[CPEO-MEF] Camp Lejeune (NC) water modeling

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

ATSDR MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT

Peer-Review Report 
On ATSDR's Camp Lejeune Water-Modeling Activities Is Released

For Immediate Release: October 28, 2005

ATLANTA - The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
today released the report of an expert panel of independent scientists
who evaluated ATSDR's computer models of past Camp Lejeune, N.C., water
resources and drinking water distribution system. 

The panel of nine technical experts in the field of water modeling, all
from outside the agency, met March 28-29, 2005. The panel was formed at
ATSDR's request and asked to provide the agency with an independent
analysis of groundwater resources and drinking water distribution system
computer modeling activities that ATSDR conducted in 2004 at U.S. Marine
Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

ATSDR's water modeling activities support the agency's current
epidemiologic study of childhood birth defects and cancer possibly
related to past exposure to contaminated drinking water at the base.

The expert panel members commended ATSDR for the quality of the modeling
work performed and recommended several additional steps the agency
should take. 

Among the panel's recommendations are for ATSDR to refine initial
estimates of the date(s) when contaminants first reached the wells
serving homes in the Tarawa Terrace area, and to determine periods of
interconnections between the Hadnot Point and Holcomb Boulevard water
distribution systems. 

ATSDR has accepted all the panel's recommendations and already is
implementing some of them.

People who lived at Camp Lejeune's Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point
housing areas anytime between 1968 and 1985 may have been exposed to
drinking water contaminated with tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and
trichloroethylene (TCE).

ATSDR is using computer modeling to historically reconstruct the water
system serving the base during the time when some drinking water was
contaminated. 

The report can be found online at www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune. A
hard copy of the report, which includes a CD of the report and two
transcripts of the panel meeting, is available by calling toll-free
1-888-422-8737. 

For more information about the expert panel from ATSDR, please contact
Senior Epidemiologist Frank Bove or Research Environmental Engineer
Morris Maslia toll-free at 1-888-422-8737. Callers should mention the
Camp Lejeune water-modeling panel report. 

Established by Congress in 1980 under the Superfund law, ATSDR conducts
public health assessments at each of the sites on the EPA National
Priorities List, as well as other sites when petitioned. 



For the original release, go to
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/NEWS/lejeunenc102805.html

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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