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Suit filed over water at Camp Lejeune

RALEIGH, N.C. — A woman developed cancer after three years of using contaminated water provided by the North Carolina military base where her husband was stationed, her lawyers said Monday.

A lawsuit filed against the federal government in U.S. District Court seeks an unspecified amount of damages for Laura Jones, 45, of Glenwood, Iowa, who has non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Jones lived at Camp Lejeune with her Marine husband from 1980 until May 1983. She didn’t attend a news conference about the lawsuit, which was filed Saturday, because of her physical condition, said attorney Joseph Anderson.

A government report earlier this month found tainted water at Camp Lejeune between the 1950s and 1985 can’t definitively be linked to health problems.

The study said the Marines and Navy shouldn’t wait for more scientific studies before deciding how to deal with health problems reported by former base residents. And it called into question the value of further studies.

Marine Corps spokesman 1st Lt. Brian Block said he couldn’t discuss the lawsuit.

“We are still supporting the ongoing studies to determine if there was a connection between adverse health and the water,” he said.

The 14-page complaint, filed along with numerous supporting documents, said Jones can’t work as a nurse because of pain.

“She continues to suffer, among other problems, resulting fibromyalgia requiring high dosages of narcotics to address the pain, an adrenaline insufficiency, immune system difficulties requiring her to take high dosages of immunoglobulin and other medications to address these ongoing problems and suffers confusion and loss of memory as a result of chemotherapy,” the lawsuit said.

Lawyers argued in the lawsuit that Lejeune was responsible for making sure its water supply didn’t have contamination.

A 1981 report cited in the lawsuit told Lejeune commanders that the water contained “heavy organic chemicals and alerted the base command of the need to analyze for chlorinated organics.”

Former Camp Lejeune residents have filed hundreds of claims over health problems they say are related to the bad wells, which were closed in the 1980s. Water was contaminated by dry cleaning solvents and industrial sources at the base’s major family housing areas.

DISCUSS: The lawsuit