Today I will discuss the Camp Lejeune toxic water litigation, and if there is one fact that I can leave you with in this post, it is this: the deadline for bringing an administrative claim is August 10, 2024.

The Camp Lejeune legislation that was passed about two years ago is rather extraordinary, and what it has done is allowed people who were injured years and sometimes decades ago to bring a current viable claim against the federal government for serious illness and injury suffered as a result of toxic water in and around the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base, but if you have a claim and do not file an administrative claim with the US Navy by August 10, 2024, then you will be out of luck, and you will have no recourse to compensation.

Now the good news is filing the administrative claim, which starts the ball rolling to identify to the federal government that you want to bring a claim, filing that administrative claim is somewhat straightforward. I do not believe individuals should represent themselves in this matter. I believe you need an attorney who’s familiar with this litigation to handle that process for you, but the good news is the administrative claims process is not nearly as complex as actually filing a lawsuit, which you certainly will have to do in the months after you file an administrative claim, so write down the date, put it on a Post-it note, or tape it to your refrigerator; and you need to contact an attorney immediately if you believe you or someone you loved, even a deceased parent, or even a grandparent, may have been harmed by exposure to the toxic water at Camp Lejeune.

Let’s back up a bit and talk about this legislation that was passed in August of 2022. I’m going to call it the Camp Lejeune Water Act because that’s simple and everybody can remember it, but in any event this legislation was the culmination of years of dedicated work from concerned citizens, Marine Corps Veterans, attorneys, many people who pushed and pressed the federal government to recognize that thousands of Marine Corps service persons and their families, and the workers who worked on Camp Lejeune, were gravely harmed by decades of toxic water that surrounded the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base. The legislation essentially says that anyone who resided worked or was otherwise exposed to water in and around the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base for a period of not less than thirty days during these critical dates, August 1, 1953 to December 31st, 1987, would potentially have a claim for financial recovery against the federal government for illness suffered from this toxic water. As you can see, these dates go back far into the past: 1953 is over 70 years ago and the end date December 3, 1987 is almost 40 years ago, so the cohort of potentially injured plaintiffs would be those who were on Camp Lejeune base for thirty or more days between 1953 and 1987, and in that period of time they were exposed repeatedly to the toxic water. So we are looking at almost 35 years where thousands of people were potentially exposed and harmed by this toxic water.

Because these dates go back so far into the past, a lot of these cases will involve individuals who have passed away. You can do the math pretty quickly and recognize that some of these viable claims will be from individuals that right now would be passed away or very old; as as one example, if there was an active duty military person who enlisted in the Marine Corps in the early 50s, that person was probably born in the 1930s, which means he could well be 90 years old right now or even older, so the universe of potential claimants in this litigation could be people that are 90, 80, 70, 60, 50 years old.

The good news is that Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville eventually cleaned up the water sources around Camp Lejeune, so the end date for this exposure to toxic water is December 31, 1987. If you were in an active duty Marine in the late 1980s or 90s or 2000s, then it is most likely the case that you were not exposed to toxic water in and around Camp Lejeune. If you are currently 40 years old, and when you were 20, you lived on the Camp Lejeune base for a year or 8 months, you would not have been exposed to toxic water at Camp Lejeune.

In any event, the people that this legislation is directed toward are those who served in the Marines, were a dependent of an active duty service member, were contract workers on the Marine Corps Base, worked steadily as a civilian on the Marine Corps Base, and then lived or visited base over several months, such that the person can identify at least thirty days that they were on Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base between 1953 and 1987, and therefore you would be able to establish that you have a claim against the government.

In the master complaint for the plaintiffs in this litigation, the language that the plaintiffs’ executive team has used is stark, essentially they say that scientists have described the Camp Lejeune water disaster as the worst public drinking water contamination crisis in our nation’s history.

