Cancer-stricken community gets help from familiar activist

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) -- Famed environmentalist Erin Brockovich met Thursday evening with members of a South Florida community stricken with an unusual amount of cancer cases.

Erin Brockovich now works for a New York law firm called Weitz & Luxenberg. Brockovich and representatives from the law firm handed out questionnaires to the residents to find out more about them and what was going on in their community. "We are concerned about some of the things we are seeing. We are concerned about the radioactivity that is being found in water wells," said Brockovich.

More than 70 cases of brain tumors or cysts have been reported in the rural Palm Beach County community called the Acerage. Many of the cancer-stricken are children like Derek Dunsford. "While we were there at Miami Children's Hospital, we came across another family who had a brain tumor removed two days prior," said Greg Dunsford, the boy's father. "Turns out, we started talking to them, and they live about a mile away from us."

Meeting after meeting with residents and government agents lead to testing of some 50 water wells, which supply the community with their water. In most cases the water met state standards, but in four wells, the water showed higher than normal levels of naturally occurring radiation, according to those tests.

The law firm Brockovich works with, however, has conducted its own study, claiming that well water in the Acreage contains high amounts of radiation. "There is widespread radiation in the ground water of the Acerage community," said Lem Srolovic.

Residents said the information they received at Thursday night's meeting is a start. "I want to know what's going on so that I can do things for my children," Carol Mathews said.

"Disease and illness in ground water contamination recognizes no boundaries," Brockovich said.

The law firm said these are only preliminary indications, and they believe there are still months of testing and research to be conducted.

A state report said private water treatment systems would bring the wells up to state standards, but as for industrial or agricultural hazards in the water the report says there is "no indication of such hazards."

(Copyright 2009 by Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)