Contamination Study May Extend Veteran Benefits

By: Nathan lamb

A recent study has shed new light on long-standing water contamination issues at a North Carolina military base—and that could help veterans claiming adverse health impacts from their time at that post.

The study indicates that drinking water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune had elevated levels of carcinogens for more than 60 years, according to this story from the Kansas City Star.

At peak levels, the contaminants were 150 times higher than safety standards—and the report estimated up to one million service personnel and their families may have been exposed while at the base.

A special law enacted in 2012 provides screening and health care for those at the base from 1957 to when the contaminated wells were closed in 1987—but the study suggests the problem could date back far as 1948.

Federal lawmakers are calling for additional hearings on the issue and a bill has been filed to extend coverage back to 1953, which is thought to be when the contamination first exceeded health standards, according to this story from the Washington Post.

The contaminants include trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial degreaser that can cause a variety of short- and long-term health impacts. The other contaminants were from dry-cleaning and fuel, according to the Marine Corps, which as recently as last year claimed there was insufficient evidence to link health problems to the drinking water.

Retired Marine Master Sergeant Jerry Ensminger has long alleged the connection between the camp water and health impacts. He was stationed at Lejeune and lost his 9-year-old daughter to a rare leukemia in 1985. Ensminger credited advocates like himself for bringing the issue to light.

Jet Fuel and Perchlorate Spoil Groundwater in Two Western Localities

By: Duane Craig

More news about the contamination being left behind by the country’s military-industrial complex comes from two locations: Albuquerque, N.M., and Barstow, Calif., according to reports here and here.

New Mexico’s environmental officials characterized Kirtland AFB’s efforts at determining the extent of groundwater contamination below Albuquerque’s southeast quadrant as inadequate, and the state’s environment department is calling for more monitoring wells to see just how much risk is posed to the city’s drinking water. Underground aircraft fuel lines had leaked for decades when the leaks were discovered in 1999, and an estimated 8 million gallons contributed to a plume of contamination that may now threaten city wells. The Air Force didn’t mention the problem until 2007, according to the report cited above in the Air Force Times.

A former pyrotechnic company in Barstow illegally dumped perchlorate that contributed to a 1.25-mile plume of contamination in the area’s groundwater, forcing the closure of one of the local water supplier’s wells. Recent drilling and testing shows perchlorate in concentrations up to 13,000 parts per billion. California says that 6 parts per billion is the maximum amount of the chemical allowed in drinking water. Cleanup activities are expected to begin soon.

Former Army Bio Weapons Fort Under Scrutiny for Illnesses and Deaths

By: Duane Craig

Fort Detrick, located at 810 Schreider St. in Frederick, Md., is under scrutiny for possible links of contamination to cancer illnesses and deaths, according to an article in The Baltimore Sun. What started as one man looking for answers to questions the locals had been asking for years, has turned into a full-blown effort to definitively link the fort to human health mayhem.

Fort Detrick suspected of environmental contamination

The man who started it all lost one daughter to cancer and recently had another diagnosed with it. He is fortunate enough to have the money necessary to pay for independent scientific investigations, medical tests of area people and now a lawsuit, in his quest to find answers about Fort Detrick's potential role in illnesses and deaths in the nearby communities. He has already spent $1 million, and some locals say they're glad someone with enough money came forward to shine some light on the issue so it could no longer be ignored.

Fort Detrick is home to medical research and development today, but from the 1940s into the 1960s, it was where biological weapons were experimented with, including anthrax and smallpox. The western side of the fort was a testing ground for biological weapons delivery systems and served as a discard site for lab equipment and materials. Perhaps ironically, the fort is also currently home to a National Cancer Institute facility.

Maryland Event Explores Possible Detrick Link to Cancers

July 11, 2010 - About 150 people gathered Saturday evening to learn more about cancer cases in Frederick and the possibility that a 1992 contamination problem at Fort Detrick's Area B is connected to the illnesses.

Randy White, a Florida pastor, started the Kristen Renee Foundation after one of his daughters died at age 30 from a brain tumor. His other daughter developed stomach tumors, and his ex-wife is fighting renal cell carcinoma. The three women lived on Lake Coventry Drive from 1995 to 2005, just tenths of a mile from the edge of Area B.

White said the goal of his foundation was originally to help those with cancer, but when doctors told him that his family's cancer cases were not genetic, he started a quest to find the cause of their cancers and fix the problem before more people got sick.

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Air Force in MA. Cleanup Targets Private Water Wells

March 1, 2010- The Air Force is reaching out to North Falmouth and Cataumet neighborhoods to determine whether any private wells are being used for drinking water or irrigation that have yet to be identified, a spokesman said yesterday.

Over the past two years, the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment, which is overseeing part of the massive cleanup of groundwater at the Massachusetts Military Reservation, has sent mailings and made phone calls to nearly 500 property owners.

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Depleted Uranium in Honolulu Causing Concern

August 31, 2009- After years of denying the existence of depleted uranium (DU) at its installations in Hawaii, the Army is now seeking a permit to possess tons of the radioactive material.

DU has been confirmed at Schofield Barracks and the Pohakuloa Training Area, and is suspected at the Makua Military Reservation and Kahoolawe. The toxic material was used to make M101 spotting rounds for the Davy Crockett recoilless gun, one of the smallest nuclear weapons ever built. Soldiers were trained on the weapon in Hawaii and at least eight other states throughout the 1960s.

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Cleanup at Irvine, California's El Toro Base Continues

August 14, 2009- Great Park construction and business plans are taking up most of the spotlight at the former El Toro air base, but a behind-the-scenes cleanup of what was once one of the nation's most contaminated military installations is just as key to the ambitious project's success.

The decades long, multimillion-dollar cleanup effort encompasses both the city-owned Great Park, as well as adjacent areas owned by Lennar Corp., both of which must get the Navy's environmental sign-off before construction can commence.

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Thousands of Marines and their families exposed to toxins for years from drinking water on base

June 13, 2003 - Some 75,000 Marines and their families at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina were exposed to toxic tap water that may have caused cancer and birth defects, a federal health official testified Tuesday.

Results of a new study of the base's water were released Tuesday, the same day lawmakers heard emotional testimony from families who were affected by the water, which contained 40 times the amount of toxins considered safe by today's standards.

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