ATLANTA - The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) will convene a review panel to evaluate the agency's water modeling and field data gathering efforts at the U.S. Marine Corps Base at Camp Lejeune, N.C. The meeting will be held March 28 and 29 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will be open to the public.
The water modeling activities -- Historical Reconstruction Analysis for Volatile Organic Compound Contamination of Drinking Water Supplies at U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune -- will estimate the distribution of contaminants in drinking water at residences and other locations on the base. During the two-day meeting, panel members will review and provide feedback about ATSDR's activities from March through Dec. 2004, those activities include: data collection activities, field investigations, and modeling analyses of groundwater resources and present-day (2004) water-distribution systems. The water modeling activities have not been completed.
People who lived in some of the base housing areas at Camp Lejeune during 1968 to 1985 were exposed to drinking water contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE). ATSDR has conducted several public health activities to find out if these chemicals had adverse health effects on Camp Lejeune residents. Information about TCE and PCE, health effects linked with these chemicals and ATSDR activities at Camp Lejeune can be found at www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/lejeune.
The panel will be held at the ATSDR office, 1825 Century Center Blvd., Room 1A and 1B, Atlanta. This is an open meeting and pre-registration is required. During the afternoon sessions, members of the public will have the opportunity to pose questions about the water modeling activities to the panel chairperson. To register, call Liz Bertelsen with Eastern Research Group Inc. at 404-634-0046 or submit your online pre-registration by March 15.
Those who do not attend can submit questions in advance. Questions should not exceed one single-spaced page and can be faxed to 404-634-0076, Attn: Liz Bertelsen. Please send questions on or before March 15.