Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Toledo area

UPDATE: Whirpool responds to Clyde cancer cluster claims 

Families of residents living in the Clyde area who have been sickened by cancer say they are "devastated" by the findings of a new EPA report.

According to attorneys for the family members that are part of the so-called "Clyde Cancer Cluster," the report found that Whirlpool Park was a dumping ground for PCBs and a sludge filled with toxic metals.

In a statement released Tuesday, on the United States Environmental Protection Agency's findings, the victims' attorneys allege that Whirlpool did not disclose the information found in the EPA report. 

The press release adds that this area, "built for children in the Clyde area to play", had contaminants found over nine feet deep in some places.

Several of the families with loved ones lost or ill in the Cancer Cluster have retained victims’ rights attorneys Alan W. Mortensen and Dustin Lance of Salt Lake City. 

Mortensen and Lance will now be working with local Ohio attorneys to investigate whether the Whirlpool Park may be a contributing cause of the clients' loved ones' cancer. 

They will also go back and reinvestigate the 14 other dump sites earlier investigated by the Ohio EPA, including the Vickery Waste Management Deep Well Injection Site.   

“Obviously, it is upsetting to learn that such significant amounts of poison sludge are dumped anywhere.  But to either dump it in proximity or cover it over with a children’s park and a swimming pool filled with water coming from the very spot where the dumping occurred, is an outrage!” Mortensen said of the case. 

“It calls into question what really was at the other dump sites and other clues that were overlooked or not discovered until the US EPA stepped in, to determine the cause of this Cancer Cluster,”  Lance added.

Mortensen and Lance, along with some of the family members they represent, including Warren and Wendy Brown, will be holding a press conference on Wednesday, November 14 at 1 p.m. at the Clyde Public Library. 

The gathering will be held to answer media inquiries on the families’ intentions to conduct their own investigation to determine what has been killing their children.

WNWO contacted The Whirlpool Corporation for comment, but their offices were already closed by the time the victims' lawyers issued their press statement on the report.