The Master Complaint says that between 1953 and 1987, Camp Lejeune provided contaminated water to those on base. This water flowed out of faucets and taps and barracks, housing, buildings, elementary schools, hospital wards, and one or more studies indicate that the contaminants were 280 times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe. The next question you maybe asking or concerned about is what kind of diseases or illness might have resulted from these particular types of contaminants, overwhelming the drinking water supply at Camp Lejeune. The short answer is many types of cancer and other diseases have occurred because of this exposure to toxic water.

Some of the cancers and other diseases that have been mentioned as associated with exposure to this contaminated water include leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, certain cancers like bladder cancer, kidney cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, also Parkinson’s disease, certain types of kidney disease, end stage renal disease, systemic sclerosis and scleroderma. There seems to be quite a few potential qualifying injuries that you need to be aware of as you navigate whether you need to try to participate in this litigation, but again I want to emphasize that scientists have been studying this exposure to toxic water for decades now, both related to Camp Lejeune and generally how the human body reacts to exposure to the contaminants that have been identified in the Camp Lejeune water.

Once you file that administrative claim (by August 10, 2024), you have six months to get a response from the government, and after that you can file a lawsuit in the Eastern District of North Carolina. The deadline for filing a lawsuit is February 10, 2025.

The Master Complaint estimates that as many as one million individuals were exposed to toxic water at Camp Lejeune for the relevant period, which means there could be as many as one million claims in this case, so it’s going to be a massive litigation, it’s going to take a long time to process these individual lawsuits. This is not a class action, it is not a multidistrict litigation, which I’ve written about on this website.

This statute and the resulting litigation are great opportunities to pursue compensation if you’ve lost a loved one to cancer, and then find out that the illness was most likely based on exposure to toxic water at Camp Lejeune. If you have any questions about the Camp Lejeune litigation, feel free to call me. My direct line in the office is (919) 830-5602.

In any event, good luck. I hope you get your administrative claim filed by August 10, 2024, and I hope you are fairly compensated for these tragic diseases.

Please note that this post is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice nor intended to be legal advice. If you need a legal opinion about your particular case, contact me or another attorney.

The Camp Lejeune “Elective Option” has been open for a while now and allows eligible individuals affected by contaminated water from Camp Lejeune to seek monetary compensation for their injuries. The goal of this administrative process is to make it faster and easier to receive monetary compensation and avoid going to court.

A potential problem with the Elective Option is that it’s only available to those with officially recognized medical conditions. Another issue is that it has predetermined monetary payouts for certain injuries. This means it can result in certain people receiving less compensation than if they sued in court.

However, the window for filing suit will close soon. Most individuals have until August 2024 to start the administrative claims process. Luckily, a new scientific study was released that may make it easier for those harmed by Camp Lejeune contaminated water to obtain damages for their injuries.

To better understand the significance of the new study, as well as its results, let’s first take a look at the contaminated water problem at Camp Lejeune.

Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Overview

From 1980 to 1985, water samples were collected at Camp Lejeune. These samples were taken from water supplies that visitors and residents of Camp Lejeune used to cook, drink and clean with.

The samples found various levels of industrial chemicals and solvents such as:

• Tetrachloroethylene (PCE)
• Trichloroethylene (TCE)
• Trans-1,2-dichloroethylene (DCE)
• Vinyl chloride (VC)

Some of these chemicals were found at unacceptably high levels. For example, at the Hadnot Point water treatment plant, TCE levels in 1982 were found to be at 1,400 micrograms per liter. The EPA’s maximum allowable level for TCE is 5 micrograms per liter.

Medical issues associated with these chemicals include various types of cancers, heath defects, birth abnormalities, Parkinson’s disease, and aplastic anemia.

One of the biggest challenges for those seeking compensation for exposure to the dangerous water at Camp Lejeune is proving that their medical problem was caused by the water at Camp Lejeune.

There have been various studies and research linking the chemicals found in Camp Lejeune’s water supply with the health concerns of people who lived and worked there. However, these studies were limited to certain health issues or smaller groups of individuals. As a result, the scientific evidence to support an individual’s claim that their cancer or blood disorder wasn’t as strong as it could be. It also meant that many people could have cancer caused by the contaminated water from Camp Lejeune but be unable to receive compensation.

