There are places near the Gila River where the cottonwoods—otherwise
pervasive in Southwest riverbeds—do not grow. Some members of the San
Carlos Apache Tribe believe that is just one legacy of the
dioxin-containing herbicide silvex, which was sprayed on the reservation
in the 1960s and ’70s—at the same time that Agent Orange, a similar
compound, was being dumped onto Vietnam’s countryside in an act of war.
The cottonwoods are not the only casualties of silvex. Entire
families of San Carlos Apache basket weavers have passed on, victims of
cancer. Those cancers, some tribal members believe, were caused by
silvex when the basket weavers absorbed the noxious chemicals from the
plants they stripped of bark with their teeth. Moreover, doctors and
nurses who worked in the emergency room at the San Carlos hospital seem
to have died of cancers at an unusually high rate, according to Charles
Vargas, director of the Sovereign Apache Nation Chamber of Commerce.
Now, tribal members are seeking answers. With soil and water testing
just beginning, the evidence is circumstantial. But those who see health
impacts on San Carlos similar to those suffered by people exposed to
Agent Orange are determined to prove the connection.
The links between dioxin, cancer and birth defects are solid, and Vargas and attorney Michael Paul Hill,
another San Carlos Apache tribal member, are resolved to prove that
these factors are influencing San Carlos Apache residents’ health. The
circumstantial evidence is strong, and a nascent investigation is now
under way. On January 18 Harry Allen, chief of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Region 9 Emergency Response Section, visited San
Carlos and took soil samples to check for silvex contamination at open
dumps, two airstrips, the cottonwood-bereft stretch of the Gila River
bank, and a field in an agricultural area.
Improperly stored barrels of everything from herbicides to paint and
oil have been found on San Carlos in the past. In 1996, said Matt
McReynolds, Assistant Attorney General for the tribe, an EPA incident
report showed that seven barrels were removed from the basement of the
Head Start office. Six of the barrels contained paint and lubricants;
the seventh barrel contained an unidentified herbicide.
More barrels were stored under the old jail, said Vargas, and
additional barrels have been found around the reservation, many exposed
to the weather and corrosion, according to Hill.
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