It’s been more than 40 years since the drinking water at Camp Lejeune was found to be contaminated by industrial solvents and other chemicals the CDC found -- in animal studies -- can cause cancers and other illnesses after long-term exposure.
More than a million people may have been exposed, but even after a law was passed allowing them to sue the federal government for damages, not one of the more than 400,000 claims filed has moved forward and only a few settlements have been made.
Stephen Abarno served aboard Camp Lejeune from 1972 through 1975, during the time drinking water aboard the base was contaminated with tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene and their breakdown products, trans-1,2-dichloroethyline and vinyl chloride.
In 2018, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. He had surgery that year, but the cancer returned the following year and he again had surgery – followed by a two-year course of BCG immunotherapy treatment that injects a weakened form of the tuberculosis directly into the bladder to recognize and attack cancer cells.
“Just under 20 infusions of this BCG,” he said, “As I explained to people, it's like Drano being put into your bladder and it eats set the cancer cells at the lining of the bladder. I had the lowest form of cancer at the time, and it helps clear it out. But it's not a comfortable feeling because you have to hold the BCG and your bladder for two hours and then after two hours you urinate it out.”
Enacted 40 years after the government testing showed drinking water contamination aboard the base, the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 allows people who lived, worked, or were exposed to the toxic water for at least 30 days between 1953 and 1987 to sue the U.S. government for illnesses caused by that exposure.
Part of the Honoring Our PACT Act, the law removed previous barriers to lawsuits and established a lower standard of proof, requiring plaintiffs to show the contaminated water was at least "as likely as not" the cause of their illness.
At the end of June, Congresswoman Deborah Ross introduced the Ensuring Justice for Camp Lejeune Victims Act, which makes technical changes that remove barriers in the initial act to make sure veterans’ claims are given fair and reasonable judicial review.
The legislation would more clearly outline the right to a jury trial, and not just a bench trial, for victims; it would also expand the venue for cases to be heard. The initial act required all cases to be heard in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, but the tweaked law would allow cases to be heard in any federal court in North or South Carolina.
The bill still hasn’t been taken up but Abarno, formerly of Wilmington, now living in Asheboro, said victims should absolutely have the right to have their cases heard by a jury of their peers.
“The court judges that are dealing with this are saying, ‘Well, it doesn't really say that you can have the jury trial.’ Which, in my opinion, the judges are agents of the government, even though they're so-called supposed to be neutral, you know, and the DOJ is fighting that we don't go to jury trials because they're afraid of how much money they're going to have to put out,” he said.
And Abarno frustrated that there hasn’t been any action on the legislation. He said, “This technical corrections bill is probably at the bottom of the pile of what they're doing, obviously because nothing's happening yet.”
But he’s even more frustrated that those responsible, and especially those that covered up the water contamination for years, are not being penalized. Abarno said, “No one is really being held accountable. Eventually will be body is going to get some money, and many people should have been put in jail, or a capital punishment for some of them, because of allowing this to happen.”
The bill would also cap attorney fees at 20% for settlements and 25% for trials, and Abarno said he supports that. “Only thing I see that the technical act was good for was making sure that some attorneys don't try to screw over the veterans on how much money they charge for us to get our compensation,” he said.
Like many who have battled illness, waited for years for the federal government to act, and have watched the trial process move along at what feels like a snail’s pace, Abarno is angry. He said, “It's just disgusting how the government has treated us as veterans that have been hurt by their negligence.”
In part two of PRE’s series examining the impact of the toxic water on those who served aboard the base, the widow of a Marine Corps veteran diagnosed with breast cancer shares her journey – and her belief that government lawyers are dragging their heels, waiting for victims to die to avoid payout. That’s Tuesday on Morning Edition and All Things Considered on Public Radio East.
Background:
In 1982, Camp Lejeune’s water supplies were formally tested and found to be contaminated, but the worst of Camp Lejeune’s drinking water wells remained open until 1985. Camp Lejeune residents were first notified about water contamination in June 1984 via a base newsletter, which downplayed the extent of exposure. More specific notifications about contaminated wells being shut down followed later in 1984 and 1985, but many people didn't learn the full truth until news reports in the late 1990s. The U.S. Marine Corps officially began notifying past residents in 1999 as part of a federal health study.
The contaminants at Camp Lejeune came from leaking underground storage tanks, waste disposal sites, industrial area spills and an off-base dry-cleaning firm – and testing found that three of the base’s eight water treatment facilities contained contaminants – including those that supplied water to barracks and family housing at several locations.
A study published in Environmental Health in 2014 reported samples taken at Camp Lejeune between 1980-1985 primarily contained tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene and their breakdown products, trans-1,2-dichloroethyline and vinyl chloride. Benzene was also found in the water but at officially safe concentrations.
According to the CDC, studies in animals have shown that long-term exposure to tetrachloroethylene can cause cancers of the liver, kidney, and blood systems, and changes in brain chemistry.
More than one million people may have been exposed at the base near Jacksonville.
Enacted 40 years after the government testing showed drinking water contamination aboard the base, the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 allows people who lived, worked, or were exposed to the toxic water for at least 30 days between 1953 and 1987 to sue the U.S. government for harm caused by that exposure.
Part of the Honoring Our PACT Act, the law removed previous barriers to lawsuits and established a lower standard of proof, requiring plaintiffs to show the contaminated water was at least "as likely as not" the cause of their illness.
Victims had two years from the date President Joe Biden signed the act to sue the federal government for compensation for illnesses caused by the water contamination – a window that closed last fall.
Currently, there are more than 400,000 pending claims with the Department of the Navy, but despite that overwhelming number, not a single case has gone to trial and there have been just a few settlements.
