Ladera Ranch childhood cancer mystery deepens after 20-year-old handwritten warning emerges

Officials were warned over 20 years ago not to build on land now struck by extremely rare childhood cancers without “further considerations,” unearthed records show.The ominous handwritten notes appeared on the documents for the abandoning of a historical oil well below what is now Ladera Ranch in Orange County, California.The memos have renewed fears about what has caused at least six cases of Ewing sarcoma being diagnosed in the community between 2013 and 2024.Some worry they have been sparked by pesticides being used on school property, while others have pointed to a landfill site in the area, with health officials still investigating any possible link or cause.The newly emerged notes, which appear twice in pencil markings on the Department of Conservation permit, say: “This well is not to be built over without further considerations.”The pages of the final report, obtained by the California Post, were signed off by state oil and gas supervisor William F Guerard Jr, acting state oil and gas supervisor Kenneth Henderson and deputy supervisor R.K.Baker when the well was sealed on February 26, 2002.The memos, which appear to have been scribbled by engineer Floyd Leeson, do not reveal why there should be no building on top of the well nor if any “further considerations” were undertaken.In a separate note, with an arrow pointing to the message, it added: “Put on final letter.”Henderson told the LA Times in a brief interview he did not recall why they were written on the documents, but suggested “the well plugging may not have been up to the current standards.”The Department of Conservation told the outlet the notes may have been a “clerical error,” but failed to comment on why it specifically said they needed to be “put on final letter.”There is no suggestion the abandoned well has sparked the Ladera Ranch cases of Ewing sarcoma, with scientists still unsure exactly what causes it.But Karen Lincoln, director of the Center for Environmental...