Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Settlement

Government reports indicate that Camp Lejeune had more than 600 water contamination sites throughout the sprawling base. The major water contamination sites at Camp Lejeune include:

ABC Cleaners: ABC Cleaners opened in 1953 and was a bustling business in the 1960s and 1970s, servicing Marines who needed their uniforms washed and pressed. North Carolina state records show that ABC Cleaners flushed chemical solvents that contained PCE through a floor drain into a septic tank, which disposed the contaminants into a drainage field on the property. Once in the soil, the chemicals entered the groundwater and contaminated two wells just 500 feet away. The wells serviced the Tarawa Terrace housing area of Camp Lejeune. Testing showed PCE concentrations in the soil underneath the ABC Cleaners site reached as high as 2,100 parts per million (ppm). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) placed ABC Cleaners as a hazardous waste site on the Superfund list in 1989. In 2005, the business owners sold ABC Cleaners. The new business, A-1 Cleaners, served as a clothing drop off location for another six years before all operations were terminated in 2011.

Hadnot Point Fuel Farm: The Hadnot Point Fuel Farm was built on the southeast corner of Holcomb Blvd and Ash Street sometime in 1941. According to government documents, the United States Marine Corps lost 1.1 million of gallons of fuel at a Hadnot Point fuel farm over the course of a 49-year operational history. This leaked fuel was found at all levels in the aquifer, and as a result, benzene entered the water supply at Camp Lejeune.

Well No. 651: Well HP-651 was constructed in 1971 along Piney Green Road in the Hadnot Point area near the Camp Lejeune base junkyard. When sampled in 1985, the well measured at:

• 18,900 ppb TCE
• 8,070 ppb DCE
• 655 ppb vinyl chloride
• 400 ppb PCE

The well was taken off-line in 1985.

Radio Shop South of Hadnot Point Industrial Area: Workers installing and repairing radio components disposed roughly 100 gallons of cleaning and degreasing chemicals per month into a wooded area near a cluster of water wells. According to a civilian worker from Camp Lejeune, there was “no guideline, policy, or program in place for base personnel handling or disposing of any chemical until the mid-1980s.” Until that time, “PCB-laden transformer oil was spread onto roads “to keep the dust down,” and everything else “was either dumped on the ground or they just dug a hole and poured the chemicals into the ground.”

Naval Hospital: The Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital used toxic water. In 1982, a sample taken from the emergency room sink at the Naval Hospital found TCE at 1,400 ppb.

What are Neurobehavioral Effects?

Several studies have indicated that toxic chemicals in the water at Camp Lejeune may cause neurobehavioral effects, which include Parkinson’s Disease, memory loss, anxiety, dementia, concentration problems, post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, fatigue, motor problems, and others.

Camp Lejeune ATSDR Studies

The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) conducted several studies looking into the effects that toxic water exposure had on people living and working at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. In one study, ATSDR looked at male breast cancer rates. The agency found possible associations between exposure to PCE, DCE, and vinyl chloride at Camp Lejeune and male breast cancer.

Another ATSDR study looked at birth defects among children between 1968 and 1985. The mothers who gave birth to the children in the study resided on the base at the time of delivery. According to the study:

• In utero exposure to PCE was associated with preterm birth.
• In utero exposure to TCE was associated with small for gestational age (SGA), reduced mean birth weight (MBW), and term low birth weight (TLBW).
• In utero exposure to benzene was associated with TLBW.

ATSDR also completed a study that analyzed whether exposures to Camp Lejeune water were associated with increased risk of death from specific cancers and other chronic diseases among civilian workers employed at the base. Compared to base workers from the Marine Base at Camp Pendleton in California, Camp Lejeune workers had higher mortality rates for the following causes of death:

• Female breast cancer
• Kidney cancer
• Kidney diseases
• Leukemias
• Lung cancer
• Multiple myeloma
• Oral cavity cancer
• Parkinson’s disease
• Prostate cancer
• Rectal cancer

Per the study, the higher rates of kidney cancer, prostate cancer, rectal cancer, leukemias, and Parkinson’s disease were primarily among the Camp Lejeune civilian workers with higher cumulative exposures to the contaminants.