Camp Lejeune Water May Also Be Contaminated With PFAS Forever Chemicals From Firefighting Foam
Lawsuits will allege Marines have developed cancer from drinking the tap water on the base.
Thursday, August 18, 2022 - The Marine Corp knew years ago that the integrity of the two main water treatment facilities had been compromised by a local dry cleaning company improperly disposing of hazardous dry cleaning solvent. According to the Centers For Disease Control (CDC), "Water from the Tarawa Terrace water treatment plant was primarily contaminated by PCE (perchloroethylene or tetrachloroethylene). The source of the contamination was the waste disposal practices at ABC One-Hour Cleaners, an off-base dry cleaning firm." The CDC explains that the health problems in addition to cancer that the Camp Lejeune population went on to suffer were most likely the result of drinking, washing with, and playing in contaminated water. "From the 1950s through February 1985 to trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), vinyl chloride, and other contaminants in the drinking water at the Camp Lejeune likely increased the risk of cancers (kidney, multiple myeloma, leukemias, and others), adverse birth outcomes, and other adverse health effects of residents (including infants and children), civilian workers, Marines, and Naval personnel at Camp Lejeune," the CDC wrote. Thousands of cases of cancer leading to death could have been averted among US Marines, civilian employees, and the families living, working, and playing at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, if the US Marine Corp had been forthcoming with the information they had about Camp Lejeune water contamination. In 1982 the Marine Corps discovered VOCs in the Camp Lejeune drinking water and estimated that the deadly poisoning of the water started in 1982. It was not until 1987 that the two Camp Lejeune water treatment plants were shut down.
In addition to the local dry cleaners contamination, other possible sources of carcinogenic water contamination are unlined or underground waste disposal, burn pit waste disposal, and PFAS forever chemicals from using firefighting foam to train with for extinguishing petroleum and jet-fuel fires on the base. PFAS forever chemicals stay in the body permanently and do not break down organically, accumulating in the kidneys to levels that lead to kidney cancer according to experts.
The Camp Lejeune Justice Act permits Marine veterans, civilians, and reservists the right to file a Camp Lejeune water lawsuit. Cancers like leukemia, bladder, esophagus and kidney cancer are presumed to have been the result of exposure the Camp Lejeune contaminated water. Each Camp Lejeune water lawsuit will be heard individually and not as a class action. Each case will stand or fall on its own merits and quality of the evidence. Legal experts anticipate that the cases will be consolidated into Multidistrict Litigation in the State of North Carolina where Camp Lejeune is located and the plaintiff's injuries occurred. According to United Press International (UPI) "The new law gives long-awaited legal recourse to potentially hundreds of thousands of ex-Marines, their families, and civilian workers who drank contaminated water while at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987." Juries are expected to be sympathetic to Marine Corp survivors who may have waited up to 30 years or more to be able to seek justice. Juries will also hear about the Marine Corp failing to adequately warn the population that the water at Camp Lejeune could cause cancer.
OnderLaw, LLC and The Overholt Law Firm, PC -