Marines assigned to 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment conduct an embassy reinforcement exercise aboard Camp Lejeune, Dec. 12, 2021. The Marines established a forward command element, brought in embassy reinforcements, and conducted a mass casualty drill. Role players are used to create a realistic training environment. Photo: Staff Sgt. Brittney Vella/U.S. Marine Corps .
From 1953 to 1987, there was large-scale water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Camp Lejeune is a U.S. military training facility in Jacksonville, N.C. Trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), benzene, vinyl chloride and other compounds were released into the ground water, potentially exposing hundreds of thousands of military service members and civilians who lived or worked on base. Studies show that exposure to those chemicals can cause illnesses including bladder cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, Parkinson’s disease, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, myelodysplastic syndromes, leukemia, aplastic anemia and others.
On Aug. 10, 2022, President Biden signed the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022. The Act provides a powerful statutory cause of action for individuals who experienced harm as a result of exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina for 30 days or more between Aug. 1, 1953, and Dec. 31, 1987. Why is this action such a big deal? First, the Act creates a new statute of limitations, requiring that claims must be filed within two years of the Act’s enactment, as opposed to North Carolina’s state statute of limitations or the statute of limitations under the Federal Tort Claims Act. This new statute of limitations gives a fresh opportunity to harmed veterans and civilians whose claims were otherwise time barred. Second, the Act prohibits the government from asserting the defenses of sovereign immunity and the Feres Doctrine. Simply put, the Act removes legal roadblocks that had for years thwarted the efforts for justice of those injured at Camp Lejeune. The Act also includes an administrative exhaustion requirement that all claimants must file an administrative claim with the Department of the Navy. Once claimants exhaust their administrative remedy, they can file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, which has exclusive jurisdiction over all cases brought under the Act.
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