VA to begin tracking Lejeune water claims

Officials with the Department of Veterans Affairs told members of a community assistance panel addressing issues surrounding historical water contamination at Camp Lejeune that related disability claims would soon be processed at a central location.

Brad Flohr, with the Veterans Benefits Administration Compensation and Pension Service Department, told the group on Thursday that all the Lejeune water claims would be sent to the VA center in Louisville, Ky., as a way to track the cases and keep the procedure for handling them consistent.

Lejeune veterans and former residents who lived aboard the base between the 1950s and 1980s and attribute ailments like male breast cancer and non-Hodgkins lymphoma to chemical contaminants in the water have advocated for a VA presumptive policy on water cases, similar to that governing exposure to the Vietnam-era chemical Agent Orange.

Standing athwart has been a 2009 report by the National Research Council that concluded there was insufficient evidence linking the presence of volatile organic compounds in the base drinking water to disease, and further testing was unlikely to yield clearer results.

But an October letter from Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry director Chris Portier refuted this conclusion, calling Lejeune water “undoubtedly a hazard” and faulting the study for insufficient consideration of the known carcinogen benzene and too-low exposure estimates.

Flohr told the group at ATSDR’s quarterly CAP meeting in September that about 200 Lejeune veterans had filed water-related disability claims to date, 20 of which had been approved.

“The leadership staff, including myself, are concerned with consistency,” Flohr told the group on Thursday. “Consistency is an issue that is of great concern to our stakeholders.”

In the interest of ensuring that all Lejeune claims are reviewed the same way, Flohr said he planned a visit to the Louisville center to educate staff on the history of the contamination and to encourage them to treat the claim applications with care and good judgment.

“We want to sensitize these people to the issue, to let these people know how sensitive it is and your concerns,” Flohr said. “It’s going to be of utmost importance that people who process the claims know what evidence is needed.”

While water claims have been decided on an isolated basis with no tracking mechanism, Flohr said the VA planned to begin tracking all related claims in February with an electronic system, including an indicator of the decision on the claim.

However, there are no plans to revisit past claim denials, Flohr said.

Jerry Ensminger, a local CAP member and former Camp Lejeune Marine, said he believed there were a number of Lejeune water claims that had been denied after less-than-careful consideration.

He referred to Jim Fontella, a former Marine and male breast cancer survivor from Detroit who had carefully constructed disability claims denied by the VA.

“This man met every hurdle that was put in from of him, and he’s still being denied,” Ensminger said. “We’ve seen quite a few of these types of cases. To take these people that have been denied and leave them basically in the dust, at the mercy of these people who have previously denied them, I think is a big mistake. I think these people who have been previously denied should have the right to have this specialized team take another look at them.”

VA officials said they would consider points brought up in the meeting.

Officials with ATSDR also discussed updates on a slew of ongoing studies funded by the Department of the Navy, including a health survey of former Lejeune residents and a mortality study. In addition to the five funded studies, VA officials discussed considering a deeper examination of a 66-man male breast cancer cluster of Camp Lejeune residents.

The next hurdle in the fight for presumptive status on Camp Lejeune water claims may be a study from the Environmental Protection Agency, due out soon, which is expected to declare top Lejeune contaminant TCE a known human carcinogen.

Contact Hope Hodge at 910-219-8453 or hhodge@freedomenc.com.