Both California's U.S. senators have called for a full review of allegations by residents in a Merced neighborhood who claim that a nearby manufacturing plant contaminated their drinking water with a cancer-causing chemical... 2,200 residents of Merced's Beachwood neighborhood have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Fresno, saying the plant's operators concealed the contamination for years. Many cases of cancer and other illnesses resulted, they say. The companies whose subsidiary operated the plant, Merck & Co...and Amsted Industries..., say there is no evidence any plant discharge contaminated the area's water or caused anyone to become ill.