VA takes steps to deal with mounting Lejeune water claims

VA takes steps to deal with mounting Lejeune water claims
By Barbara Barrett | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Monday, December 20, 2010

WASHINGTON — Responding to heightened publicity and an uneven smattering of decisions on claims, the Department of Veterans Affairs will begin training a specialized cadre of workers this week to handle disability claims related to historic water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C.

The agency will consolidate claims at one office in Louisville, Ky. Eight employees there will focus on culling, researching and adjudicating disability claims related to the contaminated water.

The move is more than bureaucratic; it could prove significant to Marine veterans across the country who are suffering from cancers and other diseases that they think are related to the poisonous chemicals that flowed through Lejeune's water from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s.

"Great. Great!" Marine veteran Peter Devereaux of North Andover, Mass., said when he heard about the VA's decision. "It seems they're stepping up and trying to take control."

Devereaux, 48, suffers from a terminal form of male breast cancer. It took him two years to finally earn service-connected disability benefits in August, and all along the way, he said, he had to explain the Lejeune water problems to VA officials.