A Trust Betrayed (22 page)

Breast cancer victim Peter Devereaux at his home in North Andover, MA.

Courtesy of North Andover Citizen/David Sokol.

Poster for
Semper Fi
, a documentary on Camp Lejeune's water contamination by Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon.

Courtesy of Tied to the Tracks Films, 2011.

Breast cancer victims from Camp Lejeune posed for a calendar in 2011. Front row (L to R): Kris Thomas, Chet Sisky, Joe Moser, Ed Hughes, and Mike Muller. Back row (L to R): Jim Fontella, Jesus Carlos Marroquin, George Holmes, Peter Devereaux, Teddy Richardson, Mike Partain, Doug Palmer, and Ralph Burkeen.

Courtesy of David Fox for ArtBECAUSE Breast Cancer Foundation.

Mike Partain was born at Camp Lejeune in 1968 and diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.

Courtesy of David Fox for ArtBECAUSE Breast Cancer Foundation.

Tom Townsend, whose son died a few months after being born at Camp Lejeune in 1967, pores over documents at his home in Moscow, ID.

Courtesy of Tom Townsend.

David Ozonoff, a professor of environmental health at Boston University, was part of an expert panel advising federal health investigators on Camp Lejeune.

Courtesy of Boston University.

Richard Clapp, an epidemiologist and professor of environmental health at Boston University, volunteered his time to assist victims with health problems from Camp Lejeune's water.

Courtesy of BU School of Public Health.

Former Senator Elizabeth Dole, R-NC, sponsored legislation to assist victims of Camp Lejeune's contamination.

Courtesy of Richard A. Bloom.

Representative John Dingell, D-MI, demanded that the military be held accountable for contamination at its bases.

Courtesy of Richard A. Bloom.

Jerry Ensminger, Erin Brockovich, and Mike Partain pushed for passage of a bill to provide health care for Camp Lejeune victims in 2012.

Courtesy of Jerry Ensminger.

President Barack Obama signed the Janey Ensminger Act Tony Hardmon and Rachel Libert, producers of the
Semper Fi
documentary; Representative Jeff Miller, R-FL; Jerry Ensminger; Representative Brad Miller, D-NC; and Mike Partain.

Courtesy of Jerry Ensminger.

And so it was that the commandant's panel issued a report and recommendations in October 2004 that carefully avoided making any judgment about whether Lejeune's pollution could be linked to health problems. The main conclusion was that the Marine Corps had “acted responsibly” in its management of the base water supplies but could have done more to provide information about the contamination to base residents. Base officials also should have assessed the potential health risks of the water pollution after it was discovered, the panel said, though there were understandable reasons why the military did not recognize there was a serious problem, including a lack of regulatory standards, inadequate testing methods, and an absence of complaints from residents about the quality of their water.
¹⁸

“Camp Lejeune made every effort to comply with existing water quality regulations and related schedules but did not anticipate or independently evaluate health risks associated with chemicals that might be subject to future regulation,” the Marine Corps panel said. Among the reasons that nothing was done about the volatile organic compounds in the water, according to the panel, were the following: the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic Division, or
LANTDIV
, apparently did not alert base officials to the significance of the problem; the environmental staff at Lejeune was not adequately informed about the chemicals; and there was poor communication between water system operators at the base and the environmental and health managers who knew about the presence of solvents.

“In the early 1980s, evidence continued to accumulate within the scientific community that synthetic chemicals, such as
VOC
s, created significant health risks as a result of long-term exposure,”
but there was no indication the Marine Corps was aware of the evolving science, the panel concluded. “Given that more than two decades have passed since the initial indications of
VOC
contamination, a lack of complete information on related decisions was expected. The scope of the Panel's interviews and research makes it unlikely that new information coming to light would indicate a cover-up.”