argue in court that a toxic Bronx landfill is the cause.

The families all live near the Pelham Bay city landfill, which was plowed over and capped in 1978.

But even covered, the landfill was to blame for Kerri Noonan's contracting leukemia and dying in 1989 at the tender age of 10, her mother believes.

"It's been a long and rough road, but I am looking forward to my day in court," said Patricia Noonan, whose daughter was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 5.

Last week, the lawsuit against the city, for an as-yet-undetermined amount, was finally moved up for trial in Bronx state Supreme Court.

"I moved to the neighborhood because it was one of the nicest areas in the Bronx. It had good schools and good neighbors," Noonan said of her Country Club neighborhood, as she wept. "We didn't know the landfill was toxic. The city said it was a safe place to live, but there's always a stench in the air. In the summertime, it was like a yellow haze on the whole area."

One of eight city dumps, the Pelham Bay landfill was created in 1963 for household waste, but attorney Bert Blitz, who is representing the parents and children, said that by the next year, local residents began complaining about odors.

New controversy over the 81-acre landfill started in 1974 with the illegal dumping of industrial waste, oil, sludge and benzene, a known carcinogen and a leading cause of childhood leukemia. By the time the dump closed in 1978, more than a million gallons of toxic waste had leaked into Eastchester Bay.

The city Health Department determined the landfill was the major source for fecal bacteria in Eastchester Bay, where Noonan's daughter and many other neighborhood kids swam.

"Every single year, the kids would have ear and throat infections after swimming in the water," Noonan said. "We thought it was a coincidence at first, then we found out they were swimming in waste."

Noonan said her daughter was diagnosed with cancer in May 1983. During their trips to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, they would run into other children from the Bronx.

"All the kids had one thing in common - they all lived near the landfill, "Noonan said. "As we waited with our children, parents exchanged stories about how our basements would back up with waste when it rained heavy."

For years, scientists and city agencies have taken air, plant, animal and groundwater samples around the landfill and in Eastchester Bay. The results revealed the presence of carcinogens, toxic waste, dangerous chemicals and leachate.

The landfill was covered with a clay cap and the liquid that seeped out was collected and disposed of in the mid-1990s.

"Over many years, thousands of people, including my clients, were living, swimming, fishing, playing, picnicking, walking, jogging, planting and eating on and near a hazardous waste," Blitz said. "The city deceived the people of this community."