Civilian Exposure

This is the latest chemical issue for groundwater contamination springing up at military bases everywhere over the past 18 months.  If not already an issue at Camp Lejeune, it likely soon will be. Here’s what we found in recent articles that caught our eye:

The Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base site covers 125,000 acres in San Diego County, California. The base provides housing, training, logistical and administrative support for the Fleet Marine Force units. Past disposal practices have contaminated the groundwater and soil. In an initial investigation, the Marine Corps found nine areas of contamination. Waste generation operations at this site include maintenance and repair of vehicles (trucks, tanks, and aircraft); landfill operations; waste disposal areas, such as scrap yards; and fire fighting drill areas. The base contains wetlands, streams, and rivers which feed into the Pacific Ocean. This land is the only remaining undeveloped area between Los Angeles and San Diego.

The Naval Air Station Patuxent River in southern Maryland has continued to expand, contributing to rapid population growth in the surrounding area. There are approximately 17,500 military, civilian, contractors and nonappropriated fund personnel that work at the Naval Air Station on a normal day. But with expansion comes higher scrutiny on environmental impacts, and Patuxent River NAS has definitely made an impact.

Moffett Naval Air Station in California is a 1,500-acre site located in Moffett Field, California. Moffett Field is located 35 miles south of San Francisco and approximately 1 mile south of San Francisco Bay in Santa Clara County, California. It was purchased in 1931 for one dollar, according to records, and was commissioned in 1933 as a naval air station to support a “lighter-than-air” (LTA) program (“Moffett Federal Airfield” – GlobalSecurity.org 2012). In 1991, Moffett Field was recommended for closure under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process.  

I’m a wife and caregiver to my now 82-year old Marine. My husband’s medical conditions NEVER STOP!! It all started in 1991, when he had blockages and ended up with 4 stents outside his heart. I was shocked when he started complaining of what felt like a toothache and even a heartburn episode. He went to his doctor where they told him to immediately go to the ER.

My dad was a Vietnam hospital corpsman exposed to Agent Orange. He has three of the 13 types of cancer possible from it. I struggled for the last 9 years to help his body heal itself.  As for me, I have MS, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, and a spinal injury in 2008, resulting in needing stem cell procedure. But because of the Camp Lejeune water and the inoculations they gave us, my stem cell injection failed.

Two wells bordering the base’s southern edge have been found to have potentially harmful levels of PFAS from firefighting foams used on the base. Chemical studies show that this “forever chemical” can have harmful impacts on health, from cancer to immune and endocrine system deficiencies and more.

Providing drinking water under the EPA’s 70 part per trillion (ppt) advisory still allows for people to consume dangerous levels of the toxins, considering that the nation’s top public health officials say 1 ppt in drinking water is likely to be dangerous.

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In the late 1950’s, my father worked at APG. I’m not sure in what area or if it was when he was in the Army or while he was a civilian. In 1967, my father was killed at work in California and the autopsy showed he was in the beginning of cirrhosis of the liver. The electric company responsible for his death used that information to say that my father was an alcoholic, which he wasn’t.