MINUTES OF THE meeting

of the

ASSEMBLY joint SubCommittee on Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Mining, and health and human services

 

Seventy-First Session

February 22, 2001

 

 

The Joint Subcommittee on Natural Resources, Agriculture, and Mining, and Health and Human Serviceswas called to order at 3:30 p.m., on Thursday, February 22, 2001.  Chairman Marcia de Braga presided in Room 3161 of the Legislative Building, Carson City, Nevada.  Exhibit A is the Agenda.  Exhibit B is the Guest List.  All exhibits are available and on file at the Research Library of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

 

 

JOINT SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

Mrs.  Marcia de Braga, Chairman

Ms. Sharron Angle

Mr.    John Carpenter

Ms. Ellen Koivisto

Ms. Sheila Leslie

Mr.    Harry Mortenson

 

 

STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

Linda Eissmann, Committee Policy Analyst

Marla McDade Williams, Committee Policy Analyst

June Rigsby, Committee Secretary

 

OTHERS PRESENT:

 

William Carlson, Consultant

This was the second meeting of the Joint Subcommittee.  William Carlson was granted ten minutes to testify because he had missed the previous hearing.  No other testimony was heard.

 

William Carlson introduced himself and presented his credentials and background.  In 1975, his family developed the red blood cell test for herbicides and pesticides to determine if they had caused serious illnesses in aerial flyers who sprayed chemicals on the fields.  There had been a 12-year registry in Fresno, California, that had correlated over .51 to .56 cancers to herbicides and pesticides in agricultural areas.   Between 1975 and 1991, there had been a 10 percent increase in childhood cancer due to pesticides and herbicides used on school campuses.  An article in the March 2001 Consumer Reports found pesticides and herbicides were linked to cancer. 

 

The human body returned to normal about 1 percent per day after exposure to chemicals, so that after 75 days a blood test for overexposure to herbicides and pesticides showed only insignificant amounts. 

 

Mr. Carlson believed that children between the ages of one and nine years old did not yet possess a fully developed immune system and were therefore more at risk.  He named three pesticides/herbicides commonly used in school facilities:  chlorpyrifos, glyphosate (Roundup), and diazinon.  He recommended a retrospective correlative study of 25 years in California and Nevada, by his firm for $105,000.

 

In conclusion, Mr. Carlson stated that Ralph Nader recently said the United States had failed to effectively combat hunger because both the consumer and the farmer were caught in a market controlled by big corporations subsidized by tax dollars and concerned more with profits than with producing safe and affordable food.

 

Chairwoman de Braga asked whether Mr. Carlson had shared his testing information with the State Health Division.  He replied he had not and wished first to determine how many cancers had developed in the Fallon area over the past 15 years.  He further expressed a desire to involve numerous national news media and public figures with this issue.

 

Assemblywoman Angle believed that pesticides were related to the leukemia cluster.  She asked what he felt a parent could do to prevent exposure.  Mr. Carlson’s reply was, “If the winds are up and you know there is spraying, keep the kids inside and put little masks on them.”

 

Chairman de Braga thanked Mr. Carlson and returned to the business of preparing the recommendations and completing a final report.  She stated a BDR for a bill or resolution was needed that day.  Two other cases of childhood leukemia were suspected.  In the press release there was a recommendation they request $1 million to create a fund to be accessed for the purpose of:  taking every action possible to clean up noncontaminants; preparing and distributing information for the public regarding testing of private wells; and, conducting additional testing on hair, tissue and blood.  Part of these funds might also be used to help the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) do a study. 

 

Ms. de Braga continued the committee needed to draft a bill dealing with private well testing.  For the commonweal, if private wells were tested and found to have contaminants at a higher than acceptable rate, that needed to be reported to the Nevada State Health Division for the purpose of developing an information bank.  To put this into law, when it was not required that they test these wells, was complicated. 

 

Assemblyman Carpenter felt that Nevada could not require that all wells were tested, but needed a standard for the tested wells.  He concurred that the development of a data bank was a good idea.

 

Assemblyman Neighbors explained his wells were recently tested.  The lab he used was sending him a list of properties to test for.  This would be a point to start from, he stated.  A good test, though not complete, cost $143.

 

Ms. de Braga said they might want to state that some of the emergency funds should help to pay for those tests.  Results of the tests were confidential but, if there was a problem, there should be a way the Health Division received them without having identified the well owner.  Mr. Neighbors agreed and added, since there were 4,800 wells in his area, perhaps a sample was best.  Mr. Mortenson said perhaps it was better to sample the wells located near where the afflicted children lived.  The university did offer to do targeted testing.  If the testing had been done by the Health Division, the results were public record.

