California reps ask US for new water study at former base
California reps ask US for new water study at former base
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The remains of a hallway stretches down the center of barracks at Fort Ord on Thursday, April 29, 2021, in Fort Ord, Calif. Many veterans of Fort Ord who believe their cancers were caused by exposure to chemicals at the base have been denied disability and medical benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
This photo provided by Julie Akey shows her during her time at Fort Ord, Calif. She arrived there in 1996. With a gift for linguistics, she enlisted in the Army on the condition that she learn a new language. And so the 25-year-old was sent to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and lived at Fort Ord. The base was mostly closed but still housed soldiers for limited purposes. (Courtesy Julie Akey via AP)
Julie Akey poses for a photograph in her back yard in Herndon, Va., Tuesday, June 22, 2021. What she didn’t know at the time she was at the Fort Ord military base in California was that the ground under her feet, and the water that ran through the sandy soil, was polluted with a cancer-causing class of chemicals including benzene and trichloroethylene. She’d learn this decades later, while trying to understand how, at just 46 and with no family history, she was diagnosed with a terminal blood cancer. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Photos of Julie Akey during her time at Fort Ord rest on a table in her home in Herndon, Va., Tuesday, June 22, 2021. What she didn’t know at the time she was at the military base was that the ground under her feet, and the water that ran through the sandy soil, was polluted with a cancer-causing class of chemicals including benzene and trichloroethylene. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Julie Akey looks over a map of properties that were once part of Fort Ord, Tuesday, June 22, 2021, at her home in Herndon, Va. Akey is committed to searching for definitive links between her illness and her military service. But the cancer and harsh treatments are taxing on her body and mind, the research emotionally draining. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Rusted barrels rest outside barracks at Fort Ord on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in Fort Ord, Calif. Hundreds of Fort Ord veterans are being diagnosed with rare blood cancers, according to a database compiled by a former soldier and shared with The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Former barracks line a hill at Fort Ord on Thursday, April 29, 2021, in Fort Ord, Calif. Many veterans of Fort Ord who believe their cancers were caused by exposure to chemicals at the base have been denied disability and medical benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
LeVonne Stone, CEO and executive director of the Fort Ord Environmental Justice Network, holds a poster describing harmful chemicals at the military base, in her office in Monterey, Calif. on Aug. 24, 2021. “We tried telling everybody, the state, the federal, everybody,” she said. “There’s so many people who have died of cancer. They have not done anything for the community locally. Nothing has been done. … They just turned their heads, they looked the other way.” (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
Curtis Gandy, CEO and founder of the former Fort Ord Toxics Project , stands near where he used to work in Marina, Calif. on Aug. 24, 2021. Gandy’s group has sued the military again and again for incomplete studies and not complying with state laws. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
Curtis Gandy, CEO and founder of the former Fort Ord Toxics Project, stands near where he used to work in Marina, Calif. on Aug. 24, 2021. According to a roster of Gandy’s co-workers from one day at the airfield in 1986, there were 46 pilots and welders, mechanics and radio engineers. Today one-third of them have died, many of cancers and rare diseases, some in their 50s. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
![Image](https://dims.apnews.com/dims4/default/35d56fd/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3000x1996+0+0/resize/599x399!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstorage.googleapis.com%2Fafs-prod%2Fmedia%2F0ea285ad526d4d818263ba33c4efa832%2F3000.jpeg)
The remains of a hallway stretches down the center of barracks at Fort Ord on Thursday, April 29, 2021, in Fort Ord, Calif. Many veterans of Fort Ord who believe their cancers were caused by exposure to chemicals at the base have been denied disability and medical benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
The remains of a hallway stretches down the center of barracks at Fort Ord on Thursday, April 29, 2021, in Fort Ord, Calif. Many veterans of Fort Ord who believe their cancers were caused by exposure to chemicals at the base have been denied disability and medical benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
This photo provided by Julie Akey shows her during her time at Fort Ord, Calif. She arrived there in 1996. With a gift for linguistics, she enlisted in the Army on the condition that she learn a new language. And so the 25-year-old was sent to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and lived at Fort Ord. The base was mostly closed but still housed soldiers for limited purposes. (Courtesy Julie Akey via AP)
