PROJECT STIRS FEARS OF VALLEY FEVER; RESIDENTS SAY CONSTRUCTION MAY SPREAD HARMFUL SPORES.

Byline: Gloria Gonzales Daily News Staff Writer

Linda Myszkowski contracted San Joaquin Valley fever in October of 1995. Pregnant at the time, the disease threatened her unborn child and eventually left her without immunity to the illness.

``They were building the Warmington homes just up the hill from us, more than 50 new homes, and there was frequently dust in the air from the construction,'' Myszkowski recalled. ``We had just moved to Moorpark in September and on Oct. 3, I became violently sick. For the first month they told me I had pneumonia. Then they drained fluid from my lungs and tested it and told me I had valley fever.''

Myszkowski recovered, and her baby, now nearly 2, is fine. But she spent the remainder of her pregnancy in bed, with an intravenous drip hooked up to her arm for five hours each day. She believes she contracted valley fever by breathing fungal spores released into the air with construction dust.

``And we live in the Campus Canyon neighborhood, just below the Hidden Creek Ranch project,'' she said. ``If they start building it, we might have to move. It's just not worth the risk to my health and safety.''

Myszkowski isn't the only one worried about valley fever. Several other residents have expressed concern, and Mayor Pat Hunter, arguing that the environmental impact report did not adequately address the issue, requested that city staff complete further research. Council members will review the new 20-page report at the final meeting on the project's impact report Wednesday.

Like Myszkowski, Hunter said he is concerned that the large-scale grading required for the 3,200-home, 4,500-acre project may release San Joaquin Valley fever spores into the air, much as the Northridge Quake caused an outbreak of the disease in Ventura County when the shaking tossed great plumes of dust into the air.

``We've directed staff to research the matter, to try to determine whether or not there's a significant threat, and if so, how that threat could be mitigated,'' Hunter said. ``The earthquake gave us some insight into it, and we were concerned when the freeway overpass was built. So . . . history and proximity tell that these are valid concerns.''

Others, including Gary Austin, Messenger Investment Co. vice president overseeing the Hidden Creek Ranch project, believe that not only did the EIR adequately address the issue, but that the new report shows that any risk to residents would be minimal.

``The staff report looked at EIRs in Simi Valley, and those were virtually no different than ours, so I thought ours did the job . . . to mention it,'' Austin said. ``Also, in this new 20-page report, after all the information they've gathered, there's no statement that construction should be limited or restrained or avoided because of this issue. Water trucks are all you can do.''

The report also notes that San Joaquin Valley fever, so named because it is common in the central California agricultural region, causes no symptoms in 60 percent of those who inhale the airborne fungal spores.

The remaining 40 percent experience mild symptoms ranging from coughing to high fever. In fewer than 1 percent of cases, exposure can lead to serious illness or death.

Unfortunately, in those rare cases like Myszkowski's, the more serious form of the illness is difficult to treat and requires long-term use of antibiotics.

And even the current EIR notes that, however small, large-scale construction grading does pose a health risk. The report cites Environmental Protection Agency estimates that each acre of soil disturbed creates about 110 pounds of dust per workday, or about 1.2 acres of dust per month. Through watering and other dust control measures, those emissions can be reduced by as much as 75 percent, the report said.

Construction workers, or those directly breathing the dust, are more likely to contract the disease, and for that reason they are required to wear masks during grading.

``Construction workers would be at greater risk, and there's no such thing as zero risk,'' said Dr. Gary Feldman, who served as Ventura County's public health officer during the post-quake valley fever outbreak and worked with Centers for Disease Control doctors on an epidemiological study. ``But (for residents) ordinary building projects are not a major contributor to the disease.''

Dr. Eileen Schneider, one of the CDC doctors, also notes that there is only a risk if spores are present in the soil. Soil testing is unreliable, Schneider said, because the spores tend to concentrate in pockets. But one portion of the group's study indicates that Ventura County soil as a whole does not appear to provide a promising breeding ground for the spores, Feldman said. A hotter and drier climate, with wetter winters, provide the best conditions for the spores' survival, he said.

The CDC's random test of 184 Simi Valley adults support that conclusion, he said. Those results indicate that at least in Simi Valley, only 2 percent of the population has had any exposure to the disease. The scientists skin-tested 184 adults nine weeks after the earthquake, and found that 11 had been exposed, and of those, only two experienced symptoms.

``So the number of cases was low and scattered, and there was no pattern, and because this was a life-exposure test, even those who had been exposed could have been exposed anywhere, at any time in their lives,'' he said.

Cases in Ventura County, both before and after the quake, indicate that county residents are not at high risk for the disease, he added. From Jan. 24 through March 15, 1994, soon after the earthquake, 203 cases of valley fever were reported, up tenfold from a total of 20 cases reported in 1993, Feldman said.

In subsequent years, the numbers have fallen back to normal: 24 cases were reported in Ventura County in 1995, 13 in 1996 and nine in 1997, according to county epidemiologist Marilyn Billamek.

``We saw an increase of cases right after the earthquake, and we were able to plot a wind-driven plume of dust that carried spores from the base of the Santa Susanna Mountains westward across Simi Valley and Moorpark to Camarillo, and cases followed that distribution and even matched an aerial photo of the dust pattern,'' Feldman said. ``But an earthquake is a much bigger event (than construction grading) . . . and we concluded that it was a special case that allowed a large quantity of dust to be thrown high into the air and travel great distances.''

Council member Chris Evans agreed with Feldman's conclusions.

``How many square miles were affected by the earthquake? Let's say a million square miles,'' Evans said. ``If we just use the rationale of the numbers, it doesn't compare. Plus, we're talking about moving soil vs. violent earth shaking.''

Such reassurances mean little to Myszkowski and to others with suppressed immune systems who are likely to suffer most severely should they contract the illness.

``Small children, pregnant women, anybody with a compromised immune system,'' Myszkowski said. ``For us it's just the bad luck lottery.''

The City Council will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 799 Moorpark Road for a final public meeting on the Hidden Creek Ranch environmental impact report.