Headlines

No One Held Accountable

We agree with much of the commentary provided in a guest column this week by McHenry County Health Board member Ed Varga.

The column published on this page on Tuesday and still can be read online at www.NWHerald.com/opinion.

Responding in part to Northwest Herald editorials critical of the health department’s handling of the McCullom Lake brain cancer cases, Varga offered his personal perspective on the ongoing story and defended the health department’s handling of it.

In summary, 30 residents with ties to McCullom Lake have filed suit against Ringwood manufacturer Rohm & Haas, alleging that pollution from the company’s plant north of the village contaminated air and groundwater, causing brain and large pituitary gland cancers. A second Ringwood company, Modine Manufacturing, also was named as a defendant but settled out of court in 2008.

We agree with Varga that the health department’s staff has exhibited care and compassion in addressing the health needs of county residents in the vast majority of instances.

We also agree that it no longer is necessary or beneficial for the County Board, the health department or the state to try to determine whether there are higher rates of brain cancer in the McCullom Lake area.

We take issue with one significant point. Varga, in his column, said that the health department’s pronouncement that there wasn’t a higher rate of cancer in the area "mistakenly ... was interpreted as evidence that a health risk never existed. This study was not meant as an indication that cancer-causing groundwater contamination did or did not exist, rather as an indication of the need for additional study."

Northwest Herald reporting over the past four years contradicts this. Take the following examples from our archives:

"That’s been our feeling based on science. The groundwater from those facilities has not been the issue." – Pat McNulty, director, McHenry County Department of Health (Oct. 11, 2006).

"There’s been no information that would indicate that there’s any relation between groundwater issues from the facilities and the village of McCullom Lake." – McNulty (April 25, 2007).

"To say that the groundwater contamination from Modine and Morton and Rohm and Haas caused some type of illness outbreak in McHenry County, I would say would be completely inaccurate." – McNulty (Dec. 18, 2007)

The comments, of which we have more examples, speak for themselves.

McNulty, using limited information and most of that supplied by the defendant companies, consistently maintained that there was not groundwater contamination. He ignored other information that stood in contrast to the information on which he chose to rely.

We have maintained, and continue to maintain, that the health department’s study was flawed and its subsequent "all-clear" pronouncement, inaccurate. Just as bad is the department’s continuing efforts to deny that there was any problems with its work. Even worse is the refusal by health board and county board members to hold department officials accountable for it.

More