From Military Poisons
August 11, 2026
by Pat Elder
New cancer cases at Promontory Housing spark investigation into nearby military contamination.
Blood Cancer Cases
- An individual referred to as Caleb diagnosed with lymphoma.
- An additional student with a lymphoma diagnosis.
- A former student who passed away from multiple myeloma at age 57
- A student who was diagnosed with leukemia while residing in the area.
- A second report of leukemia involving the son of a community member
Breast Cancer Cases
- A local resident and former student who passed away from breast cancer at age 37.
- A student diagnosed with breast cancer.
Ovarian Cancer
- A former student diagnosed with ovarian cancer alongside multiple medical complications.
See Julie Akey’s database of more than 2,000 people who suffer with disease or are deceased and lived on the former Fort Ord or on lands there were later developed.

The Promontory Apartment student housing complex at the California State University, Monterey Bay was built adjacent to severely contaminated land.
Within roughly a third of a mile of today’s apartments stood a dangerous concentration of Army facilities that handled herbicides, chlorinated solvents, medical waste, petroleum products, pesticides, and electrical equipment.
Two students who lived at Promontory have been diagnosed with lymphoma, leading us to search for potential causes nearby.
In August 2015, California State University, Monterey Bay opened the Promontory Apartments. The complex consists of three four-story apartment buildings containing approximately 174 apartment units and 579 student beds, later expanded to approximately 789 beds. It was the university’s first new student housing project in more than a decade and today houses hundreds of upper-division students immediately adjacent to the former industrial core of Fort Ord.
They put it in a horrible location. Students and their parents are unaware that they are just footsteps from the potentially dangerous toxic epicenter of former Fort Ord.
Continue reading “– Eight former CSUMB students or spouses report cancer diagnoses near Fort Ord’s toxic industrial zone”