What the New Study Found

The study examined military personnel from the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps who were stationed at Camp Lejeune or Camp Pendleton between 1972 and 1985. Civilians who worked at either base were also examined. In total, more than 150,000 service members from Camp Lejeune and more than 160,000 service members from Camp Pendleton were subject to this study. About 6,000 civilians from each base were also included.

Specific cancer rates were then compared for individuals from each base. In case you’re wondering, Camp Pendleton was used as a base for comparison because its drinking water wasn’t known to have contamination before 1986. Also, the military and civilian populations from both bases were similar in terms of demographics, training, jobs and socioeconomic factors.

The study found that military personnel who lived or worked at Camp Lejeune had at least a 20% higher risk of developing certain cancers compared to those who lived and worked at Camp Pendleton. These cancers included:

• Acute myeloid leukemia
• All myeloid cancers including polycythemia vera
• Myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative syndromes
• Cancers of the esophagus, larynx, soft tissue and thyroid
• Polycythemia vera (alone)
• B-cell lymphoma
• Squamous cell esophageal cancer
• Certain types of lung cancer

For civilians, they had at least a 20% higher risk of developing certain cancers as well, including:

• Squamous cell lung cancer
• Female ductal breast cancer
• All myeloid cancers including polycythemia vera

Why This New Study Is So Important This study is a big deal for several reasons. First, it compares similar military personnel from two different bases instead of military personnel from Camp Lejeune with the regular population (which consists mostly of civilians). This matters because service members tend to be healthier due in part to more frequent medical checkups. Comparing soldiers from one base with soldiers from another base offers a more accurate picture of cancer risks as it accounts for the fact that service members tend to be healthier than civilians.

Second, this study reviewed data from cancer registries from every state. This offers a more complete view of cancer rates and other medical statistics.

Third, the study gave a very detailed look at the relationship between various cancers and exposure to certain chemicals. Very few, if any, similar studies exist. This means anyone interested in learning more about cancer risks and potential causes can use this data, even if their primary concern relates to the general population and not members of the U.S. military.

Finally, this study offers evidence that exposure to PCE, TCE and other chemicals may have caused more cancers than originally accepted or known. From a practical perspective, this means there could eventually be a larger list of cancers (like thyroid cancer and myeloproliferative syndrome) that are eligible for compensation, whether in court or through the administrative claims process (like the Elective Option).

If you have any questions about whether you or someone you know suffered a medical problem that was the result of Camp Lejeune’s water contamination, don’t hesitate to contact my office or call me at (919) 830-5602.

The Camp Lejeune toxic water litigation continues to chug along in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, with no major developments. This isn’t too surprising given how it’s still early in the overall litigation. However, there’s been a major development in the administrative claims process.

Specifically, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the U.S. Department of the Navy have announced something called an “Elective Option.” On paper at least, this is designed to help speed up the time it takes for claimants to receive compensation, as well as ease the burden of proving claims.

This may seem like welcome news, because as of the time of this writing, there are almost 100,000 administrative claims filed with the Navy. But a claimant should be vigilant and make sure the compensation offer under this option is reasonable and fair.

Let’s take a look at how this Elective Option process will work.

Background: The Administrative Claims Process

Before filing a lawsuit in court, a potential Camp Lejeune contaminated water plaintiff must first file a Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 (CLJA) administrative claim with the Navy. An individual can only file suit in federal court if the Navy denies the claim or doesn’t make a decision on the claim for six months after filing.

Until recently, there weren’t many updates or signs of progress from the Navy concerning these administrative claims. This meant that for most individuals, any sort of compensation was likely years away. Not only did they have to wait six months after filing an administrative claim before they could go to court, but once in court, they’d probably be stuck in litigation for years. This Elective Option may dramatically shorten the time it takes for eligible individuals to obtain compensation for their injuries.

How the Elective Option Works

To take advantage of the Elective Option (EO), a claimant doesn’t have to do anything in addition to filing an administrative claim with the Navy. The Navy will automatically review all claims for EO eligibility.

