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…

The Marine Corps has begun outreach to hundreds of thousands of veterans who served at Camp Lejeune, N.C., at least 30 days from August 1953 to December 1987, inviting them or surviving spouses to file for VA compensation if veterans suffered one of eight ailments linked to water contamination on the base. On Wednesday, the Corps sent an email “blast” to more than 120,000 Lejeune veterans who had shared current online addresses on a registry created to identify and educate potential victims of polluted drinking water at Lejeune over a 34-year period, in an era that ended 30 years ago. The email explained that veterans who can show they served at Lejeune from Aug. 1, 1953, to Dec. 31, 1987, for 30 days or more, are now eligible to file fast-track VA disability compensation claims for eight conditions. The “presumptive” ailments for Lejeune vets are: adult leukemia; aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes; bladder cancer; kidney cancer; liver cancer; multiple myeloma; non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; Parkinson’s disease. The Marine Corps will follow its email blast with a postal mailing of 200,000 over the next several weeks to home addresses on file with the Camp Lejeune Historic Drinking Water website: https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater/Home.aspx . Mailing will advise veterans and survivors that medical science affirms a strong association between compounds that leached into drinking water at Lejeune and the eight ailments. On March 14, a final VA regulation accelerated the processing of qualifying for disability pay. Even drilling reservists who spent weekends and annual training at Lejeune, also for a total of at least 30 days, will be found eligible for VA compensation if they have one of the presumptive ailments. If Lejeune veterans died from any of the ailments, their surviving spouses or children will see claims for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) fast tracked too, under the accelerated process established for Lejeune victims. Years ago, studies confirmed that Lejeune water had been contaminated by benzene, vinyl chloride and two volatile organic compounds — trichloroethylene (TCE), a metal degreaser, and perchloroethylene (PCE), a dry-cleaning agent. In 2012 Congress passed the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act, which opened VA medical care to…

RHINEBECK, N.Y. >> The village has agreed to help develop an evaluation system to determine how much protection municipal water sources have from contamination in secondary creeks and streams. The Village Board endorsed the effort at its meeting Thursday. Dan Shapley, water quality program director for the environmental protection group Riverkeeper, said at the meeting that the village will be working with six other communities that draw water from the Hudson River. “There’s 100,000 people altogether,” Shapley said. “If it was a single city, it would be the sixth largest in the state. But we don’t think of the Hudson as a drinking water source.” Shapley noted that other water sources, such as New York City’s upstate reservoirs, have considerable protections with significant public notifications to warn against contributors to contamination. Advertisement “When you drive down the Taconic…

AWRA and the Water Research Center at Tel Aviv University are pleased to announce a joint international conference “Cutting Edge Solutions to Wicked Water Problems,” to be hosted by Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel, September 10-11, 2017. Conference Co-Chairs Sharon Megdal, director of the Water Resources Research Center at The University of Arizona and Professor Dror Avisar, director of the Water Research Center, School of Earth Sciences at Tel Aviv University, invite all interested to submit abstracts for oral presentation consideration. Deadline…

The Acadian Group of the Sierra Club and the WaterMark Alliance have sent a letter to Lafayette Consolidated Government leaders that recommends actions that they say should be taken to remedy the recently discovered contamination of the Chicot Aquifer near the Lafayette North Water Treatment Plant. The letter was sent to Mayor-President Joel Robideaux, LUS Director Terry Huval, LUS Water and Wastewater Operations Manager Craig Gautreaux and all nine Lafayette City-Parish Council members, according to a press release issued jointly by the organizations. The letter, which is dated March 22, lists 10 recommendations that the organizations want to see their local leaders pursue, including: Plan and execute a study of surface contamination within the wellhead protection area of local wells. Include sampling for all contaminants that have been monitored in LUS well water, and for contaminants found at other US rail sites, which are either undergoing or have been remediated. Where appropriate, partner with other state and federal agencies. Intensify sampling of well water by increasing the frequency of sampling and adding contaminants for analysis to include all known or suspected contaminants present on the surface or in the surficial aquifer (groundwater just below the surface). Make all past and current well monitoring and sampling data easily available for…

Illegal cannabis farming has negatively impacted the area greatly by introducing petroleum contamination into water sources, rodenticide poisoning of wildlife and illegal clearing of forests for farming. The Eel River Recovery Project has been working with cannabis cultivators in the Humboldt county region for four years now, and together they have held a series of community meetings focused on toxic algae blooms and local resident health. The Eel River Recover Project is a program sponsored by the Institute for Fisheries Resources, part of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. Legalization and regulation of cannabis farming in California has allowed agencies to work with farmers to provide support and offer best practices for conserving the…

Council contacted the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) on the same day but Lynch said they failed to attend.
* Droves of dying koura float down stream * Freshwater stream’s dying crayfish An overseas scientist, made aware by media interest, pointed out to the ministry the deaths could be a result of crayfish plague – a disease not found in New Zealand that would have triggered a quarantine and forced the alert of trade partners, Lynch said.
"There was a tug-of-war over a couple of days between me and MPI because we only had these three koura," Lynch said.
Lynch said although the number of koura collected by regional council staff was small, it satisfied its level of investigation.
MPI investigators had no koura samples to test and were "completely reliant" on council’s work.
But the increased risk of crayfish plague forced council to hand over it’s three samples.
The MPI dissection of tiny animals, at an animal health laboratory in Wellington, found no trace of crayfish plague and left very little else to be tested – less than one gram of koura remained.
The minimum sample for council’s analysis was 20 grams.
Further examination of the stream gave it the all clear.
"We’re surmising that there has been a single strike incident in a tributary upstream and a colony of koura that have been impacted."

