A close friend’s husband was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia several years ago. Little did we know at the time that it was quite likely due to his early childhood spent at Camp LeJeune. I learned that his mother used to mix his baby formula with water which came from the base’s water treatment facility. No one knew at that time from the early 50s to late 80s, the drinking water supply at the Camp LeJeune Marine Corps base in North Carolina was heavily contaminated with toxic, carcinogenic chemicals. The levels of toxicity were thousands of times higher than the maximum safe limits set by the EPA.
After many medical procedures and seemingly truckloads of medications later, my friend’s husband, is still among us; however, his life trajectory is much different now. Same with his family. A new normal one might say.
I’ve been reading up on the subject a lot over the past few days. I’ve learned that many, if not most, individuals who have lived at Camp LeJeune at some point in their lives, have not had the opportunity to even try and show culpability or obtain damages for the litany of health problems that have plagued them throughout the many years. This is because the government typically has sovereign immunity protection where it cannot be sued. Even when water contamination at Camp LeJeune is expected to be one of the worst cases, if not the worst contamination event in the history of the United States. Also, how do you prove causation over forty years?