Between 1941 and the early 1960s, toxic fumes and particulates spewed from the mill's smokestacks. Now, a new study, released by the state Department of Health, shows those longtime residents could be right.

The report, prepared by epidemiologist John Contreras, found an elevated risk of lung, bronchial and stomach cancers among Monticello residents during several five-year time periods from 1973 to 2004. Completed in December, the study is one of several completed since 1997 by federal and state agencies in response to residents' fears.

Contreras said Friday that the cancers have been linked to exposure to toxic substances released during uranium and vanadium processing, but the 2007 study is unable to draw a direct link.

"We can't definitively say . . . that the significantly elevated incidence of cancer is associated with the mill," Contreras said.

Still, the new findings are welcome news to Monticello residents, who have long claimed that the mill made people sick.

The findings of a 2006 Health Department review of the state cancer registry had been declared "inconclusive," and data from a still-earlier study found no clear evidence that Monticello residents had higher cancer rates than usual between 1973 and 2003, when compared with Utahns statewide.

"We've known all along there's a cancer problem in Monticello," said Steve Young, chairman of the Victims of Mill Tailings Exposure, a Monticello citizens group fighting for federal funding for cancer screenings and treatment for those who have become ill.

"This is just more proof of what we've been saying all along."

Contreras said the 2006 study surveyed residents based on ZIP code, which includes much larger areas of San Juan County that are located outside the town of Monticello.

That earlier study also relied on information from the Utah Cancer Registry and did not include people who had left Monticello before they were diagnosed with cancer, those who were diagnosed at treatment facilities in other states and those who had died before the cancer registry was launched in 1966.

So Contreras designed the 2007 study to take into account some of those factors.

Barbara and Fritz Pipkin have been deeply involved in the citizens organization. Fritz Pipkin, a lifelong Monticello resident, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004.

"We knew in our hearts that we were right about this, but it was just a matter of trying to prove it," Barbara Pipkin said. "You do feel vindicated. There was so long that we almost wondered if people thought we were just making all this up.

"Now, the numbers speak for themselves."

lchurch@citlink.net

* The Vanadium Corporation of America, for nearly 20 years, operated the mill located near the southeast Utah town of Monticello. It produced uranium-vanadium sludge for the Manhattan Project, which led to development of the atomic bombs dropped over Japan, ending World War II.

* The federal government cleaned up the mill site and surrounding properties in 2004.

* The study that found elevated cancer levels among Monticello residents surveyed current residents and next-of-kin for those who had lived there at the time of their diagnosis. About 603 survey packets were sent out by the Utah Cancer Registry, and about 300 were completed and returned. The final study identified 156 cases that fit the criteria for the study.