BLOG ROUND-UP: Bloggers on the National Geographic film, post-drought groundwater, State Water Board flow mandates, Delta Tunnels, San Luis Dam, Sites Reservoir, and more ….
… ” Read more from the Voices on Water blog here: National Geography documentary distorts California’s water history New film shows that clean water is not a guarantee for many in California: Ana Lucia Garcia Briones writes, “National Geographic’s new film, “Water & Power: A California Heist,” explores the impacts of California’s drought and the San Joaquin Valley’s groundwater crisis, and highlights issues surrounding the state’s water rights and the powerful interests that sometimes control them.
… ” Read more at the Daily Kos here: Federal scientists find Delta tunnels plan will devastate salmon Full San Luis Dam endangers 200,000 people: Diedre Des Jardins writes, “San Luis Dam, also known as B.F. Sisk Dam, is 382 feet tall and 18,600 feet long, and impounds up to 2 million acre-feet of water.
… ” Continue reading at the California Water Research blog here: Risk study: $21.8 billion in property in Oroville inundation path Saving water for the future: California needs Sites Reservoir: The Northern California Water Association writes, “With the Sacramento Valley in flood stage early this year, the California Department of Water Resources has estimated that by mid-February Sites Reservoir could have stored over 1 million acre-feet of water (over 325 billion gallons) this water year.
The huge caveat: Note those weasel words … ” Continue reading at the Inkstain blog here: A big boost this year for Lake Mead See also, Don’t let the dry March overshadow the good news for Lake Mead How should one measure the Endangered Species Act’s success?
Damien M. Shiff writes, “Property rights and other groups that seek reform of the Endangered Species Act oftentimes note that only a tiny fraction of the species that have been listed under the Act have recovered.
Hence, the Act may very well be “working” but we haven’t given it enough time to show its stuff.
This post examines President Trump’s budget with respect to water programs.
After reading all the opinions I could find, I’d say the best news is this: He doesn’t seem to have any particular agenda in the area.
… ” Read more at the Legal Planet here: Gorsuch and the environment: A closer look Sign up for daily email service and you’ll never miss a post!

In the years before California’s civil engineers got around to confining the Sacramento River, it often spilled over its banks, inundating huge swaths of the Central Valley.
This winter, for the first time in a decade, and after five years of a crippling statewide drought, the Yolo Bypass is submerged again.
In the past five months—the wettest since record-keeping began, in 1895—California has experienced widespread hydrological chaos.
In January, after a series of heavy rainstorms, water managers activated the Sacramento Weir, filling the Yolo Bypass.
Less than a year ago, Lake Oroville was a vivid symbol of the state’s prolonged drought.
But Peter Gleick, the chief scientist at the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, told me that one year of heavy precipitation, even a record-breaking one, will not undo the most serious repercussion of the drought: a severe deficit of groundwater.
These days, though, more precipitation falls as rain than as snow, placing stress on the reservoirs.
“Unless a massive effort is made to both reduce overdraft and to artificially enhance recharge rates, California’s groundwater will continue to decline,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Last Friday, the state’s Department of Water Resources reopened the patched-up concrete spillway at Lake Oroville.
At the moment, there is no large-scale engineering system that would allow the huge surge of surface water currently flowing across California to be delivered to the Central Valley’s aquifers.

HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The water supply for an entire community is contaminated after police say vandals dumped chemicals into the water supply of a private mobile home park.
"It was just black," said Jessica Anderson, who lives in Pine View Manor in Hempfield Township, Westmoreland County.
Anderson woke up her fiance, William Greenawalt, who is also the park manager.
"The door was busted," said Greenawalt.
Greenawalt says this is the second time this has happened in two weeks and that the 33 trailers in the park were already under a boil water advisory.
A water buffalo from Westmoreland County Public Safety remained at the entrance to the park Monday.
Pine View Manor is working on the long term solution since putting up a warning sign didn’t work.
A surveillance camera near the water supply was inoperable at the time of the vandalism anyway, and police said the person who contaminated the water further damaged the camera.
Officials say the contamination only affects Pine View Manor and not surrounding communities.
Trooper Stephen Limani said that the person responsible for the contamination could face an attempted homicide charge for each park resident if test results show a potentially lethal chemical was put in the water.