AP: Water makes US troops in Iraq sick

[lovuian]

http://www.newsobserver.com/1573/story/990554.html

WASHINGTON - Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.

A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.

The Defense Department's inspector general's report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.

It was impossible to link the dirty water definitively to all the illnesses, according to the report. But it said KBR's water quality "was not maintained in accordance with field water sanitary standards" and the military-run sites "were not performing all required quality control tests."

The report said KBR took corrective steps and was providing adequate water quality by November 2006. But military units at the two sites they controlled were still failing to perform required quality control tests and maintain appropriate records by that time.

"Therefore, water suppliers exposed U.S. forces to unmonitored and potentially unsafe water," at the military sites by late 2006, the report said.
more....

For people who have family here is the KBR sites

Camp Ar Ramadi, Camp Q-West and Camp Victory. The military sites were Logistics Support Area Anaconda and Camp Ali.

Halliburton Co., then KBR's parent company, disputed the allegations even though they were made by its own employees and documented in company e-mails. In March 2006, the AP obtained an internal Halliburton report that, in one instance, the company missed contamination that could have caused "mass sickness or death" at Ar Ramadi.

The report said the event at Ar Ramadi could have been prevented if KBR's reverse osmosis units on the site had been assembled, instead of relying on the military's water production facilities.

Halliburton is the oil services conglomerate that Cheney once led. Congressional Democrats long have complained that KBR has benefited from its former ties to Cheney.

Some people DIED!!!

[Breeze54]

1. Water makes US troops in Iraq sick AGAIN!!

Report: Untreated water at U.S. base in Iraq

updated 5:42 p.m. ET, Sun., Jan. 22, 2006

Halliburton denies contamination of supply to American soldiers, civilians

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10977706/

WASHINGTON -

Troops and civilians at a U.S. military base in Iraq were exposed to contaminated water last year and employees
for the responsible contractor, Halliburton, couldn’t get their company to inform camp residents, according to
interviews and internal company documents.

Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, disputes the allegations about water
problems at Camp Junction City, in Ramadi, even though they were made by its own employees and documented
in company e-mails.

“We exposed a base camp population (military and civilian) to a water source that was not treated,” said
a July 15, 2005, memo written by William Granger, the official for Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary who was in charge of water quality in Iraq and Kuwait.

“The level of contamination was roughly 2x the normal contamination of untreated water from the Euphrates River,”
Granger wrote in one of several documents. The Associated Press obtained the documents from Senate Democrats who
are holding a public inquiry into the allegations Monday.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who will chair the session, held a number of similar inquiries last year on contracting
abuses in Iraq. He said Democrats were acting on their own because they had not been able to persuade Republican
committee chairmen to investigate.

The company’s former water treatment expert at Camp Junction City said that he discovered the problem last March,
a statement confirmed by his e-mail the day after he tested the water.

More....

:grr: Maybe they just wanted to make the troops feel at home? :sarcasm:

Those bastids!!

Drug residue found in US water supplies
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/10/usa.water

[lovuian]

3. heres article from Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/09/ap-water-makes-us-troops_n_90590.html

March 9, 2008 11:38 AM EST
WASHINGTON — Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says.

A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.

The Defense Department's inspector general's report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations.

It was impossible to link the dirty water definitively to all the illnesses, according to the report. But it said KBR's water quality "was not maintained in accordance with field water sanitary standards" and the military-run sites "were not performing all required quality control tests."

The report said KBR took corrective steps and was providing adequate water quality by November 2006. But military units at the two sites they controlled were still failing to perform required quality control tests and maintain appropriate records by that time.

"Therefore, water suppliers exposed U.S. forces to unmonitored and potentially unsafe water," at the military sites by late 2006, the report said.
more...

[Breeze54]

6. I'm well aware what happened in 2004 & 2005 & 2006 .... with the dirty filthy water.

When will Halliburton, Bush, Cheney & KBR be brought to justice!?! :grr:

[magellan]

2. Congress is well aware of the problems with KBR

And the disgusting, cheap, dangerous way the contractors treat our troops is nothing new. So instead of me getting angry about it yet again, I just have to accept that Congress isn't interested in doing anything but holding hearings and tut-tutting.

[lovuian]

4. KBR tried to deny it was their fault

The inspector general's report said some troops noticed problems with the water. Between October 2004 and May 2005, troops at Camp Ar Ramadi said bathwater was discolored and had an unusual odor. The report said KBR failed to treat the nonpotable water and monitor water quality during the same period.

At Camp Q-West, KBR inappropriately delivered chlorinated wastewater for showers and latrines without informing military preventive medicine officials, the report said. "KBR did not monitor or record the quality of water at point-of-use containers before April 2006, even though the ... contract required the company to do so," the report added.

Medical records for troops at Camp Q-West indicated 38 cases of illnesses commonly attributed to problem water. These include skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections and diarrhea. Doctors diagnosed 24 of the cases in January and February 2006, the same period when medical officials warned of a rise in bacterial infections at the base.

In addition, military medical records _ tied to no particular base in Iraq _ showed 26 cases of food and waterborne diseases, including hepatitis, giardiasis and typhoid fever.

[magellan]

5. The point is, what will be done about it and by whom?

This stuff has been going on for too long and KBR is behind a lot of it. Why are they still being allowed to hold a contract?