Noteboom The Law Firm

Some Veterans Forced To Live On Superfund Sites

February 25, 2011 - Very few times in a soldiers' life will the situation arise where they are given a choice of where they will be stationed. One of the results of such a situation is tens of thousands of veterans and their family members being forced to live on military installations named on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Superfund site list (National Priority List). The EPA created the Superfund program to handle sites polluted with hazardous waste following the discovery of large toxic waste dumps across the nation.

In its day, soldiers were proud to say they served at MCAS El Toro, a Marine aviation base in Southern California. Today, it is probably safe to say almost all of the veterans of that base regret every day stationed there. All that is left of El Toro is a heap of demolition atop the same horribly polluted soil and groundwater that presented atrocious health risks to El Toro's residents. Unfortunately, the military does not maintain a database of names or addresses of those soldiers who were assigned to El Toro or other Superfund sites. 

For those veterans who lived on bases now on the Superfund list, it is critical they know the types of contaminants to which they were potentially exposed. This way they can seek the proper health care and know what symptoms they should be looking out for as certain contaminants can cause cancer and death.

Not being given the choice of where to live takes away the common sense choice of not being moved to a dangerously contaminated area. Therefore, soldiers and their families can only hope that the water they drink and shower with isn't laden with cancer-causing contaminants. To date, neither the Department of Defense (DoD) nor the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has spent one dime on health care screening for potentially exposed veterans.