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She buries 4th baby; is dump the cause?

Ja'Wanna Waddy's doctors can't tell her why she miscarried. She wonders if it's because of toxic runoff from Hernando County's old public works site.

By ASJYLYN LODER
Published June 16, 2006

BROOKSVILLE — It took the grave digger less than 15 minutes to dig the hole. It was small and it was shallow. The white casket was light enough for one man to carry.

The baby’s parents leaned heavily on each other. The silent knot of mourners drew close. The funeral director gently lifted the 2-foot casket lid.

The father, Corey Bennett, could hardly bear to look. At the sight of her son, Ja’Wanna Waddy’s knees buckled.

“Suffer the children to come unto me,” the minister said. “Forbid them not. For such is the kingdom of heaven.”
This is the fourth child Waddy has buried under these trees.

Her doctors can’t tell her why. Maybe it’s a genetic miscue, or some undetected physical failing that causes her to go into labor too early. Or it could be some invisible harm wrought by the dust and fumes and runoff from Hernando County’s Public Works compound, less than 50 feet from Waddy’s childhood bedroom window.

She had been in the hospital on strict bed rest for nearly two weeks. She was almost 23 weeks pregnant. One more week, the doctors told her, and the baby would have a chance. But she went into labor Wednesday afternoon. The doctors couldn’t stop it.

Corey Juwan Bennett lived just a few minutes. He was buried Friday next to his brother and two sisters in Spring Hill Cemetery.

The compound is still there. Waddy’s mother still lives at its southeast corner.

The baby’s wake was held in her yard, just feet from the fence. Just feet, too, from where consultants recently tested the dirt for arsenic.

It’s the first time the county tested the neighboring yards, despite 15-year-old warnings from its own employees that contaminants might have spread beyond the fence. The results are due July 20.

In the houses along the site’s back fence, long-time neighbors regard the abandoned compound with suspicion and anger. Some complain of breathing problems, of feeling like they always have a cold.

Last month, Waddy and her mother joined 15 others who notified the county of their plans to sue for personal injury and property damage.

The county purchased the 5-acre site on W Dr. M.L. King Jr. Boulevard in 1955. Over the next three decades, the predominantly black Mitchell Heights neighborhood expanded behind it.

Waddy was 5 years old when her mother, Lauraette Lee, bought her house in 1984. The tight-knit community of janitors, mine workers, and nurses, like Lee, shared the nuisance of the public works compound: the oily runoff, the smell and noise, the constant clouds of dust.

By the time the county abandoned the site in 2003, the compound housed mechanics, a truck wash, refueling pumps, road repair, and mosquito control. Chemicals stored there included paints, paint thinners, gasoline, diesel, and pesticides. Through leaks and careless handling, many of those chemicals seeped into the dirt and groundwater.

The county got its first warning about the contamination as early as 1991. Little changed. Careless chemical handling continued while cleanup efforts repeatedly stalled, a St. Petersburg Times review found.

Recent tests have found arsenic along the south and east fence lines, just feet from neighboring yards.
State and county health officials say health risks remain slight.

Mitchell Heights residents drink city water, and not water drawn on nearby wells. Some chemicals like the carcinogen benzene were found below ground, where people wouldn’t come in contact with them. Health officials said it’s unlikely that the contamination made people sick.

Waddy’s doctor isn’t so sure.

Premature labor late in the second trimester is rare, said Dr. Elliot Cazes, Waddy’s obstetrician. He delivers nearly 20 babies a month, and sees such miscarriages only three or four times a year. He’s never seen an otherwise healthy, 27-year-old woman lose four babies at that stage.

She’s never carried a baby to term. Exposure to arsenic and benzene could explain it, he said.

He hesitated to order tests while she was carrying the baby, but now he’s suggested genetic testing, consultation with an infertility specialist, and testing for chemicals that may still linger in her body.

“No two ways about it,” Cazes said, “We know that these are dangerous substances. We know the substances she’s been exposed to cause miscarriages, cause premature labor. But again, I don’t know how we’re going to prove it.”

Asjylyn Loder can be reached at aloder@sptimes.com or (352)754-6127.

[Last modified June 16, 2006, 19:44:34]