If the Navy determines a claim is eligible for the EO, the Navy will refer the case to the DOJ for final review. Assuming the DOJ approves the EO for the claim, the Navy will submit a settlement offer to the claimant.

The claimant then has 60 days to accept or decline the EO settlement offer. If they accept, the claimant can expect payment within 60 days. If the claimant denies the offer, they can choose to withdraw their administrative claim, keep their claim with the Navy for non-EO administrative claim processing or bring suit in federal court (after waiting the necessary six months or having the administrative claim formally denied).

If the Navy decides a claim isn’t eligible for an EO offer, the claim will remain with the Navy for non-EO claims processing. Right now, it’s unclear how these EO-ineligible claims will be processed or how long it will take to process them.

There are a lot more details about the EO process, but to best cover that information, the remainder of this blog post will consist of a Q&A format.

Do I need to Refile My Administrative Claim to Take Advantage of the EO?

No, as the Navy will review all administrative claims submitted to it, even those filed before the announcement of the EO.

Can Individuals Already in Federal Court Take Advantage of the EO?

No, although the DOJ will review cases currently in court to see if they’re eligible for a settlement offer that’s similar to what the plaintiff would have been eligible for if they could take advantage of the EO.

What are the Elective Option Eligibility Requirements?

The first major requirement is that you suffered an eligible injury. The EO recognizes two tiers of injuries, all of which have been identified by the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR) as being sufficiently linked to contaminants found in the Camp Lejeune water supply. Tier 1 qualifying injuries include:

• Bladder cancer
• Leukemia
• Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• Liver cancer
• Kidney cancer

Tier 2 qualifying injuries include:

• Systemic sclerosis or systemic scleroderma
• Kidney disease or end stage renal disease
• Parkinson’s disease
• Multiple myeloma

Assuming a person has suffered an eligible injury, they must show that they were exposed to the Camp Lejeune water (or water from Marine Corps Air Station New River) for at least 30 days. For most people, this will involve showing that they lived or worked at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days.

Claimants who allege their exposure occurred while their mothers were pregnant with them will need to demonstrate that their mothers lived or worked at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days while pregnant.

After these two requirements have been met, a claimant must meet two more conditions. First, they must have been diagnosed or treated for their qualifying injury before August 10, 2022.

Second, the date of the first treatment or diagnosis for the qualifying injury must have occurred within a special time window. Specifically, this first treatment or diagnosis must have occurred at least two years, but no more than 35 years, after the most recent exposure to the contaminated water.

In Part 2, we will look at proving a qualifying injury, proving exposure to Camp Lejeune toxic water, and the potential settlement outlook for this Elective Option. Stay tuned.

In a previous blog post, I mentioned how the Camp Lejeune litigation was starting to pick up. Specifically, the court scheduled a status conference to discuss pre-trial matters like protecting evidence and identifying witnesses. Even though we’re still in the early stages of litigation, a few things have happened since then that I’d like to discuss.

An Overview of the Camp Lejeune Lawsuits

The water at the U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune (Camp Lejeune) is safe to drink and use. But it wasn’t always this way, especially during the decades before 1987. During that time, the water at Camp Lejeune contained various chemicals which could result in serious health problems.

Unfortunately, many of those harmed by the contaminated water had limited access to compensation for their injuries. This changed in August 2022 when President Biden signed the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 (CLJA).

This law removed government immunity that prevented victims of Camp Lejeune water contamination from suing the government. As a result, hundreds, if not thousands of lawsuits have been filed so far and it’s expected many thousands more will be filed over the next few years until the statute of limitation deadline passes.

With so many lawsuits filed in the same court (the CLJA requires all lawsuits to be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina), the court has understandably needed to make arrangements to best organize and process the incoming cases. This is where we see one of the most notable updates to the Camp Lejeune litigation.

Recent Updates to Camp Lejeune Litigation

The most important update came on April 24, 2023, when the court created a Master Docket. This is a single docket for all Camp Lejeune water contamination cases, even if plaintiffs have their own cases that would otherwise get their own docket. The goal of the Master Docket is to streamline the early parts of litigation, such as filing pleadings and handling discovery.

