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

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Troubled waters at Camp Lejeune: An Overview

By Amanda Greene
Wilmington Star News (NC
August 26, 2007


From 1957 to 1987, civilians, Marines and residents drank, cooked with, 
bathed in and swam in water contaminated by industrial solvents at Camp 
Lejeune, a Marine Corps base in Jacksonville. In a statement e-mailed to 
the Star-News, the Marines acknowledge the contamination occurred but 
said it is reserving judgment on the possible health effects until a 
national Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry study is 
complete in 2008.

Here's an overview of the issue, which has attracted the attention of 
national lawmakers and health agencies:

The water: Some of the wells at Camp Lejeune were contaminated by 
trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and dichloroethylene 
(DCE). These chemicals, believed by researchers to be possible 
carcinogens, were used as dry-cleaning solutions or as solvents to 
dissolve grease or other compounds. Leaking underground storage tanks, 
spills and drum disposal - along with solvent-disposal practices by a 
nearby dry cleaner - led to the contamination.

Contaminants were found in two of the eight water systems supplying Camp 
Lejeune: the Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point water systems, which served 
housing, schools, swimming pools and other buildings on the military 
base. By 1987, the Marines had shut down those systems. According to the 
Marine Corps, the water now meets federal standards.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/article/20070826/NEWS/708260434/1004

--


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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