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Camp Lejeune Water Under Scrutiny
Marine families who lived at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina over three decades drank water contaminated with toxins as much as 40 times over today's safety standard, federal health investigators said Tuesday.
The government disclosed results from a new scientific study on the same day that some families testified for Congress about cancers and other illnesses they blame on drinking tainted tap water at the sprawling training and deployment base.
The House Energy and Commerce panel, which held the hearing, described the sickened Marines as "poisoned patriots."
At least 850 former residents of the base have filed administrative claims, seeking nearly $4 billion, for exposure to the industrial solvents TCE and PCE that contaminated Camp Lejeune's drinking wells before 1987.
"My wife and I now have new full-time careers just staying alive and figuring out how to pay for it all," former Navy Dr. Michael Gros of Spring, Texas, said. He was stunned to learn years after his work in the 1980s as an obstetrician and gynecologist at Camp Lejeune that he had a rare non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Gros told lawmakers Tuesday that he has accumulated medical bills of more than $4.5 million and he worries regularly about bankruptcy.
The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry said its new modeling and analysis of Camp Lejeune's Tarawa Terrace drinking water system from 1957 to 1987 found levels of the dry-cleaning solvent PCE, or tetrachloroethylene, as high as 200 parts per billion, compared to 5 parts per billion that federal regulators in 1992 would set as the maximum allowable level.
The Navy Judge Advocate General's office promised lawmakers it will "thoroughly analyze each and every claim utilizing the best scientific research available," according to prepared testimony. It is waiting for a government scientific study about how the water affected babies in utero.
Federal health officials have new analyses indicating Camp Lejeune's water was contaminated as far back as 1957 and up to 1987. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry cites the new endpoint nearly two years after the Marines said they closed all the tainted wells in a continuing study on whether Camp Lejeune's water led to leukemia and birth defects in children. That study is expected to be finished as early as the end of the year.
TCE, or trichloroethylene, is a degreasing solvent, and PCE, or tetrachloroethylene, is a dry-cleaning agent. The government describes them as probable carcinogens.
Marine Corps officials said that Camp Lejeune provided water consistent with industry practices of the time, and that its Marines' health and safety are of primary concern.
Jerry Ensminger of White Lake, N.C., a Marine for 24 years, lost his 9-year-old daughter to leukemia. In heart-rending testimony, he described comforting her during agonizing cancer treatments. He said toward the end of her life, she endured taunts from classmates teasing her about her appearance after chemotherapy.
"It is time for the United States Marine Corps to live up to their motto 'Semper Fidelis,'" always faithful, Ensminger said.
Marine officials have said they didn't immediately act when they learned of the contaminants because the federal standards were not yet in place.
The health agency estimated 75,000 people lived in the affected base neighborhood during those three decades.
The agency launched a new Web site, http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune, for people to learn the levels of contamination that came from their faucets at different times.
The newly released study is part of the health agency's ongoing investigation into whether exposure to the solvents caused birth defects and leukemia in babies.
On the Web:
Energy & Commerce Committee: http://energycommerce.house.gov/
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune/index.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.
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Show AllI can hear it now, as active duty Marines and their dependents show up for sick call at the east coast basic training facility for the Marines where you only think what you are told and pain and illness are are for sissies and Islamofascists. They are told thier just imagining tings and told to get lost.
Someone needs to put together a brochure about this for distribution in anti-recruitment efforts at high schools so young people make their decisions on the basis of information and not pr hype.
They didn't act immediately when they found out? Oh. A 9 year old sacrificed to the god of war. Depleted uranium...they already know about that...don't they. They do. Agent Orange. Asbestos contamination in shipyards during WW2. This Marine's story is so sad. His daughter is a casualty of our idolatry of war and the excuses we make for it.
All military bases are unregulated toxic waste dumps and the water tested in areas around them is polluted
If Marines are conservative's cannon fodder, what are the Marine's dependents?
I read a short article in the Detroit Free Press this morning about the drinking water being contaminated at Camp Lejeune. I wanted to know more because I was stationed at the Marine base, so I search google. I've done some additional reading and fact finding on the base drinking water today. Among the search results were the above posts. Unfortunately, similar events could have happened anywhere in the U.S. Leaking underground storage tanks, spills and drum disposal caused drinking water contamination. The Marine Corps and Navy took action. It has become headlines because it affected 75,000 people on a military base.
I served 4 years of active duty in the Marine Corps. Military bases are not waste dumps.
If you want additional information and facts on the water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, please visit the website of The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten at www.tftptf.com
Senator Elizabeth Dole has been active with respect to the Camp Lejeune issue and related issues. She sponsored an amendment to The Defense Authorization Bill which required the Secretary of the Navy to notify Camp Lejeune's victims. To see the legislation she sponsored, type "Thomas (Library of Congress)" in your search bar. Select "Thomas (Library of Congress)". When the page comes up, select the "BILL NUMBER" option, Type in "H.R. 4986" exactly as I just typed it. Select number 4. H.R. 4986.ENR. Then scroll down the page until you see "Subtitle B--Environmental Provisions" immediately followed by "Sec. 314 Report on control of the BROWN TREE SNAKE". Click on "Subtitle B--Environmental Provisions". You will see sections 311 through 404. Section 315 is the one which concerns Camp Lejuene. See the links below:
http://dole.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=98849a81-50e2-4f45-ac0c-ad04901760e2&Month=7&Year=2008
http://dole.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=83309283-8dbe-4bf8-b9c7-782d7875856b&Month=10&Year=2008
I lost a husband who was only 25 years old and I lost a daughter, Michelle, to this tragedy.
There are 1 million people affected by this and all of them need to be notified. In order to be notified, you must register with the ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry). You can do this by e-mailing them at atsdrcamplej@cdc.gov include your name, address, telephone number (optional), and the years you or any member of your family were at Camp Lejeune. Remember to register individually so the ATSDR can get an accurate count.
"DO NOT" register on the Marine Corps website, it has terms that are not acceptable.
Please visit www.watersurvivors.com This website has over 1800 members who are willing to help anyone affected by the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. We care a great deal for all our members and do our very best to help in any way we can.