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Press Releases
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SENATE APPROVES DOLE MEASURE TO NOTIFY LEJEUNE WATER CONTAMINATION VICTIMS
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September 26th, 2007 - Washington, D.C. - The Senate approved an amendment Tuesday evening introduced by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole that would help individuals exposed to contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C. The last contaminated wells were closed in 1987, but the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has found that babies exposed in utero to the drinking water developed leukemia and other cancers, as well as birth defects, such as spina bifida and cleft palate.
Dole’s amendment would require the Secretary of the Navy to directly notify Marines, dependents and civilian employees who were assigned at Camp Lejeune between 1958 and 1987 that they were exposed to harmful chemicals within the installation’s water system. After one year, efforts are to be supplemented with notification through the national media. The amendment also directs the Secretary to send a voluntary survey to these individuals to ask about their health status.
“We cannot correct a past mistake by avoiding the fact that this contamination occurred,” said Dole. “We are told that the Corps has known of this contamination since 1980, and it took five years merely to close most of these wells. Twenty-plus years have passed since then. Enough is enough. Notifying these Marines, their families and civilian employees is a necessary first step and is the right thing to do.”
Government estimates show that over three decades, as many as one million people living and working at Camp Lejeune may have been exposed to drinking water contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), dichloroethylene (DCE) tetrachloroethylence (PCE), and in their degraded forms, benzene, methyl chloride and vinyl chloride. These chemicals are found primarily in industrial degreasing solvents, dry cleaning solvents and fuels.
Dole’s amendment was cosponsored by Sens. Richard Burr, Edward Kennedy and John Kerry.
The Senate version of the defense authorization bill must be reconciled in conference with the House of Representatives-passed version of the bill. A final bill then will have to be approved by both the House and the Senate and go before the president for his signature.
Background
As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Dole has fought to help bring forward the facts about the Camp Lejeune water contamination and to expedite the notification of potential victims. Dole included a provision in last year’s defense authorization bill that called for a National Academies of Science study of the health impacts of TCE in the drinking water and homes at Camp Lejeune.
In August 2007, Dole, along with four of her colleagues, introduced legislation to help protect our most susceptible populations, such as pregnant women, infants and children, against the negative health impacts of drinking water contaminated with TCE. According the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), TCE is the most widespread water contaminant in the nation and can be found in soil and groundwater in every state.
Dole’s legislation would require the EPA to establish a health advisory for TCE and a National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, which is a legally enforceable public water system standard, to limit TCE levels. The bill also would require EPA to prepare an Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) inhalation reference concentration (RfC) for TCE vapor exposure. IRIS is an electronic database containing information on human health effects that may result from exposure to various chemicals in the environment, and an RfC would provide an estimate of how much TCE vapor exposure would create an appreciable risk for harmful effects.
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