Monday, April 11, 2022 - There are about 30,000 Marines with families living on or around the camp Lejeune military installation in North Carolina that have been victimized by the Department of Justice for drinking contaminated tap water. Thousands of US Marine families have passed through the base for more than the last fifty years. Cancer rates have skyrocketed amongst family members, especially children of Marines serving our country and living near the base. For decades it has been a standard operating procedure to douse open burn pit fires on the base with fire fighting foam containing toxic carcinogenic forever chemicals. Thousands of pregnant women who were married to Marines or female, pregnant marines themselves drank the toxic tap water during their pregnancy resulting in a cancer rate of more than four times the national average for their children. The Camp Lejeune Justice Act seeks to allow these families the right to file a PFAS cancer lawsuit or other against the department of justice for the US Government's negligence in failing to keep their families safe. North Carolina lawmaker Greg Murphy, the original sponsor of the CLJA, told the local news, "When we send our men and women overseas, we make a promise to care for them when they come home. We failed our veterans when they were exposed to toxic PFAS drinking water at Camp Lejeune, and it is up to us to make it right. My bipartisan bill, the Camp Lejeune Justice Act eliminates burdensome red tape to ensure that those exposed to toxic chemicals, including service members, Marine dependents, civil servants, and contractors, can receive their day in court," according to the Congressman's website.
More specifically, the Marine Corp found that two water treatment facilities servicing the base and the surrounding community had been contaminated with PCE (perchloroethylene or tetrachloroethylene), according to a report published in PRNewswire.com. The two water treatment plants that have been contaminated are the Tarawa Terrace water treatment plant and the Hadnot Point Water treatment plant. The water treatment plants registered levels of PFAS forever chemicals fifty to one hundred times the Environmental Protection Agency's safety threshold. According to PRN, the elevated levels of PFAS chemicals were not due to toxic firefighting foam alone, and that other forms of negligence on the part of Marine health officials occurred. "Multiple sources of contamination are believed to have caused this, including storage tank leaks, industrial spills, and inappropriate water disposal practices," it was reported.
The use of firefighting foam to extinguish burn pit and jet fuel fires has been all but discontinued because of its devastating effect on local drinking water supplies. Municipalities throughout the United States are filing lawsuits against 3M, the original manufacturer of firefighting foam, for failing to warn of its carcinogenic potential. Despite the obvious dangers, the Federal Aviation Administration mandates the use of firefighting foam at all major federal airports in the US and that all commercial airports purchase it using federally funded programs and taxpayer dollars. Lawsuits in communities surrounding airports that use firefighting foam and have contaminated tap water supplies have filed water contamination lawsuits seeking to have the manufacturers of the chemicals pay for its cleanup.
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