UPDATE: Feds trying to determine Lejeune exposure rates

Updated at 12:51 p.m.

WILMINGTON (AP) — The head of the agency investigating contaminated water at Camp Lejeune that may have poisoned as many as 1 million people says researchers are close to being able to determine general exposure rates for troops and civilians at the base.

Christopher Portier says the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will never get specific exposure rates for everyone who drank the toxic water. But he says the agency is close to being able to group people by high, medium or low exposure.

He made his comments during a break of the meeting of a community assistance panel that's holding a forum Wednesday at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. A two-hour public forum was scheduled for later Wednesday.

Officials at a community panel meeting at UNC Wilmington focused on historical drinking water contamination aboard Camp Lejeune said that more than 2,000 issues to date are pending review by the Department of Veterans Affairs related to water issues, and about a quarter of those processed have been granted.

The panel meeting, the first held in Eastern North Carolina, opened with a discussion of a recent Daily News report.

The quarterly meetings, established by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to discuss ongoing studies into the extent and effects of the contamination and have been previously held in Atlanta, have been attended by an observer from the Department of the Navy, but not by active participants from the Navy and the Marine Corps.

Marine spokeswoman Capt. Kendra Hardesty told The Daily News this week that the reason the Corps had not taken a more active role was because no code of etiquette and civility had been established, and military delegated had in the past felt objects of attack. Moderator Christopher Stallard began by introducing ground rules calling for transparency and respect, though panel members asserted the request from the Marine Corps was an excuse not to attend.

“I have seen no kicking, spitting, fighting and brawling,” Stallard said. “What I have seen is strong emotion expressed.”

Before breaking for lunch, panel members discussed health and mortality studies of former Camp Lejeune troops, family members and civilian workers being undertaken by ATSDR.

Last month, the first mailings for a much-anticipated health survey were sent to former base residents.

ATSDR epidemiologist Perri Ruckart said more than 4,000 completed print and online surveys had been received, or about 17 percent of those sent out, with additional waves and a course of reminder letters and calls to follow.

Overall, more than 200,000 former Marine and Navy personnel, civilian workers, and family members from Camp Lejeune and a Camp Pendleton comparison group have been identified to participate in the survey, she said.

Updates from Veterans Affairs representative Bradley Flohr showed a massive increase in former base residents filing disability claims related to exposure to tainted Lejeune water. Last December, when the VA began tracking Lejeune claims, officials said roughly 200 had been filed to date.

On Wednesday morning, Flohr showed a massive increase in filings, citing 2,300 issues pending review at the VA center in Lousville, Ky., where all Lejeune claims are now sent. Of processed claims, he said about a quarter had been granted.

VA officials continue to work to finalize a training letter for all VA centers to educate staff on addressing Lejeune claims.

Experts from ATSDR and the VA also discussed the possibility of studying a cluster of former Lejeune residents diagnosed with male breast cancer. Male breast cancer survivor and CAP member Mike Partain, a former Lejeune resident from Tallahassee, Fla., said at the meeting that the cluster now includes 71 men.

Following a break for lunch, the panel will discuss progress on data mining and water modeling studies. This evening, a public forum will be held to educate members of the community about the Lejeune contamination and ongoing research.

Partain, who with CAP member Jerry Ensminger advocated holding a meeting closer to Camp Lejeune, said attendance was 10 times higher in Wilmington than it had ever been in Atlanta. In addition to panel members, a room at UNCW’s Burney Center held about 50 members of the public.

A community assistance panel, formed by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, began meeting this morning at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The CAP members will voice the concerns of the Marines and sailors and their families and provide information for future health studies.

Later today, ATSDR will hold a public forum that includes time for questions about a health study that is the agency's largest ever. That survey of more than 300,000 people began in June.

The CAP meeting opened with retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger criticizing the Marines for sending an observer but not someone who can answer questions.

“The reason they're not sending anybody to these meetings is they know the statements they have made publicly can be refuted by myself and other members in this room and this is nothing more than another smoke screen to not have to come here and be confronted,” said Ensminger, whose daughter was conceived at Camp Lejeune and who died in 1985 of childhood leukemia at the age of 9.

Marine Capt. Kendra Hardesty said Wednesday the Corps has sent representatives to past meetings but said their presence has been “distracting.”

“It seemed that our presence there would incite emotional responses. We didn't want to aggravate the situation so instead we chose to pull back and let the community focus on their dialogue,” she said.

The ATSDR survey will go to people who lived or worked at the Marine base or at Camp Pendleton, Calif., before 1986. The Camp Pendleton responses will be used to compare to the ones from Camp Lejeune. ATSDR also will conduct an internal survey that will provide individuals with their level of exposure to various chemicals, including benzene.

ATSDR expects to release its findings in early 2014.

Wells at Camp Lejeune were contaminated by fuel leaks and other sources of pollution, in some cases for decades, before tests alerted officials to the problem. Health officials believe as many as 1 million people may have been exposed to tainted water before the wells were closed more than 20 years ago.

The survey is a response to a congressional mandate that called for the agency to develop a health survey that may lead to scientifically useful health information associated with possible exposure to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.

In April 2009, congressional investigators accused ATSDR of obscuring or overlooking potential health hazards at toxic sites. A month later, the agency disavowed a 1997 federal report that found little or no cancer risk for adults who lived at Lejeune when the water was contaminated by toxins that seeped from a neighboring dry cleaner and industrial activity.

Concerns over tainted water at Lejeune have been the subject of congressional hearings, political debate and court cases. In April, both of North Carolina's senators and one member of the U.S. House of Representatives, along with congressional members from Florida and Michigan, called on the Department of the Navy “to finally provide answers to Marines and their families about health effects from the contaminated water.” The letter also questioned the department's commitment to transparency on the issue.