Camp Lejeune: Water Contamination, Military Service, and the Long Fight for Justice

Camp Lejeune is a United States Marine Corps base in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Between 1953 and 1987, the drinking water serving much of the base was contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), benzene, and vinyl chloride — all known or probable human carcinogens — at concentrations that in some cases exceeded current safety standards by hundreds to thousands of times.

Approximately one million Marines, Navy personnel, civilian employees, and their family members were exposed. Children were born on the base. Families lived in base housing for years, drinking, bathing, and cooking with contaminated water. And for decades, the US government denied that the contamination had occurred, disputed its health significance, and stonewalled veterans and family members seeking compensation for cancers and other illnesses that research was increasingly linking to the exposure.

The Camp Lejeune story is the largest documented case of drinking water contamination affecting US military personnel and their families. It is also a story of institutional denial, delayed scientific acknowledgment, and a 40-year fight by veterans and family members for recognition and compensation that provides one of the most instructive case studies in how the government manages environmental health liability.

The contaminated water at Camp Lejeune came from two primary sources: industrial dry-cleaning operations on and near the base, and underground storage tanks that leaked fuel and solvents into the aquifer.

The ABC One-Hour Cleaners, an off-base dry cleaning facility adjacent to the base perimeter, was the primary source of PCE contamination in the Tarawa Terrace water distribution system. TCE contamination in the Hadnot Point system came from multiple on-base sources including underground storage tank leaks and disposal of industrial solvents.

The concentrations At peak contamination, TCE concentrations in the Hadnot Point water system reached approximately 1,400 parts per billion — the current EPA maximum contaminant level is 5 ppb. PCE concentrations at Tarawa Terrace reached approximately 215 ppb — the MCL is 5 ppb. Benzene was also detected. People living in base housing and drinking from these systems for years or decades were accumulating exposures far above current safety thresholds.

The knowledge timeline Internal documents later obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests and litigation show that the Marine Corps and federal government had evidence of the contamination from the early 1980s. The contaminated wells were closed between 1984 and 1985 — but without public disclosure of the contamination or its health implications, and without informing the personnel and families who had been drinking the water for years or decades before the wells were closed.

The health studies of Camp Lejeune veterans and their families have produced some of the most methodologically rigorous epidemiological evidence for the health effects of drinking water contamination from chlorinated solvents.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has conducted multiple health studies of the Camp Lejeune population, comparing health outcomes in personnel and family members who were stationed at Lejeune versus those stationed at Camp Pendleton, California — a comparison base with clean water.

Key health findings: • Male breast cancer: 2–3 times higher in Lejeune Marines than Pendleton Marines — a striking finding for a cancer rare in men, with TCE as the proposed mechanism • Bladder cancer: significantly elevated in Lejeune personnel • Kidney cancer: significantly elevated in Lejeune personnel, consistent with TCE's IARC Group 1 classification for kidney cancer • Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: elevated rates consistent with the known lymphomagenicity of TCE and benzene • Parkinson's disease: elevated in male Marines at Lejeune — consistent with the TCE-Parkinson's evidence described elsewhere in this series • Birth defects and childhood cancers: elevated in children born at Lejeune during the contamination period

The strength of the Camp Lejeune health literature is unusual for environmental contamination studies — the large, well-defined exposed population and the available comparison group have enabled more definitive epidemiological conclusions than most contaminated site studies can achieve.

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 — signed by President Biden in August 2022 — is the most significant piece of federal legislation addressing a single contaminated site in US history.

What the PACT Act and Camp Lejeune Justice Act provide: • Veterans and family members who were exposed at Camp Lejeune for 30 days or more between August 1953 and December 1987 can file federal tort claims against the government for illnesses caused by the contamination • A presumptive service-connection list establishes that veterans with specific cancers (bladder cancer, kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma, Parkinson's disease, and several others) are presumed to have developed these conditions from the Camp Lejeune contamination — eliminating the need to individually prove causation • VA disability benefits are available for these presumptive conditions without establishing a direct service connection

Filing a claim Camp Lejeune claimants can file administrative claims with the Navy JAG office. The ATSDR's Camp Lejeune portal at atsdr.cdc.gov/camp-lejeune provides information on documented contamination, health studies, and claims filing guidance.

PollutionProfile's Historical Exposure Recorder can document your Camp Lejeune service history with address-level precision — providing the exposure documentation that supports both VA benefit claims and understanding of the specific contamination systems you were exposed to during your period of service.