Did You or a Family Member Reside or Work at Camp Lejeune Between 1953-1987?

Between 1953 and 1987, Active Duty service members and their families living at Camp
Lejeune in Jacksonville, North Carolina drank, cooked with, and bathed in water contaminated with chemical waste from a nearby dry-cleaning company and runoff from military equipment cleaning stations.

DoD Personnel and Civilians Who Worked or Lived at Camp Lejeune

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs:

From the 1950s through the 1980s, people living or working at the U.S. Marine Corps Base
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, were potentially exposed to drinking water contaminated with industrial solvents, benzene, and other chemicals.

Camp Lejeune Water Contamination

"In the early 1980s, the Marine Corps discovered that the drinking-water systems that supplied two areas of housing at Camp Lejeune (Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point) were contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The major contaminants of concern were identified as the solvents trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE).”
In 1985, the United States military shut down the water sources that were contaminated. The move came after heavy legal and legislative pressure from veterans, families, and veterans advocacy groups. Unfortunately, many of those who had been exposed to the chemicals had developed cancer and other major health problems.

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 is a bipartisan bill intended to ensure that individuals, veterans, their family members or other individuals living or working at the base between 1953 and 1987 – who were harmed by water contamination at Camp Lejeune receive fair compensation. The Act permits people who worked, lived, or were exposed in-utero, to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987, to file a claim in U.S. federal court.