Word: mccalip
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Because Casmalia is unincorporated, the school is the only government outpost in town, which is one reason it has become the rallying point for antidump % activity. Another reason is Kenneth McCalip, the school's principal, who has become the town's toxic-waste spokesman and organizer. Last fall, says McCalip, "it would get really yucky in the lunchroom." Nauseated children were being sent home early. One day in November he evacuated the whole school, all 21 students. "The wind died down, and the odors got so darn bad. The fumes started rolling into our classrooms, more than we'd ever...
...direction of the school board, McCalip, who has a law degree, asked the county attorney to seek an injunction against the waste dump. "The county counsel told me that I wasn't playing ball, that I had teed off all the county officials. He said, 'Hey, Ken, this isn't the way we do it in Santa Barbara County.' " There was little sympathy from county officials who investigated. "The wind kicks up," McCalip explains, "and the fumes are gone. They think you're crazy." Out-of-town acquaintances were dubious...
Nonetheless, people in Casmalia say they feel unwell. Many children seem to have developed bronchitis. McCalip discovered he had high blood pressure late last fall, as did the Vaniters. "I just been so dizzy," says Phyllis. "And our chests hurt." Paulette Postiff has kidney disease, she and her son get sore throats, and her husband has headaches and eye irritation. "Everybody in Casmalia has a runny nose," says Ruthanne Tompkins. "Dave and I are not very health conscious, but if my husband gets cancer because somebody was nasty . . ." The talk almost always turns to carcinomas...
...didn't tell you all the deaths, did I?" asks McCalip late one day. "In the past six years," he says, "there have been four or five lung- cancer deaths in Casmalia. The young woman who used to teach here with me was ! in perfect health when she came, and she died of leukemia two years later." Not until last month, after well-to-do neighborhoods in Santa Maria got a strong chemical whiff one day, did the county government finally admit the dump was a problem. People in Casmalia are sure they have the official reluctance figured: revenues from...
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