By DANA LIEBELSON
The Navy continues to play games when it comes to releasing critical information about the water contamination at Camp Lejeune—this time, by dodging the document request made by nine Members of Congress, the Project On Government Oversight learned today. But the fight for more information on Camp Lejeune is far from over.
The bipartisan group of lawmakers sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in March, asking him to deliver them a comprehensive set of records related to Camp Lejeune within two weeks, unredacted. You wouldn’t think that the Navy would be able to weasel out of that request, but they did anyway -- by invoking the Privacy Act.
“Because this repository contains [personally identifiable information], we may not release un-redacted records without an official request from a committee or subcommittee of jurisdiction in writing” Under Secretary of the Navy Robert O. Work wrote in a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Work maintains in his letter that the Navy “supports and funds Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) studies to investigate [the health allegations.” However, he fails to address the allegations by the author of a recent ATSDR report that the scientific integrity of his report was compromised by redactions requested by the Department of the Navy, which oversees the Marine Corps.
Originally, in requesting the redactions, the Navy cited security concerns about releasing “critical infrastructure information.” However, the information that is kept secret happens to be related to the location of certain water wells which were contaminated for more than 30 years—and are still active. As we’ve said repeatedly, there is a strong case that the public interest outweighs the national security concerns.
Chairman Leahy and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) responded to the Navy with an official committee letter. In the letter, the senators wrote:
We urge you to comply with the letter and spirit of FOIA by promptly making all of the information contained in the Camp Lejeune Repository Documents available to the American people. Because the Camp Lejeune Repository Documents have already been compiled, we ask that these documents be delivered to the Committee within one week.
We’re looking forward to hearing what the Navy has to say next.
Dana Liebelson is POGO's Beth Daley Impact Fellow.
The problem the Navy, has is in several parts. 1st the Department of the Navy, is in violation of the 1974, 1986 and 1996 safe drinking water act. 2nd the Department of the Navy, is in violation of the 1972, clean water act as a result of Lot 203 aboard Camp Lejeune. 3rd the Department of the Navy, is in violation under TSCA, for which the level of enforcement action is at minimum testing, reporting and retention requirements.
Posted by: Rodney E. Rhodan | Jul 03, 2012 at 01:33 AM
I can not believe we served our country, some for over 20 years, giving up our freedom for theres, Our families suffered with us being deployed over birthdays, holidays, and special events like births, graduations, christenings, baptisms, etc and now they won't defend us...The water in Camp Lejeune has killed our family members, made our children sick, and disabled our troops, the sames ones that fought for you, defended our nation. Maybe Stalin had it right. At least he screwed his people in front of them. I myself has suffered through cancer, joint pains, and have to medicate everyday so I can go to work.... Please search deep into your hearts and listen to the wind, because one day the war will be over for us, the same people that put you into office and defended our Nation... I was going to say Proud, but look at it, is it really anymore!
Posted by: George Soter | Jun 30, 2012 at 07:11 AM
There must be some really bad stuff in those documents that they don't want us to see. Why else would they be so reluctant to release it? W
Posted by: wesleyr456 | Jun 30, 2012 at 01:26 AM
Unfortunately, the problem with contaminated drinking water, health problems and a cover-up by the DoD is not limited to Camp Lejeune. The National Guard has 1 base, the Air Force has 42 bases, the Army has 46 bases, the Coast Guard has 1 base, and the Navy has 53 bases that are or were Superfund Sites. See: http://www.georgeafb.info/reference/documents/government-superfund-sites
Each of these toxic military bases has the potential for exposing tens to hundreds of thousands of civilians, and military personnel and their family members, over the years, to extremely toxic environmental contaminants and suffer adverse health effects as a result of this exposure.
Frank Vera
http://www.georgeafb.info/
Posted by: Frank Vera | Jun 29, 2012 at 06:40 PM