Fight over tainted water centers on health care
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jan 28, 2010 21:13:35 EST

A decades-old dispute over exposure to contaminated ground water at Camp Lejuene, N.C., exploded Thursday before a Senate committee into a battle over whether the Veterans Affairs Department or Defense Department should be responsible for providing health care for affected families and ended with a threat to freeze all of the Navy Department’s civilian leadership nominations.

The fight revolves around draft legislation approved by the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee that authorizes health care for dependents who were exposed to environmental hazards at Camp Lejuene over a 30-year period and another group of dependents exposed to hazards at Atsugi Naval Air Facility from 1983 until about 2001.

Additionally, the bill creates a process that could someday lead to health benefits for people exposed to environmental hazards at other military bases.

The chief question about the legislation is who ought to be responsible for providing the health care. The bill puts the Defense Department and its Tricare health insurance program in charge, something that doesn’t sit well with Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the committee’s top Republican.

“It is unacceptable to me to put these people in the hands of the Department of Defense,” Burr said, complaining that the military has refused for decades to accept responsibility for contamination. “It is absurd. It is insane.”


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