1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
Camp Lejeune: Deadly Waters by Barbara Barrett
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
April 18, June 20, June 24
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
Over the past year, McClatchy's coverage of historic water contamination at Marines Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., has drawn new attention to a decades-old case that could prove to be among the military's most widespread environmental disasters to date. It is estimated that more than a million people were exposed to the water over a period of 30 years. Former residents link the poisoned water to kidney cancer, childhood leukemia, lymphoma, reproductive cancer, miscarriages and a spate of more than 65 known cases of male breast cancer. McClatchy was the first to report that more than 800,000 gallons of fuel, loaded with cancer-causing benzene, had spilled into the underground water table below Camp Lejeune. We laid out how officials at Camp Lejeune for years ignored repeated warnings about contaminated water in the early 1980s. And McClatchy was the first to report the startling discovery of a second, significant source of underground fuel — enough to alter the work of federal scientists studying the contamination's impact on human health. Following McClatchy's stories, the Navy agreed to fund a million-dollar scientific study. Congress opened new investigations. And the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledged in September that the increased attention has led more ill Marines to seek disability compensation.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Thousands of pages of documents dating back to the late 1970s had been requested in the past by activists interested in this contamination, and much of it was passed on to me. I also made records requests through North Carolina's Open Records law, which resulted in thousands more pages. Electronic records were not difficult to obtain. The documents included years of water tests, memos, emails and investigatory reports about the contamination and follow-up work on it.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
Sources include congressional investigators, federal agency investigators, and Marine veterans and their families from across the country, along with those who worked on the base at Camp Lejeune in the past. Some of those former residents have done extensive research themselves and were an invaluable resource.
6. Results (if any).
This reporting, along with ongoing congressional work, has brought an intense new focus in the past year to water contamination that took place from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s at Marines Base Camp Lejeune. The Department of the Navy agreed to pay for studies they had previously refused to fund. The Department of Veterans Affairs organized a regional office specifically to handle Lejeune-related disability claims. Congressional investigators launched a probe into a previously undisclosed source of contamination. And senators, concerned that the Marines Corps had not turned over all relevant documentation to federal scientists, wrote language into the 2011 Defense Authorization bill ensuring that all materials be made available. Most important, Marine veterans and family members across the country learned of their exposure, often providing answers to those suffering from cancers and other diseases that might be associated with the contamination.
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
McClatchy continues to write about the impacts of contamination at Lejeune, publishing a story this week about a new lawsuit filed in North Carolina, and we will continue to investigate the problems and their effects. Marines Maj. Gen. E.G. Payne posted a letter to the editor online here, http://www.marines.mil/ontherecord/Pages/100311-CLWater.aspx, in response to our March 9 story, which showed that the House Science and Technology oversight panel was launching a probe into whether the Marines Corps failed to properly inform federal scientists about the contamination in the 1990s. Payne also wrote a letter to the editor of The News & Observer that published March 31, 2010.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
Check in regularly with your sources on an ongoing story such as this, and never be afraid to jump into a story that other outlets might already have touched on. In this case, I believe, it was the continuous drumbeat of coverage that had impact on families, Congress and federal agencies.