This photo provided by Julie Akey shows her during her time at Fort Ord, Calif. She arrived there in 1996. With a gift for linguistics, she enlisted in the Army on the condition that she learn a new language. And so the 25-year-old was sent to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and lived at Fort Ord. The base was mostly closed but still housed soldiers for limited purposes. (Courtesy Julie Akey via AP)
Julie Akey poses for a photograph in her back yard in Herndon, Va., Tuesday, June 22, 2021. What she didn’t know at the time she was at the Fort Ord military base in California was that the ground under her feet, and the water that ran through the sandy soil, was polluted with a cancer-causing class of chemicals including benzene and trichloroethylene. She’d learn this decades later, while trying to understand how, at just 46 and with no family history, she was diagnosed with a terminal blood cancer. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Julie Akey poses for a photograph in her back yard in Herndon, Va., Tuesday, June 22, 2021. What she didn’t know at the time she was at the Fort Ord military base in California was that the ground under her feet, and the water that ran through the sandy soil, was polluted with a cancer-causing class of chemicals including benzene and trichloroethylene. She’d learn this decades later, while trying to understand how, at just 46 and with no family history, she was diagnosed with a terminal blood cancer. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Photos of Julie Akey during her time at Fort Ord rest on a table in her home in Herndon, Va., Tuesday, June 22, 2021. What she didn’t know at the time she was at the military base was that the ground under her feet, and the water that ran through the sandy soil, was polluted with a cancer-causing class of chemicals including benzene and trichloroethylene. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Photos of Julie Akey during her time at Fort Ord rest on a table in her home in Herndon, Va., Tuesday, June 22, 2021. What she didn’t know at the time she was at the military base was that the ground under her feet, and the water that ran through the sandy soil, was polluted with a cancer-causing class of chemicals including benzene and trichloroethylene. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Julie Akey looks over a map of properties that were once part of Fort Ord, Tuesday, June 22, 2021, at her home in Herndon, Va. Akey is committed to searching for definitive links between her illness and her military service. But the cancer and harsh treatments are taxing on her body and mind, the research emotionally draining. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Julie Akey looks over a map of properties that were once part of Fort Ord, Tuesday, June 22, 2021, at her home in Herndon, Va. Akey is committed to searching for definitive links between her illness and her military service. But the cancer and harsh treatments are taxing on her body and mind, the research emotionally draining. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Rusted barrels rest outside barracks at Fort Ord on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in Fort Ord, Calif. Hundreds of Fort Ord veterans are being diagnosed with rare blood cancers, according to a database compiled by a former soldier and shared with The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Rusted barrels rest outside barracks at Fort Ord on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in Fort Ord, Calif. Hundreds of Fort Ord veterans are being diagnosed with rare blood cancers, according to a database compiled by a former soldier and shared with The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Former barracks line a hill at Fort Ord on Thursday, April 29, 2021, in Fort Ord, Calif. Many veterans of Fort Ord who believe their cancers were caused by exposure to chemicals at the base have been denied disability and medical benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Former barracks line a hill at Fort Ord on Thursday, April 29, 2021, in Fort Ord, Calif. Many veterans of Fort Ord who believe their cancers were caused by exposure to chemicals at the base have been denied disability and medical benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
LeVonne Stone, CEO and executive director of the Fort Ord Environmental Justice Network, holds a poster describing harmful chemicals at the military base, in her office in Monterey, Calif. on Aug. 24, 2021. “We tried telling everybody, the state, the federal, everybody,” she said. “There’s so many people who have died of cancer. They have not done anything for the community locally. Nothing has been done. … They just turned their heads, they looked the other way.” (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
