After a group of Oregon National Guard troops sued KBR in 2009, claiming they'd been exposed to toxic chemicals at Iraq's Qarmat Ali Water Treatment Facility, an unusual deal between the military contractor and the Army came to light. Tucked inside its multibillion-dollar contract to rebuild the facility was a clause, the contents of which remain classified, that could shield the contractor from legal liability—in essence, what could amount to a get-out-of-court-free card.
The deal raises questions about why the Army agreed to insulate KBR—and how many other contractors might have similar agreements in place—and for months, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) has pressed the Pentagon for answers. On Thursday, he plans to introduce legislation that would require the Pentagon to inform Congress whenever indemnity agreements are made, which he hopes will effectively put an end to the kind of secret deal that KBR appears to have secured. "Our war contracting process does too little to ensure that contractors act with the best interests of our troops and taxpayers in mind, and we're going to change that," he says.
The origins of the Oregon case stretch back to May 2003, when guardsmen were assigned to protect the Qarmat Ali facility. They arrived to a site heavily contaminated with sodium dichromate, which contains a hexavalent chromium, a chemical known to cause myriad health problems (and made famous by Erin Brockovich).
KBR's work at Qarmat Ali was part a $7 billion no-bid contract granted to KBR's parent company, Halliburton, to protect Iraqi oil reserves following the March 2003 invasion. The portion of the contract for the water-treatment facility was reportedly worth $2.5 billion.
According to court documents, KBR employees at Qarmat Ali reported that "large areas" of the site were visibly contaminated. An internal KBR memo from August 2003 described a "contaminant/evaporation pond" three to five acres in size,; a mixing room and equipment "stained dark orange" by "piles" of what was likely pure sodium dichromate; a tank holding "approximately one foot of yellow sludge"; and walls stained yellow by the diluted solution of the chemical. The compound was used at the site to prevent corrosion in pipelines, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has set exposure limits for the substance extremely low and warns that it can cause numerous health problems for exposed workers. KBR claims the compound was left behind by Iraqis who worked at the facility prior to the beginning of the war.
The memo, released in the court case, provided a detailed description of the safety concerns:
Sodium dichromate is a very toxic chemical and has been shown to have caused cancer in humans. Casual exposure has been shown to cause a number of health effects, chest pains and skin burns. Chronic exposure has been shown to cause lung damage, liver damage, tooth decay, digestive disorders and cancer.
But, according to the plaintiffs in the case and court documents, KBR waited months to inform soldiers of the presence of the chemical and the associated risks. And it's not just the Oregon guardsmen who were potentially affected—soldiers from three other states and the UK have claimed that KBR knowingly exposed them to the chemical at the site. Two soldiers who worked at the facility have reportedly died of cancer. In July, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that it was creating a Qarmat Ali registry to track and treat veterans who may have been exposed to the chemicals at the site.
Read more at motherjones.com
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