The KBR Water Scandal Reports: A Witness Weighs In
Cross-posted from www.progressivefuture.org:
Yesterday, in Part II of this five-part series, I shared my friend Rachel's experiences in Iraq with having to shower in dirty, contaminated water provided to the troops by private contractor and former Halliburton subsidiary, KBR. This story followed Rachel's recollection of the grossly higher paychecks the contractors were receiving for the same work as the military personnel, a sick twist of irony if you consider how poorly the contractors were doing the jobs they are paid six-figure incomes to perform.
While the firsthand testimony of her experiences shocked and angered me, the findings of the investigations that followed truly made me disgusted:
To your knowledge, was KBR ever notified of the suspicions with the water?
I never [considered] that the water was unmonitored, however since coming home I have learned more about what went wrong. On May 13, 2005 (about a month after we moved to the camp) KBR's Theatre Water Quality Manager authored a report regarding the water in Camp Ramadi. The then-water purification manager, Ben Carter, reportedly followed up on a complaint that there was larvae in one of the toilets. After discovering that it was true, he immediately tested for chlorine in water points, and found that none was present. He testified in January 2006 for a Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing that after telling site management to inform the military to chlorinate their water, he was told by the KBR site manager that the military was none of his concern. "I was ordered to concern myself only with the health and safety of KBR personnel."
I never [considered] that the water was unmonitored, however since coming home I have learned more about what went wrong. On May 13, 2005 (about a month after we moved to the camp) KBR's Theatre Water Quality Manager authored a report regarding the water in Camp Ramadi. The then-water purification manager, Ben Carter, reportedly followed up on a complaint that there was larvae in one of the toilets. After discovering that it was true, he immediately tested for chlorine in water points, and found that none was present. He testified in January 2006 for a Senate Democratic Policy Committee Hearing that after telling site management to inform the military to chlorinate their water, he was told by the KBR site manager that the military was none of his concern. "I was ordered to concern myself only with the health and safety of KBR personnel."
At the time of the report, this oversight was still continuing. In his testimony, Ben Carter stated that he knew the issues with the water continued at least through September 2005. The report also states: "This event should be considered a NEAR MISS as the consequences of these actions could have been VERY SEVERE resulting in mass sickness or death."
Upon reading further in to the report, [I discovered that the water] was actually twice as polluted going into our showers as it would have been had we taken it directly from the river. This was because they took the concentrated wastewater [left over] from the reverse osmosis purification process and, instead of dumping it, they used it for our non-potable water. The report concludes that the military is required to acquire a discharge permit for the concentrated waste stream, which explains [the danger in using concentrated wastewater] for non potable consumption. Further intensifying this problem was the "blatant disregard" for the disinfection of the wastewater with chlorine.
The Dept. of Defense released the Inspector General Report on the water problems and found that not only was water contaminated in Camp Ramadi from October 13, 2004 to May 26, 2005 (a date which I believe to be inaccurate, as the water quality did not seem to change during my time showering in it until December 2005), water was also contaminated at [many other camps].
Carter concluded his testimony at the oversight hearing by saying, "I'm here today because I believe that supporting the troops has to be more than a slogan. Our men and women overseas deserve the best our taxpayer dollars can buy, and it saddens me to report that we're falling short on something as simple and essential as providing them with clean, safe water."
Where to begin? Larvae in communally-used toilets is bad enough, but it can be passed off as an isolated incident. The fact that there was absolutely no chlorinated disinfection process being used in any of the water points hows you the ethical decay behind contractor practices. This was a deliberate decision to cut corners at the expense of the health and security of our troops.
What's more disturbing is that it appears this attitude was not just some unspoken practice; the blatant disregard for the well-being of the troops was an explicitly stated policy coming from higher-ups within the corporation. So let me get this straight: KBR was hired to perform services intended to support and protect the troops, yet it is the stated policy of KBR to treat the interest of the troops as an afterthought, and even an obstacle in their ventures to capitalize on the war.
These dangers are the saddening result of corporate interests having an influence over foreign policy and being allowed to thrive unregulated and unchecked. Stories like these show the true priorities of the officials shaping the war: profit over security. Yet again, these are the folks to will defend their practices on the platform of being strong on national security. Yet, despite the lack of reporting on these atrocities in the mainstream media, Americans are starting to realize that, when push comes to shove, these leaders of ours will always choose their own financial interests over the security of our nation.
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