U.S. Water News Online
RALEIGH, N.C. -- A Michigan congressman wants further study of the health effects of contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, saying new science ``raises serious concerns'' about a study that concluded adults who drank the water are not at risk for illnesses.
Most Marine families who were stationed at Camp Lejeune between the late 1960s and the 1980s don't know they were exposed to toxic chemicals, said U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Mich. He said hundreds of people who were stationed at the base since the 1960s are reporting diseases and cancer.
``We know that for years these people were provided water with terribly high levels of dangerous chemicals,'' Dingell said in a news release. ``We owe the Marine families who lived on this base more than a quick glance over the facts to determine if anyone was hurt from drinking the tap water.''
Former base residents contend Marine Corps leaders knew for years that water wells had been contaminated and did nothing about it. They say families have suffered health problems that will last a lifetime.
Water monitoring showed tap water provided to military families contained at least five toxic volatile organic compounds from a dry cleaner and shop solvents that are known to cause cancer in humans, including childhood leukemia.
Dingell questions the Marines' use of a 1997 study that concluded that adults who consumed the contaminated water were not likely to get sick. New scientific information has shown some of the contaminants in the water to be more dangerous than previously thought, Dingell said.
The 1997 study also assumed families at Camp Lejeune only turned on their water taps four out of seven days a week and that the longest anyone lived at the base in Jacksonville was three years, said Dingell, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The committee next will conduct a hearing on a Defense Department request to exempt the military from certain environmental laws. Camp Lejeune will be used as an example of the military's history of contamination and slow cleanup, committee spokeswoman Jodi Bennett Seth said.
Jerry Ensminger, a retired Marine who lived at Lejeune at various times during his 24-year military career, is scheduled to testify at the hearing.
Ensminger's daughter was 9 when she died of leukemia in 1985, he said. She was conceived at the base and the family lived at the base for the first trimester in the mid-1970s, Ensminger said. He believes his daughter's exposure to contamination at Lejeune caused her death.
Ensminger said he is looking forward to the hearing because the military has ``stonewalled'' his attempts to learn more about the contamination. ``I'm finally getting some high-level attention and it's finally getting the attention that it deserves,'' he said. ``The Marine Corps needs to live up to their motto and not run from it -- 'Semper Fidelis,' which is Latin for 'always faithful.'''
A Marine Corps spokesman could not be reached for comment on Dingell's statement.
The federal Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which conducted the 1997 report, is planning a follow-up epidemiological study on the Lejeune water effects.
But Dingell said that study is too narrow in scope, because it would focus only on mothers who were pregnant while living on the base between 1968-1985. An estimated total of 50,000 to 200,000 people may have been exposed to the contaminated water, he said.
A five-member panel of military and environmental representatives already is studying decisions made between 1980 and 1985 that relate to the closing of several contaminated wells at Lejeune.
Panel chairman Ronald C. Packard has said the purpose of the review is to determine whether military officials made appropriate decisions based on the information available to them.
Return to the U.S. Water News Archives page Or Return to the U.S. Water News Homepage
Editor@uswaternews.com
*Your Name:
*Your Email:
*Friend's Email:
Use a comma to separate e-mail addresses:
*Your Comments:
Hi, I thought you might like to read this article.
*Required Fields