WHEELING - Four Ohio Valley soldiers are among nearly 50 nationwide who have filed a federal lawsuit against civilian contractor KBR Inc. after they were exposed to hexavalent chromium, a potent, sometimes deadly chemical linked to cancer and other devastating diseases.
The four local soldiers - Bradley Ebert of Bethlehem, Russell Powell of Moundsville, Andru Keller of Middlebourne and John Headley of Paden City - were part of the West Virginia National Guard's 1092nd Engineering Battalion, stationed in Iraq in 2003.
These soldiers and hundreds of other Guard members from Indiana and Oregon were protecting workers hired by a subsidiary of KBR Inc. to rebuild an Iraqi water treatment plant. The area, as it turned out, was contaminated with hexavalent chromium, the same chemical linked to poisonings in California in a case made famous in the movie "Erin Brockovich."
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This photo provided by Steve Moore shows his brother, Sgt. David L. Moore, during his National Guard service in Iraq. Moore’s post-war life turned into a harrowing medical mystery: nosebleeds and labored breathing that made it impossible to work, much less speak. His desperate search for answers ended in 2008 when he died of lung disease at age 42.
Now, six years later, many of those who protected KBR's workers in the Iraqi desert are sick. Some have died.
According to the lawsuit filed late last week in U.S. District Court in Wheeling, several of the West Virginia soldiers "have already manifested respiratory system tumors characteristically associated with hexavalent chromium exposure, and many of the West Virginia Guardsmen continue to experience chemical sensitivities and rashes consistent with the impacts of hexavalent chromium poisoning. As has become clear only recently, the West Virginia Guardsmen and other exposed persons now require ongoing, expensive follow-up health care for the health impacts of these exposures, as well as compensation for the reasonably anticipated manifestations over time, including the cancers, potential impact on their offspring, and heightened reaction to chromium salts in the environment."
Similar reactions to the chemical have been found in soldiers from other states who also protected KBR workers:
No one disputes that the area around the water treatment plant was contaminated with hexavalent chromium. But that's where the agreement ends.
Among the issues now rippling through Congress are whether the chemical made people sick, when KBR knew it was there and how the company responded. But the debate is about more than this one case; it has raised broader questions about private contractors and health risks in war zones.
Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., plans to hold Congressional hearings on the issues. He plans to seek answers to the following questions:
"How should we treat exposure to potentially hazardous chemicals as a threat to our soldiers? How seriously should that threat be taken? What is the role of private contractors? What about the potential conflict between their profit motives and taking all steps necessary to protect our soldiers?"
"This case," Bayh says, "has brought to light the need for systemic reform."
The lawsuits against KBR and two subsidiaries accuse them of minimizing and concealing the chemical's dangers, then downplaying nosebleeds and breathing problems as nothing more than sand allergies or a reaction to desert air.
KBR denies any wrongdoing. In a statement, the company said it actually found the chemical at the Qarmat Ali plant, restricted access, cleaned it up and "did not knowingly harm troops."
This isn't the first claim that toxins have harmed soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan; there have been allegations involving lead, depleted uranium and sarin gas.
This also isn't the first challenge to KBR, whose billions of dollars of war-related contracts have been the subject of congressional scrutiny and legal claims.
This case stems from the chaotic start of the war in 2003 when a KBR subsidiary was hired to restart the treatment plant, which had been looted and virtually stripped bare. The Iraqis had used hexavalent chromium to prevent pipe corrosion at the plant, which produced industrial water used in oil production.
Hexavalent chromium - a toxic component of sodium dichromate - can cause severe liver and kidney damage and studies have linked it to leukemia as well as bone, stomach and other cancers, according to an expert who provided a deposition for the civilian workers.
The chemical "is one of the most potent carcinogens know to man," said Max Costa, chairman of New York University's Department of Environmental Medicine.
KBR, however, says studies show only that industrial workers exposed to the chemical for more than two years have an increased risk of cancer - and in this case, soldiers were at the plant just days or months.
The company also notes air quality studies concluded the Indiana Guard soldiers were not exposed to high levels of hexavalent chromium. But Costa says those tests were done when the wind was not blowing.
Both soldiers and former workers say there were days when strong gusts kicked up ripped-open bags of the chemical, creating a yellow-orange haze that coated everything from their hair to their boots.