In a way, a Master Docket is a bit like an MDL, or multidistrict litigation. This is because the Master Docket makes it possible for the court to develop a master complaint and answer that most parties can use during the pleadings stage of litigation.

Once that’s complete, there’s a consolidated discovery process with each step outlined by the court. The court will also figure out when and how bellwether trials will take place and help coordinate settlement discussions among the parties.

The point of this consolidation is to speed up litigation, make it easier for the parties to reach a settlement and make it cheaper for each side to present their cases. But why isn’t the Camp Lejeune litigation an MDL? Well, it’s because all the cases are already being filed to the same court – the Eastern District of North Carolina. In contrast, an MDL is typically set up because many cases have been filed in various federal districts all over the country.

The court has also ordered the creation of a leadership structure for the plaintiffs. One reason for this is so they can better coordinate their lawsuits with each other. Finally, the court has outlined the steps attorneys need to follow if they want to represent clients in one or more Camp Lejeune water contamination lawsuits in the Eastern District of North Carolina.

It should also be noted that the court has granted a time extension to the U.S. government (the primary defendant in the Camp Lejeune water contamination cases) to file its answer to the plaintiffs’ complaints. This extension applies to many, if not most, pending cases.

This extension isn’t surprising given the relatively fluid nature of the overall litigation and how there’s some uncertainty in how the court will handle its massive caseload. But another source of uncertainty lies with the administrative claims.

Camp Lejeune Contaminated Water Administrative Claims

The CLJA requires plaintiffs to file an administrative claim with the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) before suing in court. The hope is that the JAG can process these claims and provide sufficient compensation to individuals so that they don’t need to go to court.

The problem is that few, if any, administrative claims have been processed. Not only that, but JAG still hasn’t set up its e-filing service to make it easier for the filing and processing of claims. Eventually, many of the administrative claims will be fully processed. When this happens, it’ll be curious to see the compensation offers that are made and what effect they will have on the Camp Lejeune litigation.

Proposed Law to Limit Attorney’s Fees in Camp Lejeune Cases

When the CLJA became law, it resulted in a massive amount of legal advertising. While much of this didn’t directly come from attorneys, it still left a bad taste for some people. For example, there was the perception that plaintiffs’ attorneys were trying to profit from the harm suffered by service members and their families.

In response, several members of Congress have tried to limit the amount of compensation plaintiffs’ attorneys in Camp Lejeune litigation can receive. The Protect Access to Justice for Veterans Act of 2023 introduced by Senator Durbin would limit an attorney’s fees to 20% of the money recovered within 180 days after filing an administrative claim and 33.3% of the money recovered from a civil suit. Another feature of this law is that only after clients have received their money from an administrative claim or lawsuit will their get attorneys paid.

In a more extreme approach, the Protect Camp Lejeune VETS Act introduced by Senator Sullivan would limit attorney’s fees to 2% of the money recovered for administrative claims where the client hired an attorney on or after August 10, 2022. This cap rises to 10% of the money recovered from civil suits or administrative claims where the client hired an attorney before August 10, 2022.

Like the Protect Access to Justice for Veterans Act of 2023, attorneys only get paid after their clients have received their money. Finally, the Protect Camp Lejeune VETS Act has a disclosure provision. This requires the reporting of attorney’s fees in Camp Lejeune cases to the court, the Attorney General and Congress.

What’s Up Next for Camp Lejeune Lawsuits

The court will help create a master complaint and answer, along with specifics on how to streamline discovery. The parties will complete the pleadings stage of the litigation and begin the discovery process. And hopefully, JAG will finish processing some administrative claims.

If you’d like to learn more about the Camp Lejeune lawsuits, stay tuned to this blog for more updates as they arise. In the meantime, if you have questions about a possible administrative claim or lawsuit due to water contamination from Camp Lejeune, you can call my direct line at (919) 830-5602.

