The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) today released the report of an expert panel of independent scientists who evaluated ATSDR's computer models of past Camp Lejeune, N.C., water resources and drinking water distribution system.

The panel of nine technical experts in the field of water modeling, all from outside the agency, met March 28-29, 2005. The panel was formed at ATSDR's request and asked to provide the agency with an independent analysis of groundwater resources and drinking water distribution system computer modeling activities that ATSDR conducted in 2004 at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune.

ATSDR's water modeling activities support the agency's current epidemiologic study of childhood birth defects and cancer possibly related to past exposure to contaminated drinking water at the base.

The expert panel members commended ATSDR for the quality of the modeling work performed and recommended several additional steps the agency should take.

Among the panel's recommendations are for ATSDR to refine initial estimates of the date(s) when contaminants first reached the wells serving homes in the Tarawa Terrace area, and to determine periods of interconnections between the Hadnot Point and Holcomb Boulevard water distribution systems.

ATSDR has accepted all the panel's recommendations and already is implementing some of them.

People who lived at Camp Lejeune's Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point housing areas anytime between 1968 and1985 may have been exposed to drinking water contaminated with tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE).

ATSDR is using computer modeling to historically reconstruct the water system serving the base during the time when some drinking water was contaminated.

The report can be found online at www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune. A hard copy of the report, which includes a CD of the report and two transcripts of the panel meeting, is available by calling toll-free 1-888-422-8737.

For more information about the expert panel from ATSDR, please contact Senior Epidemiologist Frank Bove or Research Environmental Engineer Morris Maslia toll-free at 1-888-422-8737. Callers should mention the Camp Lejeune water-modeling panel report.