The EPA has issued a final rule to phase out all uses of a harmful solvent that has been linked to liver and kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and central nervous system damage – a chemical that also been a focal point of the litigation over long-term drinking water contamination aboard Camp Lejeune.
Trichloroethylene was widely used in products like hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants, degreasers, adhesives, and lubricants, and lawyers with the firm Miller and Zois, who are representing some of the victims of toxic water on base, say TCE concentrations at Lejeune reached up to 280 parts per billion in some wells, far exceeding the EPA’s safe limit of 5 ppb.
Testing showed the contamination primarily originated from two main sources – it was used for degreasing and cleaning equipment in the Hadnot Point Industrial Area on-base and also seeped into the groundwater when the infamous ABC One-Hour Cleaners off-base improperly disposed of waste solvents.