"I was spitting blood and I was not the only one doing that," recalls Danny Langford, who worked for the KBR subsidiary. "The wind was blowing 30, 40 miles an hour. You could just hardly see where you were going. I pulled my shirt over my nose and there would be blood on it."
Larry Roberta, a 44-year-old former Oregon National Guard member, remembers 137-degree heat and dust everywhere.
He sat on a bag of the chemical, unaware it was dangerous.
"This orange crud blew up in your face, your eyes and on our food," he says. "I tried to wash my chicken patty off with my canteen. I started to get sick to my stomach right away."
Roberta had coughing spells and agonizing chest pains, he says, that "went all the way through my back. ... Every day I went there, I had something weird going on."
Russell Kimberling, a former Indiana National Guard captain, had severe sinus troubles that forced his medical evacuation to Germany. After returning, he became alarmed one August day in 2003 while escorting some officials to the plant in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.
"I jumped out of the truck and I turned around and they (KBR staff) had full chemical gear on," he says. "I looked at some of my soldiers and said, 'This can't be very good.' ... They could have told us to put chemical suits on."
Ed Blacke, hired as plant health, safety and environmental coordinator, says he became worried after workers started having breathing problems and a former colleague sent him an internal KBR memo outlining the chemical's dangers. Blacke says he complained, was labeled a troublemaker and resigned under pressure.
"Normally when you take over a job, you have a briefing - this is what's out there, here's what you need for protective equipment," says Blacke, who testified at a Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearing last year. "There was nothing, nothing at all."
Blacke and Langford were among those whose civil claims were resolved in arbitration.
Kimberling is among nearly 50 current or former Guard members who've sued.
Mike Doyle, a Houston lawyer representing the soldiers and civilians, maintains KBR knew as early as May 2003 the chemical was there, but didn't close the site until that September.
"Once they (KBR) found out about it, they didn't tell anybody and they did everything to conceal it," he contends. "Their staff was getting reports and soldiers and civilians who were in the field were told ... 'There's nothing to worry about."'
Attorney Michael Simon of the Weirton firm of Frankovitch, Anetakis, Colantonio & Simon filed the lawsuit on behalf of the West Virginia soldiers.
The lawsuit cites minutes of an August 2003 KBR meeting that mentions "serious health problems at the water treatment plant" and notes "almost 60 percent of the people now exhibit the symptoms."
In a recent wide-ranging Associated Press interview, KBR chairman William P. Utt said the company has been unfairly targeted for its military work.
"People think there's an opportunity here in Iraq, let's paint it on KBR, then we'll worry about making the facts precise or correct later," he said.
As for the water plant, KBR says once it learned of the chemical, it took precautions to protect workers, notified the Army Corps of Engineers and led the cleanup. It says the Corps had previously deemed the area safe.
KBR also points to Army tests of Indiana Guard soldiers that showed no medical problems that could be linked to exposure, as well as a military board review that found it unlikely anyone would suffer long-term medical consequences.
But Bayh and Doyle say those tests were done too late to be valid and note that soil tests were taken after the contaminated area was covered.
Doyle also disagrees with KBR's contention that workers weren't there long enough to have elevated cancer risks.
James Gentry, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Indiana Guard, is in the late stages of lung cancer and the disease has spread to his ribs and spine, according to his friend, Christopher Lee.
Gentry hasn't sued but in a December 2008 deposition he said it was "very disappointing" KBR managers didn't share information soldiers were around cancer-causing chemical.
"I'm dying because of it," he said.
Roberta, the former Oregon Guardsman who needed stomach surgery after his return, says he suffers from post-traumatic stress, mood swings, nose polyps, chest pains and debilitating migraines.
"I have 100 percent disability," he says. "I've got a long laundry list of things that happened to me while I was there. If you add it all up, I'd be almost 200 percent disabled."
Kimberling, the former Indiana Guardsman, struggles as well.
The father of two young children - he's a pharmaceutical salesman in Louisville, Ky. - says he hasn't been able to get life insurance because his possible exposure is mentioned on his medical records.
"I feel like I'm a 38-year-old in a 60-year-old's body," he says. ... "I'm not sure if it's the anxiety of finding out about it or not. I kind of know and feel it's just a matter of time before it catches up with me.