MOUNDSVILLE - More than 30 local National Guard members were exposed to toxic chemicals while in Iraq, a lawsuit filed this week in Marshall County Circuit Court states.
The legal action on behalf of 30 members of the 1092nd Battalion of the West Virginia Army National Guard, headquartered in Moundsville, indicates the soldiers were exposed to sodium dichromate in the spring of 2003 while stationed at the Qarmat Ali water plant in Iraq. U.S. troops provided security for those working to restore operations at the plant.
Sodium dichromate is a toxic chemical that was used at the site as an anti-corrosive. It contains nearly pure hexavalent chromium, a highly potent carcinogen and mutagenic substance.
The suit suggests that the defendants - Kellogg Brown and Root Services Inc. and KBR Technical Services, both of Delaware - knew or should have known about both contamination at the site and the dangers of exposure to hexavalent chromium. It also asserts that the companies concealed facts about the dangers of the contamination and exposure to the toxic substance at the water plant.
The suit continues that many of the national guardsmen have suffered from such health conditions as respiratory system tumors, auto-immune disorders, digestive disorders "and other disorders characteristically associated with hexavalent chromium exposure."
Exposed people will require ongoing, expensive follow-up care in the future and their health will need to be monitored, it is stated in the court filing.
Fact Box
WHO'S SUING?
Members of the 1092nd Battalion listed as plaintiffs in the suit are:
- Michael Billiter, Paden City
- Robert Bonds, Pittsburgh
- Donald Bordenkircher, Paden City
- Jeffrey Britton, Harrisville, W.Va.
- Nathan Ferguson, Fairmont, W.Va.
- Rodger M. Gamble, McMechen
- Frederick Garland, Wheeling
- Ezekial Goddard, Wheeling
- Michael Helmick, St. Marys, W.Va.
- Robert Jewell, Wheeling
- Jason W. Johnson, Moundsville
- Jon R. Littleton, Shadyside
- Antony Q. Long, Moundsville
- Brandon Long, Morgantown
- James McQuain, Moundsville
- Garrett Michaels, Spring Lake, N.C.
- Robert Mullavey, Wheeling
- Joshua Poling, Rivesville, W.Va.
- Bill Powell, Chester
- Jonathan T. Regets, Washington, Pa.
- Joseph L. Richardson, Sistersville
- James Robinson, Moundsville
- Michael Schnelle, Wheeling
- Joshua Sipos, Wheeling
- Adam Speece, Powhatan Point
- Michael Toland, Wheeling
- Adam Traynor, Columbia, S.C.
- Robert Tucker, Middlebourne
- Scott Urbanek, New Martinsville
- Lucian Weese, Wheeling
Moundsville attorney Jeff Kessler of Berry, Kessler, Crutchfield, Taylor and Gordon is representing the soldiers and filed the legal work.
Kessler also serves as a state senator and has announced that he will seek the governor's office in 2012.
National Guard members from Texas, Indiana and Pennsylvania also were working in the area of the Qarmat Ali water plant in the spring of 2003. Similar suits have been filed in federal court in those states on behalf of their soldiers.
But Kessler believes his filing in Marshall County is the first to be filed in a state court.
"It occurred to me that these two businesses are doing business in West Virginia," he said. "I don't think it's right to have our folks go to Houston or elsewhere to have their claims litigated."
The soldiers have been suffering from such conditions as inflammatory bowel disease, blot clots, dizziness and bleeding from the nose. Kessler said it seems "too coincidental" that otherwise healthy young men would all be suffering from the same ailments.
"Clearly these folks were exposed," he continued. " Hexavalent chromium is one of the most deadly chemicals known to man. Once it is absorbed into the system, there is no getting it out. These guy were just sitting outside eating their lunch, and the wind was blowing it all over them."
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will begin hearings on the matter Thursday, and Kessler credited the efforts of U.S. Sens. Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller with pushing the issue in Congress.
KBR spokeswoman Heather Browne said she hadn't seen a copy of the lawsuit and declined to comment. KBR said in August that it wasn't responsible for the sodium dichromate at the site.