Finally, after many years of unnecessary suffering, some justice is within reach for the U.S. Marine Corps veterans and their families who were poisoned by the water at Camp Lejeune.
The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to approve healthcare for veterans and their families who are victims of the toxic water contamination at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. For more than 30 years, the water Marines and their families drank and bathed in was contaminated by high levels of various volatile organic compounds, including known carcinogens. The “Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act,” H.R. 1627, is a bipartisan bill that reflects an agreement between the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee leadership on a variety of issues affecting veterans.
But while the Senate has acted to assist the victims of Camp Lejeune, the Marine Corps and Navy shamefully continue to deny responsibility and withhold information about the water contamination. Most recently, the Navy has delayed the release of water contamination documents in response to a request by nine members of Congress.
Camp Lejeune has been called one of the worst toxic contaminations in the country. It’s also possibly one of the U.S. military’s most shameful acts of deception and betrayal. Between 1957 and 1987, as many as 1 million civilians, Marines, and their family members at Camp Lejeune were exposed to toxic water. It turns out that for years, the Marine Corps knew but kept the deadly secret, blocking many attempts to uncover the truth.
However, it appears the Marine Corps’ and Navy’s days of hiding information about the toxic water contamination may soon be over. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have insisted on receiving all requested documents and plan to make them public. The Project On Government Oversight eagerly anticipates the release as early as today of some of these critical documents, formerly withheld by the Navy.
It is an outrage that the Marine Corps and Navy have denied responsibility for so long. However, thanks to the tireless efforts of truthseekers retired Marine Corps Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger, who lost his daughter Janey to leukemia; Major Tom Townsend, who lost his son to a birth defect; and breast cancer victim Mike Partain, who was born at Camp Lejeune; and to the telling of their stories in the moving documentary Semper Fi: Always Faithful, Congress is finally exposing the truth. Most importantly, Congress is close to finally providing the healthcare owed to the Marines and their families. The title of H.R. 1627 that does so is named the “Janey Ensminger Act.”
POGO applauds congressional champions for Camp Lejeune veterans and families: Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Kay Hagen (D-N.C.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Bill Nelson (R-Fla.), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.); and Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.), Bob Filner (D-Calif.), Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Brad Miller (D-N.C.), and Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), as well as the many other cosponsors of the original bills to provide healthcare to Camp Lejeune veterans and their families: The Janey Ensminger Act (H.R. 1742) and Caring for Camp Lejeune Veterans Act of 2011 (S. 277).
We urge the House to immediately take up and pass H.R. 1627.
Angela Canterbury in POGO's Director of Public Policy
will we be compensated for the camp legu. water toxins ?
Posted by: johnathan | Aug 05, 2012 at 07:39 PM
I am one of those that was contaminated and am currently in very poor health. I was stationed in Camp Lejeune N.C in the early 1970's, from 1976 through 1979, and I did my Military service in French Creek, so unaware of the dangers of the drinking water. Now I am in very bad health and truly in need of the help.
Posted by: Domingo Aguilar | Jul 28, 2012 at 10:16 AM
The award of health care, prove to the fact that the Department of the Navy is responsible and liable for the contamination. Toxins list that was listed and the chemicals that wasn't listed on the Camp Lejeune contaminated drinking water website. These are a list of the toxins I found through the EPA website, and these toxins has been in the water and soil above EPA, standards at Camp Lejeune for years: TCE, PCE, Benzene, Vinyl Chloride, Oil, Grease, Mercury, Lead, Battery Packs, Metal, Polychlorinated biphenyls, Pesticide, Polycyclic aromatic hydorcarbin, Xylene, Ethylbenzene, Dichloroethene, Perchloroethylene, Dense Nonqueous Liquid. Awarding these veterans health care services is the right thing to do, but this fight is not over. The 8,500 documented reports released by the DOD, was evidence needed, by the health care community investigating this issue. The suppression of these vital evidence, created a direct violation of the 4th, 5th and 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, against those who have consumed and was exposed to these chemicals. The Department of The Navy, violated the 1974, 1986 and 1996 safe drinking water act, along with the violation of the 1972 clean water act. The Department of the Navy, is also in direct violation of the Toxin and control act.
Posted by: Rodney Rhodan | Jul 24, 2012 at 10:36 PM
I'm reading about this....got a letter about 2 years ago from the Marine copr but all it said was the investigation was over. Plus, we've moved since then. I conceived a son at Lejeune, May 1985, he has dyslexia and had cancer in his mouth a couple of years ago. Nothing like that happened to my other five children. I'm wondering how I can get on a list or something to claim any benefits he may have. He was told that he had to get his mouth checked for the rest of his life.
Posted by: CampLejeuneWife | Jul 22, 2012 at 12:01 AM
My husband was stationed at LeJeune in the 1950's. Although
not physically sickened, we are both emotionally sick from
the stories we have read and heard about. It makes us
ashamed of our top military. These people should be called
out, their names released and court marshaled. Help and
transparency are long overdue. Act like the Marines you
are supposed to be. You are not Real Men at all.
Posted by: Katherine Wuthrich | Jul 21, 2012 at 01:55 PM