 

Ms. Angle asked if it was possible to have a voluntary program.  If a person wanted his well tested, funds would be made available.  She felt people would be more willing to have the water tested, especially if they knew adverse results would not close down the well.  The bill should apply to all wells in the state. Chairwoman de Braga believed this could be done separately if the emergency money came through.  The Extension Service at the University of Nevada, Reno, had funds for testing but they only tested for nitrates and bacteria in their GOLD program.  The committee wanted to be certain to accomplish the reporting of high levels of contaminants even from private wells.

 

Mr. Carlson came forward again and cautioned that merging between wells, tributaries and streams skewed the statistics when testing underground streams. 

 

Linda Eissmann, Committee Policy Analyst, spoke of recommendation No. 4 that allocated funds to undertake a water-testing program through the State Health Division so that the results became part of the state database.  Nothing required that private laboratory water test results showing contamination to be automatically reported to the Health Division.  Ms. de Braga stated that the State Health Division wanted a standard reporting test.  However, that did not cover private wells.  The bill needed to:  state a standard list of contaminants to be tested for; recommend that excessive levels be reported to the health division; and, maintain the confidentiality of the well owner.  Mr. Mortenson inquired if the committee could look at the standard test and perhaps add to it, but Ms. de Braga said there were no standard tests. 

 

Ms. Eissmann provided costs, obtained from the State Health Division, for their tests.  The routine domestic test, costing $100, included:  hardness, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, sulfate, chloride, nitrate, alkalinity, bicarbonate, carbonate, fluoride, arsenic, iron, manganese, copper, zinc, barium, color, turbidity, pH, and total dissolved solids at 103 degrees Celsius.  Others could be added for additional costs.

 

Mrs. Koivisto stated that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were known carcinogens and must be added to the list.  Benzene had to go to the top.  The test for benzene added $120 to the cost.  Mr. Mortenson believed it better to have fewer expensive tests rather than many inexpensive ones.  A few exhaustive tests in the area near where the children contracted the disease might be better.  Ms. de Braga agreed.  A panel of experts would develop the list. 

 

Mr. Carpenter recalled that Representative Jim Gibbons, along with Senator Harry Reid, offered Congressional assistance in the form of an appropriations bill.  Ms. de Braga agreed.  Senator Reid’s people had been to Fallon and met with people there.  She suggested submitting this BDR and the emergency BDR, and working with local and state officials to develop the proper use for the funds. 

 

Mrs. Koivisto voiced a concern that the committee limited the research to water testing and assumed that the problem came from there.  However, the private wells were a concern due to the arsenic levels, Ms. de Braga explained.

 

Mr. Carpenter wanted to review the [aerial] spraying situation.  There might be, he continued, a complicated link between the spraying and the water.  Roundup was heavily used to remove alfalfa from production.  That needed consideration.  Perhaps an educational bulletin would help.  Mr. Mortenson agreed that the money must be spent in several ways.  He wished to assign priorities to the directions explored by the committee and apportion the monies accordingly.  The amount of funding was uncertain and it was too easy to waste it unidirectionally.  Mr. Neighbors agreed but felt the water was a high priority.  As an aside, he added he desired the committee send letters immediately to Representative Gibbons and Senator Reid seeking emergency support for this measure.   Perhaps, suggested Mr. Carpenter, rather than an outright emergency appropriation, Congress could match the funds requested from the legislature.

 

Chairwoman de Braga relayed a suggestion from Marla McDade Williams that the committee could easily put many things into this bill, which allowed the committee to have a BDR that might be broken into more than one eventually.  There would be a bill that requested funds and a bill with recommendations for contaminant testing with relation to the Fallon Leukemia Cluster.  Assemblywoman Leslie agreed to a general bill that went in that direction, with details to be refined later.  Ms. de Braga stated she would ask for the emergency bill and request a specific bill. 

 

            ASSEMBLYMAN CARPENTER MOVED THAT THE JOINT SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE LEUKEMIA STUDY ASK THE FULL COMMITTEE OF NATURAL RESOURCES, AGRICULTURE AND MINING FOR A BILL DRAFT TO RECOMMEND FOR TESTING WITH RELATION TO THE FALLON LEUKEMIA CLUSTER INVESTIGATION.

 

            ASSEMBLYWOMAN LESLIE SECONDED.

 

            THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

 

No motion was needed for the emergency measure, which will come through the Ways and Means Committee.

 

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 4:30 p.m.

 

 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

 

 

 

                               

June Rigsby

Committee Secretary

 

 

______________________________

Linda Lee Nary

Transcribing Secretary

 

 

APPROVED BY:

 

 

 

                                                                                         

Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga, Chairman

 

 

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