LeVonne Stone, CEO and executive director of the Fort Ord Environmental Justice Network, holds a poster describing harmful chemicals at the military base, in her office in Monterey, Calif. on Aug. 24, 2021. “We tried telling everybody, the state, the federal, everybody,” she said. “There’s so many people who have died of cancer. They have not done anything for the community locally. Nothing has been done. … They just turned their heads, they looked the other way.” (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
Curtis Gandy, CEO and founder of the former Fort Ord Toxics Project , stands near where he used to work in Marina, Calif. on Aug. 24, 2021. Gandy’s group has sued the military again and again for incomplete studies and not complying with state laws. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
Curtis Gandy, CEO and founder of the former Fort Ord Toxics Project , stands near where he used to work in Marina, Calif. on Aug. 24, 2021. Gandy’s group has sued the military again and again for incomplete studies and not complying with state laws. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
Curtis Gandy, CEO and founder of the former Fort Ord Toxics Project, stands near where he used to work in Marina, Calif. on Aug. 24, 2021. According to a roster of Gandy’s co-workers from one day at the airfield in 1986, there were 46 pilots and welders, mechanics and radio engineers. Today one-third of them have died, many of cancers and rare diseases, some in their 50s. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
Curtis Gandy, CEO and founder of the former Fort Ord Toxics Project, stands near where he used to work in Marina, Calif. on Aug. 24, 2021. According to a roster of Gandy’s co-workers from one day at the airfield in 1986, there were 46 pilots and welders, mechanics and radio engineers. Today one-third of them have died, many of cancers and rare diseases, some in their 50s. (AP Photo/Nic Coury)
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — Two California congressmembers are asking the federal government to study whether there’s evidence that potential toxic and contaminated drinking water at Fort Ord can be tied to specific cancers and other diseases.
“Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to our servicemembers and their families,” said Reps. Katie Porter and Jimmy Panetta in a letter to the director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. “By conducting a new study at Fort Ord, we may guarantee that those harmed while serving our country get the medical care they need.”
The request follows an Associated Press report earlier this week about hundreds of people who lived and served near the Army base who are concerned that their health problems might be tied to chemicals there.
In 1990, four years before it began the process of closing as an active military training base, Fort Ord was added to the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of the most polluted places in the nation. Included in that pollution were dozens of chemicals, some now known to cause cancer, found in the base’s drinking water and soil.
The AP interviewed nearly two dozen of these veterans and reviewed thousands of pages of documents, and interviewed military, medical and environmental scientists.
There is rarely a way to directly connect toxic exposure to a specific individual’s medical condition. Indeed, the concentrations of the toxics are tiny, measured in parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of an immediate poisoning. Local utilities, the Defense Department and some in the Department of Veterans Affairs insist Fort Ord’s water is safe and always has been. But the VA’s own hazardous materials exposure website, along with scientists and doctors, agree that dangers do exist for military personnel exposed to contaminants.
Responding to AP’s report, a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee spokesperson said its chair, Montana Democrat Jon Tester, believes the “VA should take this and any potential toxic exposure among our military men and women seriously, and keep working to provide a fresh look at the possibility of toxic exposures at Fort Ord which may be causing adverse health effects in veterans.”
The problem is not just at Fort Ord. This is happening all over the U.S. and abroad, almost everywhere the military has set foot, and the federal government is still learning about the extent of both the pollution and the health effects of its toxic legacy.
AP found the Army knew that chemicals had been improperly dumped at Fort Ord for decades. Even after the contamination was documented, the Army downplayed the risks.
And ailing veterans are being denied benefits based on a 25-year-old health assessment, which Porter and Panetta Friday said needs an update. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry concluded in 1996 that there were no likely past, present or future risks from exposures at Fort Ord.
But that conclusion was made based on limited data, and before medical science understood the relationship between some of these chemicals and cancer.
Congress has been weighing legislation this month that would recognize some potential health impacts from some military toxic exposures, particularly burn pits. And the Wounded Warrior Project released findings from a survey of about 18,000 registered members that found 98% of wounded veterans reported exposure to hazardous or toxic substances during military service.