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MONDAY, OCTOBER 21- OCTOBER 27, 2024
VOL. 12,
NO. 194
Barger asks cancer surveillance program to probe cases near landfill
LA Archdiocese agrees to $880M settlement of childhood sex abuse claims
By City News Service
By City News Service
A
Los Angeles County supervisor and the public health director is asking for assistance Friday to evaluate claims by residents that the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic has led to a cluster of cancer cases. Supervisor Kathryn Barger and county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer sent a joint letter to the Los Angeles County Cancer Surveillance Program to evaluate the situation. “Since this crisis began, I have led our county’s efforts to provide real-time response and action to the impacted communities,” Barger said in a statement released Thursday. “Residents in Val Verde, Castaic, and surrounding neighborhoods deserve real solutions. I will continue to take every concern seriously and remain committed to investigating all concerns raised by the community.” At a news conference Tuesday, a group of residents said toxic fumes from the troubled landfill has led to a cluster of cancer cases. Residents have long
Los Angeles Cathedral. | Photo by siro.gassamigli CC BY-SA 2.0
T Liquids collect Jan. 18 on a scrim tarp and gas pillows at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic. | Photo courtesy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
| Photo courtesy of Supervisor Kathryn Barger/Facebook
complained about ailments such as headaches, burning eyes, rashes and nausea due
to the landfill. The South Coast Air Quality Management
District has issued abatement orders at the site, but residents say the issues are persisting. Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, said previously that seven people have been diagnosed on a single street of 14 homes in the area, and one of those people has died. Landfill officials have said odors from the facility are due to “an abnormal biotic or abiotic process, also known as a landfill reaction, taking place deep within a lined but older and inactive portion of the landfill waste mess.”
The Los Angeles County CancerSurveillance Program was created in 1972 and is operated by the Keck School of Medicine at USC. “The concerns regarding cancer clusters are serious,” Barger and Ferrer wrote in the letter to the program. “Identifying increases in cancer cases and ... causes can be challenging. Given your expertise in analyzing cancer trends, we believe your insights will be invaluable.” More information on Cancer Surveillance Program is on the internet at csp.usc. edu.
he Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to settle childhood sex abuse claims by more than 1,300 alleged victims, attorneys and the diocese announced Wednesday. The settlement brings to roughly $1.5 billion the amount paid out by the archdiocese to resolve sex abuse cases over the past two decades. The latest settlement would resolve claims filed against the archdiocese following the enactment of Assembly Bill 218, which temporarily waived the statute of limitations for alleged victims to seek damages in sex abuse cases. “I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart,” Archbishop José Gomez wrote See Archdiocese Page 24
in a message Wednesday announcing the proposed settlement. “My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered. “I believe that we have come to a resolution of these claims that will provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses while also allowing the archdiocese to continue to carry out our ministries to the faithful and our social programs serving the poor and vulnerable in our communities. “... As you know, for many years now the archdiocese has been confronting the consequences of past abuse by priests, clergy, and others working in the church,” Gomez wrote in his message. “We provide