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A28 u.s. news
Diabierna 25 Februari 2022

Vets worry polluted base made them ill

sure to a specific individual’s made based on limited data, cers, she was diagnosed with
medical condition. Indeed, and before medical science multiple myeloma.
the concentrations of the tox- understood the relation-
ics are tiny, measured in parts ship between some of these Despite the military’s claims
per billion or trillion, far be- chemicals and cancer. that there aren’t any health
low the levels of an immedi- problems associated with liv-
ate poisoning. Local utilities, This is what is known: ing and serving at Fort Ord,
the Defense Department and nor hundreds of other shut-
some in the Department of Veterans in general have high- tered military bases, almost
Veterans Affairs insist Fort er blood cancer rates than the every closure has exposed
Ord’s water is safe and always general population, accord- widespread toxic pollution
has been. ing to VA cancer data. And in and required a massive clean-
the region that includes Fort up. Dozens have contaminat-
But the VA’s own hazardous Ord, veterans have a 35 per- ed groundwater, from Fort
materials exposure website, cent higher rate of multiple Dix in New Jersey to Adak
along with scientists and doc- myeloma diagnosis than the Naval Air Station in Alaska.
(AP) — For nearly 80 years, to the Environmental Protec- tors, agree that dangers do general U.S. population. Fort Ord is 25 years into its
recruits reporting to cen- tion Agency’s list of the most exist for military personnel cleanup as a federal Super-
tral California’s Fort Ord polluted places in the nation. exposed to contaminants. Veterans like Julie Akey. fund site, and it’s expected to
considered themselves the Included in that pollution continue for decades.
lucky ones, privileged to were dozens of chemicals, The problem is not just at Akey, now 50, arrived at
live and work amid spar- some now known to cause Fort Ord. This is happening Fort Ord in 1996 with a gift To date, the military has only
kling seas, sandy dunes cancer, found in the base’s all over the U.S. and abroad, for linguistics. She enlisted acknowledged troops’ health
and sage-covered hills. drinking water and soil. almost everywhere the mili- in the Army on the condi- could have been damaged by
tary has set foot, and the fed- tion that she could learn a drinking contaminated water
But there was an underside, Decades later, several Fort eral government is still learn- new language. And so the at a single U.S. base: Camp
the dirty work of soldiering. Ord veterans who were di- ing about the extent of both 25-year-old was sent to the Lejeune, North Carolina,
Recruits tossed live grenades agnosed with cancers — es- the pollution and the health Defense Language Institute and only during a 35-year
into the canyons of “Mortar pecially rare blood disorders effects of its toxic legacy. in Monterey, California, and window, between 1953 to
Alley,” sprayed soapy chemi- — took the question to Face- lived at Fort Ord as a soldier. 1987. Servicemembers there
cals on burn pits of scrap book: Are there more of us? The AP’s review of public By then the base was mostly were found by federal epi-
metal and solvents, poured documents shows the Army closed but still housed troops demiologists to have higher
toxic substances down drains Soon, the group grew to knew that chemicals had for limited purposes. mortality rates from many
and into leaky tanks they bur- hundreds of people who had been improperly dumped at cancers, including multiple
ied underground. lived or served at Fort Ord Fort Ord for decades. Even What she didn’t know at the myeloma and leukemia. Men
and were concerned that after the contamination time was that the ground un- developed breast cancer, and
When it rained, poisons per- their health problems might was documented, the Army der her feet, and the water pregnant women tended to
colated into aquifers from be tied to the chemicals there. downplayed the risks. that ran through the sandy have children with higher
which they drew drinking soil into an aquifer that sup- rates of birth defects and low
water. The Associated Press inter- And ailing veterans are be- plied some of the base’s birth weight. Like Fort Ord,
viewed nearly two dozen of ing denied benefits based on drinking water was polluted. Camp Lejeune began clos-
Through the years, soldiers these veterans for this story a 25-year-old health assess- Among the contaminants ing contaminated wells in the
and civilians who lived at the and identified many more. ment. The CDC’s Agency were cancer-causing chemi- mid-’80s.
U.S. Army base didn’t ques- The AP also reviewed thou- for Toxic Substances and cals including trichloroethyl-
tion whether their tap water sands of pages of documents, Disease Registry concluded ene, also known as the mira- Soldiers are often stationed
was safe to drink. and interviewed military, in 1996 that there were no cle degreaser TCE. at different bases during their
medical and environmental likely past, present or future years of military service, but
But in 1990, four years before scientists. risks from exposures at Fort She’d learn this decades later, neither the Defense Depart-
it began the process of clos- Ord. as she tried to understand ment nor the VA has system-
ing as an active military train- There is rarely a way to di- how, at just 46 and with no atically tracked toxic expo-
ing base, Fort Ord was added rectly connect toxic expo- But that conclusion was family history of blood can- sures at various locations.

Prosecutors in charge of Trump criminal probe have resigned

(AP) — The two pros- der former District Attorney saying the investigation is as rent, car payments and naled to his deputies he was
ecutors in charge of the Cyrus Vance Jr., and Bragg ongoing. school tuition. not inclined to pursue an in-
Manhattan district attor- asked them to stay when he dictment.
ney’s criminal investiga- took office in January. The New York Times, cit- Messages seeking comment
tion into former President ing sources, reported that were left for Dunne and “My client has done nothing
Donald Trump and his Dunne, the office’s former the grand jury investigation Pomerantz. wrong,” Fischetti said.
business dealings sudden- general counsel, argued be- had stalled, with no sessions
ly resigned Wednesday, fore the U.S. Supreme Court in the last month, and that Trump did not immedi-
throwing the future of the in a successful, multiyear Dunne and Pomerantz quit ately respond to the news.
probe into question just fight for Trump’s tax records. after Bragg raised doubts In a telephone interview, his
as pressure was building Pomerantz, a former mafia about pursuing a case against lawyer Robert Fischetti said:
on Trump on several legal prosecutor, was brought out Trump himself. No for- “I’m a very happy man. In my
fronts. of private practice by Vance mer president has ever been opinion, this investigation is
last year to add his expertise charged with a crime. over.”
A spokesperson for Dis- in white collar investigations
trict Attorney Alvin Bragg and had been involved in So far, the nearly three-year Fischetti said Bragg has not
confirmed the resignations questioning witnesses before investigation has resulted spoken to him about the sta-
of Carey Dunne and Mark the grand jury. only in tax fraud charges tus of the investigation or po-
Pomerantz, top deputies who against Trump’s company, tential charges against Trump
had been tasked with run- “We are grateful for their ser- the Trump Organization, and but, given Wednesday’s de-
ning the investigation on a vice,” Bragg spokesperson its longtime finance chief Al- velopments, the lawyer said
day-to-day basis. Both start- Danielle Filson said. She de- len Weisselberg relating to it appeared that the D.A. had
ed on the Trump probe un- clined to comment further, lucrative fringe benefits such reviewed the case and sig-