Amid the sparkling sea and sandy dunes at central California’s Fort Ord, soldiers and civilians didn’t question that their tap water was safe to drink.
But in 1990, the U.S Army base was added to the EPA’s list of the nation's most polluted places. apne.ws/sKlbmVR
Decades later, several Fort Ord veterans who were diagnosed with cancers — especially rare blood disorders — took the question to Facebook: Are there more of us?
Soon, the group grew to hundreds who had lived and served there. apne.ws/JbPyNaS
Julie Akey, who arrived at Fort Ord in 1996, said she didn’t know that the ground under her feet and the water that ran through the sandy soil was polluted with cancer causing chemicals.
“No one told us,” she said. apne.ws/JbPyNaS
But an @AP review of thousands of pages of public documents shows the Army knew for years that the chemicals posed a risk at Fort Ord but downplayed them, even after the contamination was documented. apne.ws/JbPyNaS
The military claims there are no adverse health conditions associated with living and serving at Fort Ord. apne.ws/bTeBA2y
Curt Gandy, a former airplane mechanic, recalls being routinely doused with toxic chemicals from the 1970s to the 1990s. He hosed down aircraft with solvents, cleaned engine parts and stripped paint off fuselages without any protection. apne.ws/JbPyNaS
Crews then brought barrels of the used flammable liquids down a bumpy sandy road, dumping solvents, paint and metal chips onto a burn pit. Airfield firefighters would light the toxic sludge into huge roaring fires and then douse them with foam. apne.ws/JbPyNaS
Army documents provide clear evidence that chemicals were being dumped in the burn pit. And it wasn’t the only site where chemical dumping occurred.
The toxins, heavier than water, sank through the sandy ground, contaminating the drinking water supply. apne.ws/JbPyNaS
Without an acknowledgement from the military that the toxins dumped at Fort Ord are linked to specific cancer cases, veterans and community members are unable to get benefits or compensation stemming from their illnesses. apne.ws/JbPyNaS
“You're not just serving for six years, like me, and then you're out,” said Akey, a former Fort Ord recruit who was diagnosed with a rare, terminal cancer at the age of 46. “If you've been given cancer, that's a life sentence.” apne.ws/JbPyNaS
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