Posts Tagged Water environment

Marine who dumped toxins felt illness was payback

This undated image provided by Capt. Bobby Rice shows Ron Poirier fishing for tuna. As a young Marine electronics technician at Camp Lejeune in the mid-1970s, Poirier figured he’d dumped hundreds of gallons of toxic solvents onto the ground. It would be decades before he realized that he had unknowingly contributed to the worst drinking water contamination in the country's history - and, perhaps, to his own premature death. "It's just a terrible thing," the 58-year-old veteran said shortly before succumbing to esophageal cancer at a Cape Cod nursing facility on May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Bobby Rice)

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) — Ron Poirier couldn’t escape the feeling that his cancer was somehow a punishment.

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Marine daughter seeks dignity for ‘Devil Dog pups’

Mary Blakely clears dirt and grass from a 60-year-old temporary tin marker in the "Babyland" section of Onslow Memorial Park in Jacksonville, N.C. on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. The Marine's daughter scoured this and other graveyards for the names of children who may have died because of contaminated water at nearby Camp Lejeune. (AP Photo/Allen Breed)

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) — As she flipped through the cemetery register, Mary Blakely’s eyes filled with tears. On line after line, the entry read simply “Baby Boy” or “Baby Girl,” followed by a surname and a burial date.

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After nearly 30 years, Camp Lejeune coming clean

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - A tattered American flag waves from a storefront beside the former ABC Cleaners in Jacksonville, N.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Solvents illegally dumped by the former dry cleaners leaked into the water supply for the Camp Lejeune Marine base, contributing to one of the worst cases of drinking water contamination in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Allen Breed)

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) — Purple wildflowers sprout in abundance around the bright-yellow pipe, one of several jutting from the sandy soil in this unassuming patch of grass and mud. A dirty hose runs from the pipe to an idling truck and into a large tank labeled, “NON-POTABLE WATER.”

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Victims: Marines failed to safeguard water supply

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2013 AND THEREAFTER - A sign cautions visitors outside a "pump and treat" facility on the Marine base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. The sprawling installation is the site of one of the worst drinking water contaminations in U.S. history. (AP Photo/Allen Breed)

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (AP) — A simple test could have alerted officials that the drinking water at Camp Lejeune was contaminated, long before authorities determined that as many as a million Marines and their families were exposed to a witch’s brew of cancer-causing chemicals.

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