PDA

View Full Version : Hearing on Lejeune water revives fears



thedrifter
06-18-07, 06:49 AM
Hearing on Lejeune water revives fears
Jerry Allegood, Staff Writer
Dorothy McKissick has fond memories of the time her family lived at "TT," the residents' nickname for the Tarawa Terrace housing area at Camp Lejeune.

But McKissick, who now lives in Raleigh, was worried by news reports last week that the water her family drank and used for cooking and bathing at TT in the early 1960s was contaminated. She wants to know if toxic water contributed to her daughter's health problems.

"I just don't know about these studies," she said. "How are we ever going to find out?"

McKissick joined a legion of former residents seeking information from the government after a congressional hearing put a new spotlight on an issue that has simmered for more than 20 years. Members of the House Energy and Commerce panel also wanted to know what the Marine Corps and other government agencies had done about the water and its possible health effects.

On Tuesday, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry told the committee that water at the base contained levels of the dry-cleaning solvent tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, that were 40 times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's current safe standard of 5 micrograms per liter. The agency estimated that 75,000 former Tarawa Terrace residents living in family housing at the base from 1957 to 1987 may have consumed the water.

The agency's Web site, which had received about 26 visits a month, had received 111,000 visits by early Wednesday, spokesman Charles Green said.

An agency study on possible health effects of the water on young children is due to be completed next year. That study is expected to influence the way the Navy considers claims for damages.

Long-standing problem

Though the disclosure last week was a revelation to many, the issue is old news to others. At least 850 former residents of the base have filed administrative claims, seeking nearly $4 billion, for exposure to the solvent, according to The Associated Press.

Jeff Byron of Hamilton, Ohio, a former Marine who lived at Camp Lejeune from 1982 to 1985, has been fighting the government for years. He blames the toxic water for his daughter's health problems that include an oral cleft birth defect, a spinal disorder and growth problems.

"It's gone into the next generation of children," he said.

Byron, who worked as an air traffic controller, said the Marine Corps has thwarted his efforts to obtain compensation. "They say they take care of their own," he said. "It doesn't apply at the headquarters level."

Camp Lejeune and its water systems began operating in the 1940s as the nation mobilized in Word War II. The sprawling 233-square-mile tract includes training schools for infantry, engineers and service support, as well as a naval hospital and naval dental center. There are schools, day care centers and nine family housing areas where Marines, sailors and their dependents live an average of two years.

The federal General Accountability Office found that efforts to address the drinking water contamination began in the 1980s, when Navy water testing at Camp Lejeune detected what researchers call volatile organic compounds in some base water systems. In 1982 and 1983, continued testing identified two compounds -- PCE and the metal degreaser trichloroethylene, or TCE -- in two water systems.

Birth-defects study

The toxic substances agency contacted 12,598 families as part of its study of birth defects and childhood cancer. That study will determine if babies that were up to 1 year old when exposed to TCE and PCE in Camp Lejeune's water have had increased health problems, such as neural tube defects, oral cleft defects and childhood leukemias and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Green said the study was aimed at those considered most at risk.

Critics say the Marine Corps was slow to shut down wells after contaminants were found in 1980. Some say the Corps later stonewalled and covered up when government agencies began investigations.

The Corps has also come under fire for failing to notify former residents of the water problems. Capt. Amy Malugani, a Marine Corps spokeswoman, said the Corps used records to begin contacting people but has relied extensively on media announcements.

"It's hard to track down individuals one by one," she said.

Malugani stressed that the water on base is safe to drink and has been since 1987. She said the contaminated sources were shut down in early 1985. The Corps was not in violation of water standards for the contaminants, she said, because there were no standards for them at the time.

Medical mystery

Sherry Mullineaux of Tampa, Fla., said she learned of the problems last week after her mother read news reports. She says contaminated water may have contributed to her kidney failure, a condition that has stumped her doctors.

Mullineaux, 48, a self-described military brat who lived at Camp Lejeune in the late 1960s and early 1970s when her father was in the Marines, said she isn't worried about financial compensation. She just wants answers.

"I don't know that it [water] didn't cause it," she said. "Doctors can't explain it; I can't explain it. I want to know why."

Staff writer Jerry Allegood can be reached in Greenville at (252) 752-8411 or jerry.allegood@newsobserver.com.

Ellie

thedrifter
06-18-07, 08:20 AM
23 military bases have tainted water
Lejeune, Barstow on contamination list
By Kimberly Johnson - kjohnson@militarytimes.com
Posted : June 25, 2007

Congressional lawmakers who were examining extensive drinking water contamination from the 1960s through the 1980s at Camp Lejeune, N.C., now say that the problem extends to 22 other bases throughout the country, to varying degrees.

In 1980, military officials at Lejeune discovered the presence of trichloroethylene (TCE), a volatile organic compound used by the military and by civilian businesses, such as dry cleaners, said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on oversights and investigations. As a result, 10 wells at the base were shut down by 1987 after their TCE contamination was found to be 1,400 parts per billion, well above the government’s maximum level of 5 ppb.

“TCE is the most widespread water contaminant in the nation, and almost every major military base has a Superfund site with TCE contamination,” Stupak said.

At least 850 former residents of the base have filed administrative claims, seeking nearly $4 billion, for exposure to the industrial solvents.

