Bills filed in the House of Representatives and Senate would provide health care to any Camp Lejeune veteran or family member with illnesses related to the contamination. A vote on the Senate bill is expected in the Veterans Affairs Committee next week.
Yet it's estimated that as many as a million people were exposed to toxic chemicals in the base's water from 1957 to 1987. Thousands of records, many uncovered by Ensminger and Partain, show how the military was warned of the danger years before it shuttered poisoned wells.
Their goal was to force the Marines to notify every veteran who was on base during the time of the contamination. Later, they would seek out health care for the sick. And they would unearth documents with explosive information that the water was laced with a known carcinogen, benzene, from a million gallons of spilled fuel.
No comments:
Post a Comment