AP Via Yahoo:
The Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether cancer-causing radioactive material was buried in the 1980s near a rifle range at Camp Lejeune, the Marine Corps' primary base on the Atlantic Ocean.
A recently recovered Navy document dated 1981 said the material included 160 pounds of soil and two animal carcasses laced with strontium-90, an isotope that causes cancer and leukemia.
"We are looking into this information to determine if we need to sample and where," said Dawn Harris-Young, a spokeswoman for the EPA's regional office in Atlanta. "It's really early."
The document said the dirt, carcasses and other materials containing strontium-90 originated at a naval research lab near the base and were buried in a remote area.
Over three decades, tens of thousands of Marines at Camp Lejeune and their families drank and bathed in water contaminated with as many as 40 times more toxins than permitted by safety standards. The wells had been contaminated with industrial solvents and were shut off in the mid-1980s. The base's water now meets federal standards.
At least 850 former residents of the base have filed claims against the military, seeking nearly $4 billion, for exposure to the tainted water. Read more...