Litigation relating to personal injuries from the Camp Lejeune water contamination is beginning to ramp up. In fact, a status conference hearing has been scheduled for April 5, 2023 in one of the cases. But before we discuss what will happen during that conference, let’s take a quick look at how we got here.

Before the Camp Lejeune Lawsuits

If you’ve been keeping up with the Camp Lejeune water contamination news stories, you’ll recall that President Biden signed the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 (CLJA) into law in August of last year. The law states that eligible individuals may sue the federal government to recover damages due to exposure to contaminated water from Camp Lejeune.

But before someone can file suit, they must first file an administrative claim with the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG). If JAG hasn’t completed processing the claim within six months of filing, the individual can choose to continue waiting or file a civil suit in federal court.

Administrative claims have been pouring into JAG, with tens of thousands filed so far. And as of the time of this writing, it’s not believed that any of those claims have been fully processed. This is a bit frustrating, as most people would prefer to receive compensation for their injuries without having to go to court, or at the very least least, to have some response from the administrative claims process.

With no substantial progress being made with the administrative claims and the six-month waiting period having passed for initial administrative claim filers, the lawsuits have started. There are now at least several hundred cases pending in federal court for the Eastern District of North Carolina before the Honorable U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III.

The Camp Lejeune Water Status Conference

A pre-trial status conference is intended to help the court manage the pre-trial aspects of the case. According to the March 20, 2023 order, the court will hold its status conference at 1 pm on April 5, 2023 at the Terry Sanford Federal Building and United States Courthouse here in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I practice law. At the conference, the court and parties to the lawsuit will discuss various pre-trial matters, such as:

• Protecting evidence.
• Identifying expert witnesses.
• Handling depositions.
• Sorting out the procedures for confirming the specific chemicals claimed to have caused injuries, as well as where those chemicals came from and when they were discharged.
• Establishing the process for potential settlement or mediation.
• Addressing the process for initial disclosures.

As you can see, these issues are vitally important, and with the huge volume of cases expected to be filed, the federal court in North Carolina will need an efficient system or the cases will take many years to resolve.

Further, the issue of handling initial disclosures is especially important because it refers to each party in the lawsuit providing a list to the other side that identifies the potential evidence they may use in the case. This means listing the identity of any potential witnesses and describing the documents or other evidence each side has. Each side must provide these “initial disclosures” without the other party having to first send a formal discovery request. One of the goals of the initial disclosure requirement is to save time during discovery (which is often the longest and most expensive part of litigation).

What’s Next?

After this status conference, the judge and parties in the case will have a clearer picture of what they can expect from the other side before trial. This will then make it easier for the judge to schedule the other parts of the litigation, such as completing discovery and when the litigants must file certain motions.

There’s still potentially a long way to obtaining recovery if you’ve been injured from the water at Camp Lejeune. But the good news is that things are moving, even if a bit slow. Things should begin picking up, and maybe we’ll see some settlements once JAG can make some progress in processing all the administrative claims after setting up its website to accept electronic filings.

In the meantime, you might have questions about whether your injuries are the result of Camp Lejeune’s water contamination and/or how to proceed with legal action. If so, feel free to contact me and I’ll see what I can do to assist you. My direct line at the office is (919) 830-5602.

It’s been a few months since President Biden signed the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 (CLJA) into law. I’ve written several posts discussing this new law, but none of those posts have gone into detail about how and why the drinking water at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune caused so much harm to so many individuals for so long. Camp Lejeune water contamination, sadly, occurred for decades, and it’s important to understand how it happened and how it hurt people. In this blog post, we’ll examine:

• How the water got contaminated
• What chemicals or toxins contaminated the water
• What health effects resulted from the contamination

Where Did the Camp Lejeune Drinking Water Become Contaminated?

There were multiple locations. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the finished water (water used for drinking, cleaning, bathing, etc.) at Camp Lejeune came from the following eight water-distribution plants:

• New River
• Hadnot Point
• Tarawa Terrace
• Holcomb Boulevard
• Courthouse Bay
• Rifle Range
• Onslow Beach
• Montford Point/Camp Johnson

The ATSDR reports that only the following three water-distribution plants were contaminated with high levels of harmful chemicals: Hadnot Point, Tarawa Terrace and Holcomb Boulevard. However, Hadnot Point and Tarawa Terrace suffered the worst contamination.