The Navy Judge Advocate General’s office promised lawmakers it will “thoroughly analyze each and every claim utilizing the best scientific research available,” The Associated Press reported.

Citing a list of 23 military bases with contaminated groundwater compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Stupak pressed the agency in a June 6 letter to give lawmakers more information on just how much exposure military personnel have received over the years.

The agency has compiled detailed reports on the history of the base contaminations and offers recommendations, such as strategies for monitoring pollutants and the need for public awareness campaigns to inform affected residents. The agency, however, acts as an adviser and has no regulatory power.

Groundwater contamination at or near military bases is widespread, and far surpasses the ATSDR list of 23, said one environmental watchdog group.

“Camp Lejeune is a microcosm of what’s happening all over this nation,” said Doris Bradshaw, board chair for the environmental watchdog group Military Toxics Project, based in Lewiston, Maine. “I feel for that community because there are hundreds of communities dealing with this same issue.”

At-risk bases are older, and use groundwater as a water supply, Bradshaw said.

“If it has groundwater, nine out of 10 times, it will have contamination,” especially if built before World War II, she explained. “There were no guidelines for how to dispose of certain types of items. They would just dig a hole and throw them in.”

Toxic culprits include munitions, solvents and what Bradshaw called a “toxic soup, or dumping “everything from A to Z” into the ground.

“People are sick around these sites,” she said. “It doesn’t just stop on the site. You can’t contain water. It’s impossible to contain.”

“These sites need to be dug up all over America,” Bradshaw said.

ATSDR’s list of 23 bases includes Air Force and Army installations, as well as Lejeune and Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, Calif., which reported TCE groundwater contamination at 25 parts per billion. In its report on Barstow, ATSDR said the base posed “no apparent public health hazard” because levels were relatively low and monitored regularly.

“Camp Lejeune is the poster boy for contaminated drinking water on a military base, but it certainly is not the only one,” said Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Commerce and Energy Committee. “Based on the data we have uncovered, some of these facilities likely had exposures in excess of what we know occurred at Camp Lejeune,” he said.

“Our hope is that we can expand beyond Lejeune,” said a Barton spokesman. “The others deserve attention, too.”

A Defense Department spokesman could not immediately comment on the problems affecting the 23 bases.
Problems at Lejeune

At the hearing, lawmakers and witnesses said thousands of Marine families who lived at Lejeune over three decades drank and bathed in water contaminated with toxins as much as 40 times over today’s safety standard.

Corps officials insist that base water is safe to drink, and has been since the mid-1980s, when the contaminated wells were shut down. “Drinking water is checked for [volatile organic compounds] quarterly — more frequently than required by law — to ensure water is not impacted,” the Corps said in a June 13 statement.

“U.S. laws and regulations have evolved significantly over the last 50 years,” Kelly Dreyer, environmental restoration program manager for Marine Corps headquarters, wrote in a June 14 e-mail response to questions. “With these laws and regulations, along with specific knowledge, the Marine Corps has initiated numerous programs to minimize the use of hazardous substances, promote responsible use of chemicals and to promptly address contamination should it occur,” she said.

When asked, however, Dreyer could not say exactly what the largest contamination threat is on Marine bases. “We are currently researching to determine the most prevalent chemical/constituent that is currently being cleaned up under the Marine Corps Installation Restoration Program,” she said.

The initial contamination — and subsequent inaction and cover-up by defense officials — is responsible for widespread cancer-causing chemical poisoning, former Lejeune staff obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. Michael Gros told the panel. Gros, who lived at Lejeune in the 1980s, was one of several witnesses giving personal accounts of the pollution’s impact. The water contamination led to his lymphoma, which he estimated has cost more than $4.5 million to treat, Gros said.

Former Lejeune resident Jerome Ensminger, who lost his nine-year-old daughter to leukemia in 1985, blasted the Corps’ failure to notify base residents of the threat. Most of those exposed at Lejeune are unaware of it, he said. “They have not been notified and the [Corps] has to date refused to institute any type of legitimate plan or policy.” The Corps has downplayed the issue, he said, citing internal Corps e-mails showing that Marine officials changed wording related to the issue, insisting on calling the chemicals “volatile organic compounds.”

“They’ve been playing a game. It’s a game of minimization,” Ensminger said.

Maj. Gen. Robert Dickerson, commander of Marine Corps Installations-East, defended the Corps’ efforts to notify those potentially exposed to the contaminated drinking water, saying the service launched a media awareness campaign and created a Web site on the issue.

“We made every attempt to get the information out,” Dickerson told lawmakers. Efforts have been complicated by a lack of contact information for those living at the base at the time, he said.

“This unfortunate situation happened over 20 years ago, and while there are still large gaps of knowledge on potential health implications due to exposure to TCE or [perchloroethylene] today, these gaps were even greater back in the 1980s,” Dickerson said.

Lejeune contamination is widespread, with more than 46 sites tapped for cleanup, said Franklin Hill, a Superfund director for the Environmental Protection Agency. About $100 million has been spent on base cleanup so far, he said, adding that the remedies will all be launched by 2014.

Dreyer said she was not immediately able to comment on Corps efforts to clean up the Barstow contamination.

Ellie