In 2020, President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act into law, allowing victims of the Marine Corp's Camp Lejeune water contamination incident to file administraive claims and ultimately lawsuits against the U.S. government. However, the progress of these claims has been incredibly slow, and a growing number of them are becoming wrongful death claims.

Camp Lejeune, a military base in North Carolina, has been the source of significant water contamination from 1953 to 1987, affecting as many as a million Marines, civilian staff, and their families. The water was contaminated with chemicals like trichloroethylene (TCE), which has been linked to 15 different cancers and conditions, including Parkinson's disease.

Despite internal knowledge of the contamination by the early 1980s, the Marine Corps failed to alert former residents until 1999. In 2008, Congress mandated the Marine Corps to notify those affected about the risks. Many victims, however, had already developed serious health issues or passed away.

The projected cost of the 2020 PACT Act, including Camp Lejeune claims, could exceed $163 billion over a decade. The Navy says it has initiated processing of more than 17,000 of the claims that it received under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, but acknolwedges that it is moving much slower than anticipated. The Navy states that it’s working to expedite the process with more staffing and new IT solutions.

The situation at Camp Lejeune is part of a broader pattern of U.S. military branches exposing troops and families to toxic environmental hazards, with other instances of contamination and lack of acknowledgment from federal agencies. The victims and their advocates stress the importance of holding these government agencies accountable, seeking justice, and ensuring that such tragedies are not repeated.

For more, see Camp Lejeune water contamination cases increasingly becoming wrongful death claims as lawsuits proceed at a crawl, and contact our firm if you would like to discuss you or your family's exposure to the toxic substances present in the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.