Water Contamination at the Hadnot Point Water-Distribution Plant

The Hadnot Point water source provided water to several locations, such as Mainside Barracks and several family housing locations (Berkeley Manor, Hospital Point, Paradise Point and Midway Park).

The primary contaminant in the water was trichloroethylene (TCE), but other contaminants included perchloroethylene/tetrachloroethylene (PCE), benzene, vinyl chloride and trans t-1,2-dichloroethylene (DCE). These chemicals came from various sources, including waste disposal sites, underground storage tanks and chemical spills from industrial locations.

To give you an idea of how bad the contamination was at Hadnot Point, in 1982, the TCE levels in the drinking water was 1,400 parts per billion (ppb) even though the allowable limit was just 5 ppb. That’s 280 times the allowable limits. Which is horrifying.

Water Contamination at the Tarawa Terrace Water-Distribution Plant The Knox Trailer Park and Tarawa Terrace family housing unit were major users of water from the Tarawa Terrace water-distribution plant. The main contaminant found in the water was PCE, which came from an off-base dry cleaning business.

In 1985, PCE was detected in the water from Tarawa Terrace at a concentration of 215 ppb, although the allowable limit was 5 ppb.

Water Contamination at the Holcomb Boulevard Water-Distribution Plant The water contamination at this location is believed to be less severe, as much of the contaminated water used in the Holcomb Boulevard drinking system came from Hadnot Point. Despite the smaller amount of contamination, the level of chemicals in drinking water, such as TCE, PCE and DCE, is believed to have significantly exceeded allowable limits.

What Health Problems Were Caused by the Chemicals in the Camp Lejeune Water?

The human body is complex and there are often various factors that determine whether someone gets sick after exposure to something harmful. That being said, there’s plenty of research that explores the risks of exposure to many of the chemicals found in the Camp Lejeune drinking water. But factors that could affect how these chemicals harm people include:

• Amount of exposure (how much of the toxin was in the water you were exposed to)
• Method of exposure (inhalation of water vapor containing contaminants versus having it touch your skin or drinking it)
• Duration of exposure (how long you were on base)
• At what point in your life you were exposed (as a baby versus as a child or adult)
• Your personal characteristics (such as eating and exercise habits, as well as genetics and family history)

Even though the exact cause of a specific health issue in a particular individual can be complex, scientific research can still conclude that certain health effects are caused by certain chemicals.

The ATSDR states that there’s sufficient evidence to conclude that the following chemicals found in the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune cause the following health problems:

• TCE: Cardiac defects, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and kidney cancer
• PCE: Bladder cancer
• Benzene: Leukemia and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
• Vinyl chloride: Liver cancer

There are other health problems that the ATSDR recognizes are linked to a specific toxin:

• TCE: Leukemia, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, end-stage renal disease, Parkinson’s disease and Scleroderma.
• PCE: Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and end-stage renal disease
• Benzene: Multiple myeloma

Finally, there are health problems that have positive associations between an ailment and exposure to a specific chemical.

• TCE and/or PCE: chonal atresia, eye defects, low birth weight, fetal death, major malformations, miscarriage, neural tube defects, oral cleft defects, small for gestational age, breast cancer, cervical cancer, esophageal cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, rectal cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, impaired immune system function, neurological effects, neurobehavioral performance deficits, severe, generalized hypersensitivity skin disorder
• Benzene: Miscarriage, aplastic anemia and myelodysplastic syndrome
• Vinyl chloride: Brain cancer, lung cancer, liver cirrhosis and soft tissue cancer

Conclusion

One or more of your health problems may have been caused by exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. But if you want to receive compensation for your injuries, you’ll have to provide evidence to support your claims. Depending on your situation, it might be a good idea to have a competent injury attorney help you with this process.

If you have any questions, feel free to give my firm a call at (919) 830-5602. I’ll do my best to help you.