Over the past three years, a group of Johnson County parents have seen a growing number of children diagnosed with cancer and looked for some explanation.
With the help of a national environmental nonprofit group, they’ve found evidence of chemical contamination and a long history of investigation at sites in and around Franklin.
Now, they need people to join in their fight to make the community healthier.
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“We owe this to the community. We owe this to our kids,” said Kari Rhinehart, one of the parents and a co-founder of If It Was Your Child.
More than 60 concerned residents gathered at Compass Park for a community forum hosted by If It Was Your Child to learn more about the history of chemical contamination and how that could impact people’s health.
Representatives from the environmental group the Edison Wetlands Association shared information that they had discovered combing through more than 30,000 documents provided by the federal government. They also discussed testing conducted on 14 homes around a former factory site on the east side of Franklin, looking for chemical vapors that could be related to water contamination.
The initial testing did not reveal any immediate detection of vapors in the homes, but more thorough analysis is being done to gain more information, said Shannon Lisa, program director for the Edison Wetlands Association.
But even as the results of those tests come back, investigators and local organizers emphasized the importance of contacting government officials to force a closer look at the potential danger from contamination.
“How many people will it take to get the (Environmental Protection Agency) to notice? Until we all make that move and until we all push hard, it won’t get done,” Rhinehart said.
If It Was Your Child formed in 2015 after a group of area parents whose children had been diagnosed with cancer vowed to find causes for the county’s high incidences of childhood cancers. The latest National Cancer Institute data shows that the age-adjusted cancer incidence rate for children under 20 in Johnson County is 22.2, is higher than the state average of 17.3.
Since 2010, the county has reported 48 cases of childhood cancer. Of that number, 28 cases of blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma have been reported.
“These numbers are not a coincidence. This is not bad luck,” said Stacie Davidson, one of the co-founders of If It Was Your Child.
In 2015, the Indiana State Department of Health conducted two investigations into potential cancer clusters in Johnson County. The first was a normal review that the department conducts for all counties, and the second was requested by the county health department due to concerns from citizens, including those who formed If It Was Your Child.
That review found that the number, type and location of childhood cancer cases here do not meet the guidelines for a cancer cluster, which is defined as having a more than expected number of cancer cases for a certain population. None of the local cancer cases were linked to an environmental cause either, the investigation found.
Finding a causal association between environmental contaminants and cancer is extremely rare in a community setting, according to the department of health’s guidelines for cancer clusters.
The state department of health thoroughly investigates all suspected cancer cluster concerns reported by the public, and all investigations are done in collaboration with the relevant local health department, department spokesperson Megan Wade-Taxter said in an email.
If It Was Your Child has continued working to draw attention to the issue and to look for any contamination in the soil, water and air as a possible cause, and was connected with Edison Wetlands Association through their efforts. The association, based in New Jersey, specializes in toxic waste site cleanups, environmental restoration and conservation of natural resources.
They have been involved in the cleanup of dozens of contaminated sites, including the former site of Chemical Insecticide Corp. in Metuchen, New Jersey, which was infamous for being so polluted that rabbits living in the area had turned green. The group has branched out to work with communities all over the country to help with contamination issues, said Robert Spiegel, executive director of the association.
“What has to happen here is, the community has to understand that what we’ve done is try to help you get a basic understanding of the potential of what we’re dealing with here,” he said. “The only way this community is going to be cleaned up and get whole again is by having information and knowledge.”
In an attempt to understand possible chemical contamination in Johnson County and how that impacts health, the organization requested tens of thousands of documents through the Freedom of Information Act. The files came from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers for Disease Control and the Army Corps of Engineers.
All were focused on three specific sites: Camp Atterbury in southern Johnson County, as well as the former site of the Amphenol Corp. factory and the Webb wellfield, both in Franklin.
Speaking to the gathered community members, Lisa summarized what they’d learned in the public documents about each site, and investigations that had already been done.
Camp Atterbury and the Webb wellfield, located in the northeast corner of Franklin, both have histories of contamination and have been investigated by the EPA and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, Lisa said.
But the main focus for the Edison Wetlands Association has been at the former Amphenol site, Lisa said.
Documents dating back to the early 1980s show that the EPA has been monitoring and testing the site. A chemical plume, or an area of contaminated groundwater, has been identified under the site. A 1985 assessment of the site showed high concentrations of likely carcinogenic chemicals such as trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, Lisa said.
An EPA hydrogeologist reported in 1995 that contamination in the groundwater plume could become vapors, leaking up through the ground into people’s homes, Lisa said.
“This is the first time we found that the EPA noted the issue of potential contaminants migrating from the groundwater and soil impacting people’s air,” Lisa said.
That was what Edison Wetlands Association representatives and engineers from Mundell & Associates were looking for in 14 homes around the Amphenol site this week. Equipment that looked for volatile organic compounds such as trichloroethylene and radon, both immediately in high quantities and slower-absorbing canisters that found more trace amounts, were set up in the homes.
“The thing about volatiles is that they easily turn into gases or vapors, so they can leak into people’s homes. So we’re looking in the ambient air to see if we get any hits on those things,” Lisa said.
Initial readings did not find any obvious detection, Lisa said. The more delicate testing results will be ready from a certified lab in the next two weeks. Depending on what is found, additional follow-up testing may be needed in order to solidify that there is a problem and an investigation is warranted.
At Thursday’s meeting, Lisa, Spiegel and those from If It Was Your Child stressed the importance of forcing the issue to the EPA, Indiana State Department of Health and Indiana Department of Environmental Management.
Both If It Was Your Child and the Edison Wetlands Association will be putting up sample letters on websites and Facebook that contain correct wording to best reach officials in those agencies. People were also encouraged to contact their elected officials — city, county, state and national legislators — asking them to draft letters as well.
A petition started on Change.org urging the EPA to conduct vapor sampling of homes in Johnson County and to reevaluate the Amphenol site for inclusion on the National Priorities List already has more than 8,000 signatures in just over two weeks.
“One voice may be heard, but tens of thousands cannot be ignored,” Davidson said.
How successful the community is in solving these contamination issues will depend on how involved people get, Spiegel said. Edison Wetlands Association has done much of the work so far; now it is time for the people of Johnson County to take over, he said.
“You can get these sites cleaned up if you write letters and if you get involved,” Spiegel said. “But if don’t and you expect it to get done because it’s the right thing to do, it won’t happen.”
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Residents looking for more information regarding contamination and the investigation done by Edison Wetlands Association can find it at www.edisonwetlands.org/johnson-county-in.
For more information on If It Was Your Child and their efforts, go to the group’s page on Facebook.
Through the Facebook page, people can also sign a petition urging the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct vapor sampling in homes around Johnson County and to reevaluate the site of the former Amphenol factory in Franklin to be included on the agency’s National Priorities List.
People can also access the petition by going to Change.org and searching for “Johnson County childhood cancer.”
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