By: Tara Copp
Military Times – June 20, 2018The first time Kate Kelly heard the warnings about George Air Force Base, she was a 19-year-old airman just getting settled into the barracks. It was 1975.
Another female airman sat on a bed opposite. She gave Kelly the rundown of the base. At the time, George was a hub of F-4 Phantom fighter jets and OV-10 Bronco reconnaissance planes.
Kelly mentioned she’d been thinking about getting married. Her roommate’s response was quick: “Just don’t get pregnant,” the airman warned. “Don’t get pregnant at George Air Force Base.”
Kelly didn’t think too much about the warning and went to work, to offload boxes from arriving aircraft.
“I started feeling the effects when I was on the flight line immediately,” Kelly said. She had urinary tract infections, bleeding and pain. The base clinic would analyze the infection, provide antibiotics.
Kelly learned by talking to other women in her unit that the infections were common, and among the female airmen on base, so was her roommate’s warning: Don’t get pregnant at George. …
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/06/20/why-women-were-told-dont-get-pregnant-at-george-air-force-base/
The former Victorville Army Air Field/George Air Force Base, CA, is a Superfund site “EPA Superfund ID: CA2570024453” and is one of the most contaminated sites in the country. Approximately 100,000 men, women, and children were forced to work, live, and go to school on George AFB. Given the nature and extent of the contamination, that we had repeated and prolonged exposure to high levels of numerous toxins it is unreasonable to believe that thousands of us were not adversely affected by the contaminants.
There are 200 to 300 families that lost from 1 to 7 children at or shortly after leaving GAFB. This number includes the girls that grew up in the Base Housing that could not carry a child to full term (miscarriage and stillbirth) after their exposure to the toxins at George AFB.
PFOA and PFOS
George Air Force Base disposed of Firefighting Foam in Landfill-1 (L-1). L-1 is located south of Air Base Road in the Southeast Disposal Area (SEDA) and about a ¼ mile upstream of the Drinking Water Supply Wells for George AFB, Adelanto, CA, several homes, and the former Victor Valley Country Club.
George AFB’s Perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) – PFOA and PFOS
Organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs)
Another likely cause of the high miscarriage rate is the organochlorine pesticides contamination at the Base Housing.
On February 4, 2005, the Air Force notified the City of Victorville (the lessee) that unsafe levels of pesticides were detected at the Base Housing.
- “The Air Force has analytical testing data indicating elevated soil contamination levels of the pesticides Aldrin and Dieldrin in the housing area. The Air Force believes that the surface and shallow subsurface soil contamination is pervasive through the housing area, particularly under house foundations. The pesticides could present a risk to human health if soils are inhaled, ingested, or contacted by skin. Any wastes generated by digging must be handled as hazardous until proven otherwise.”
AF to Victorville – unsafe levels of pesticides at base housing (PDF – 64 KB)
On 1 October 2007, the Air Force placed the following conditional use clause in the George AFB Family Housing quitclaim deed:
- “Grantee covenants and agrees that it will not use, or allow others to use, the Property for residential purposes (including mobile or modular homes), hospitals for human care, public or private schools for persons under 18 years of age, nursery schools, or day care centers for children.”
Quitclaim Deed George AFB Family Housing (PDF – 510 KB) - As of 7/18/18, the Air Force has failed to notify the Department of Veterans Affairs about our possible exposure and the former residents of the Base Housing of their possible exposure to unsafe levels of organochlorine pesticides.
The DoD always wants to look at the cancer rates at its bases. Studying cancer rated is not the correct way to conduct a health assessment at a military base because we (military personnel and our families) are transferred to another base every 3 to 7 years, and cancer can take 7 to 20 years to develop after a toxic exposure.
The correct method is to look at the number of miscarriages, stillbirths, infant mortality, and childhood cancers rates at a site. This is because a developing fetus to a very young child is more susceptible to a toxic injury than an adult. The window of time from exposure to the adverse event is reduced from 7 to 20 years to 9 months for gestation plus 1 to 3 years of life.
I was stationed at George AFB from 1972 to 1974 and 2 of my children ages 5 and 3 when we arrived have developed severe mental problems. One is Bi-Polar with severe depression and anxiety issues the other has Tourettes, My oldest who was 7 has no medical problems. My wife suffers from severe headaches and urinary problems.
I have always wondered how we could have 2 children with severe mental problems with no family background history in this area. I always go back to the days when the tap water in the housing ran a dark brown and the base always insisted that it was safe to drink. I remember the base would actually reimburse us for laundry that was stained during these brown water episodes.
I also wonder if there were other families that have since experienced the same health problems with their
children who lived at George when they were of similar ages.