Veterans, families have lingering questions about contamination even as VA starts disability compensation JACKSONVILLE — When Wayne Rummings left Buffalo, N.Y., in 1983 to enlist in the U.S. Navy, he could not have known he would find himself in the middle of one of the largest cases of water contamination in the nation’s history. Camp Lejeune’s 34 years of water contamination ended in 1987, while Rummings was still serving as a medic at the sprawling Onslow County base. He did not feel the effects for years until, in 2010, he thought he had kidney stones. His doctor suspected something else was amiss when Rummings wasn’t crying from pain and ordered a CT scan. Seven years later, Rummings is recovering from a bout with kidney cancer — one of the hallmark diseases of Camp Lejeune water poisoning. Recounting the ordeal recently, Rummings sat at his dining room table, a compression sleeve on his right arm in an effort to numb the painful throbbing a nervous system condition shoots through his fingertips. “I think about cancer when I wake up, I think about cancer when I go to bed because I know what cancer does,” Rummings said. His wife, Johana Rummings, helps him cope with the anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress that came along with the diagnosis. At the other end of the table sat Joe Walker, Johana’s brother who stuck around Jacksonville after leaving the Corps in 1974. Walker made a living bouncing people from local nightclubs and nabbing shoplifters, but was forced to stop when he was told multiple sclerosis — not vertigo — had been causing his bouts of dizziness. Now, a year later, the self-described tough guy can’t stand without the aid of his ever-present cane. X-rays show lesions spiking across his head. “My brain,” Walker said, “hurts so bad.” Both Walker and Rummings believe their ailments can be traced to their service on Lejeune, the site of water contamination between 1953 and 1987. This month, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) began accepting disability claims for veterans exposed to chemicals in Lejeune’s water. Rummings’ kidney cancer is among the eight diseases earmarked for approval, along with adult leukemia, aplastic anemia, bladder cancer, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Parkinson’s disease. Walker and thousands of others must be able to prove their illnesses were caused by the benzene, trichloroethylene and vinyl chloride in Lejeune’s well water. Many of them are eligible for free VA medical care, but not the disability compensation. The $2.2 billion compensation program approved in the final months of the Obama Administration was hailed as a victory for Marines poisoned on Camp Lejeune, but many veterans and advocates say the Marines continue to shirk responsibility for poisoning as many as 1 million people, according to past estimates by health officials. “The United States Marine Corps and the Department of the Navy have not been held accountable,” said retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger, who heads The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten, which advocates for those affected by the contamination. The program The VA estimates it will spend $379.8 million on disability compensation during the first year of the program, which is similar to one granting compensation to Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Lejeune’s case is different, though, in that it is the first time veterans are eligible for disability compensation for injuries not sustained in combat. “We have a responsibility to take care of those who have served our nation and have been exposed to harm as a result of that service,” outgoing VA Sec. Rob McDonald said after the ruling was released. U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., both fought to get the “presumptive status” because many of Lejeune veterans’ claims were being denied. “I’m disappointed at how long it took,” Burr said. “I think it is safe to say that the VA has known what scientific data has shown for a while.” Any Lejeune veteran with one of the eight conditions won’t have to provide documentation proving it was caused by tainted water. Active-duty, Reserve and National Guard members who served at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days between Aug. 1, 1953, and Dec. 31, 1987, are eligible. While health officials have estimated as many as 1 million people may have been exposed to the water, the ruling only applies to veterans — not men, women or children who lived or worked on Lejeune but were not enlisted. ‘Two-thirds of our family’ Joe Walker’s holidays…