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Lejeune bad water testimony gets heard

Retired U.S. Marine Maj. Tom Townsend, seen May 9 in his Moscow, Idaho, study, has accumulated extensive Freedom of Information Act files about the chemical contamination that occurred in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
By Kevin Graman kevingr@spokesman.com
Retired U.S. Marine Maj. Tom Townsend, seen May 9 in his Moscow, Idaho, study, has accumulated extensive Freedom of Information Act files about the chemical contamination that occurred in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Associated Press (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

A retired Marine major in Moscow, Idaho, said he is relieved that Congress has finally taken an interest in a perceived injustice that has haunted him for 40 years: the death of his infant son as a result of groundwater contamination at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

“Too many people have been hurt, and the Defense Department continues to try to cover it up,” said Tom Townsend, 76, who lived on the base with his wife, Anne, from 1965 until 1967.

On Tuesday, a panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee heard from a few of the estimated 1 million people who were exposed to cancer-causing volatile organic compounds in the drinking water at Camp Lejeune from 1957 until 1987, according to newly released documents from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., said the committee he chairs will look into the Environmental Protection Agency’s handling of a 2005 investigation into the contamination. The EPA investigator, Tyler Amon, testified that Navy officials he interviewed were not forthcoming with information, according to the Associated Press.

Defense Department officials “don’t want anything to affect their utilization of land in this country,” said Townsend, who contends the department has stifled attempts to investigate the contamination or even estimate the number of Marines and their families affected.

The Marine Corps told The Spokesman-Review in 2004 that it had informed North Carolina of the existence of the chemical degreaser trichloroethylene and another chemical, tetrachloroethylene, in Camp Lejeune drinking water in 1984. The two compounds have been linked to birth defects, stunted growth, damaged liver and kidneys, a weakened immune system, and cancers.

The Marine Corps also said it had assisted the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in identifying potential participants in its studies of women who were pregnant at Camp Lejeune between 1968 and 1985.

The Townsends’ son, Christopher, died in 1967, three months after his birth, from a heart defect the family attributed to Anne Townsend drinking the contaminated water. Anne died last year at age 73 of liver disease and exposure to volatile organic compounds, according to a doctor’s report.

Since January 2000, Townsend has been prominent among retired Marine activists who have struggled to hold Defense Department officials accountable for the deaths and injuries they believe resulted from the contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune.

“I hope, in the final analysis, that they face reality,” Townsend said on Wednesday.