WASHINGTON, April 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Marine Corps denies officials disregarded warnings about contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, N.C., for years.
Thousands of Marines and their families drank, cooked and bathed in water laced with dangerous chemicals, The (Charlotte, N.C.) Observer said Sunday in an exclusive report. Citing documents, the newspaper said when outside contractors raised concerns base officials ignored their warnings or ordered more tests.
The most contaminated wells shut down in 1984, more than four years after the first of repeated warnings, the newspaper said.
"The kind part of me wants to say (the Marines) took a while to figure it out," said Mike Hargett, a contractor who had raised questions about the water in 1982 and 1983. "The unkind part says somebody was sloppy and negligent."
The Marine Corps says it's hard to figure out what was or was not done in response to warnings because the record remains incomplete.
"Just because it's not in the record doesn't mean something wasn't done," Marine spokesman Capt. Brian Block said.
The contamination, which sparked a congressional investigation, is suspected of sickening thousands of people. The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is investigating to try to determine the illnesses are linked to the water.
The Observer said federal scientists had sent the sent the Navy and Marines letters last month saying the military has yet to turn over all documentation related to the contamination. The Marines denied withholding documents.
The chemicals that contaminated the water included benzene, a fuel component and known carcinogen, as well as the chlorinated organic solvents trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, both linked to liver and central nervous system damage.
One document showed as much as 1.1 million gallons of fuel might have entered Camp Lejeune's groundwater over the years, exposing as many as 1 million people to health risk from 1957 to the mid-'80s.
