By: Owen Bennett

There were many after affects from the water. Some of the affects were Chiari Malformation, liver cancer, kidney cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, leukemia, non Hodgkins lymphoma, liver disease, miscarriages, birth defects like cleft palate, heart defects, Choanal atresia, neural tube defects, low birth weight, and small for gestational age,etc. This man suffered from male breast cancer.

History The history of Camp Lejeune is over seventy-one years long. The Camp Lejeune story began in World War II had been raging in Europe for more than a year and military planners were posturing forces for Americas eminent entry to the fight. The need for an East Coast amphibious training facility was answered by The Department of the Navy who bought 110,000 acres for there facility. From at least 1957 through 1985, Marines and their families at Lejeune's main family housing areas of Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point drank and bathed in water contaminated with toxins at concentrations up to 3400 times levels permitted by safety standards. According to the site, numerous base housing areas were affected by the contamination, including Tarawa Terrace, Midway Park, Berkeley Manor, Paradise Point, Hadnot Point, Hospital Point, and Watkins Village.

Eight water treatment plants provided drinking water to family housing units and barracks at the base prior to March 1987 were at Tarawa Terrace, Hadnot Point, Holcomb Boulevard, Courthouse Bay, Rifle Range, Onslow Beach, Montford Point/Camp Johnson and New River. The contamination seems to have affected two of the eight water treatment plants on the base.

How it was Contaminated Many Chemicals were involved in the contamination. Over 70 chemicals were found in the water. Two out of eight water treatment plants were one of the causes. The main chemicals involved were Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) such as Perchloroethylene which is a dry cleaning solvent, Trichloroethylene which is a degreaser, Dichloroethylene which is a man made substance to make fire retardant fabrics, Vinyl Chloride, Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylene.

How many people were affected There were many people affected by the water contamination. Up to 750,000 people were affected by the toxins in the water. Even though VOCs wear off after a week, many people have serious birth defects from the water. So many people were affected that people started filing claims against the military. At least 850 former residents filed claims against the military for 4 million dollars.

What did they do to decontaminate the water Camp Lejeune was contaminated from 1957 to They didnt decontaminate the water, but they are still studying the water and the people that were affected. The Camp Lejeune water treatment plant went offline for routine maintenance and was subsequently shut down after elemental mercury was discovered in a pipe within the facility. Camp Lejeune officials sent out a press release last week announcing they kept the Hadnot Point Treatment Plant offline after finding a silvery substance in a pipe they later determined to be insoluble, elemental mercury, a liquid commonly found in thermometers, barometers and manometers.

After Camp Lejeune contracted Shamrock Environmental Corporation out of New Bern to oversee the cleanup and investigation of the plant, four pounds of mercury was discovered in addition to the eight pounds of elemental mercury found in a pipe within the facility during routine maintenance Sept. 15, according to a press release from the base. During cleanup, Shamrock drained both treated- water reservoirs to allow environmental experts to see if any residual mercury could be located, and following pipe coupling removal and decontamination activities, the corporation found the four pounds of mercury, according to the release.

A bill was passed President Barack Obama signed the Honoring America's Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012, Monday, Aug. 6, 2012, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. The bill would offer health care to anyone who was affected by the contamination at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The bill was cleared by congress a week after the president signed the bill.