Congress members want answers on Lejeune toxic water report

Congress members want answers on Lejeune report
January 31, 2012 4:47 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

CAMP LEJEUNE — Three members of Congress from North Carolina, along with lawmakers from other states, are worried that information left out of a new report on water contamination at Camp Lejeune could set a troubling precedent for future research on the subject.

The three sent a letter to Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, asking why an affiliated agency blacked out information in its Jan. 19 report on the location of water systems used on the base that houses Marines.

The Marine Corps said that was sensitive national security information. The lawmakers are concerned that the agency was too willing to leave out the information, and that future data about contaminated water could be kept from the public without a valid reason.

"An open and transparent process is essential to this scientific endeavor and it is particularly important for the ongoing and future studies on Camp Lejeune's water contamination," Sen. Kay Hagan, Sen. Richard Burr and U.S. Rep. Brad Miller said in the letter that was also signed by lawmakers in Florida and Michigan.
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