The Democratic Policy Committee (the DPC) has another in its series of hearings today.  This one regarding negligent exposure of US troops and Iraqis to a highly toxic chemical: sodium dichromate.

Yet again, KBR’s negligence is one of the questions at issue.  From the committee press release:

…Witnesses include National Guard members from Indiana, Oregon and West Virginia who were exposed to sodium dichromate at Qarmat Ali, a water injection facility in 2003. Also scheduled to testify is one of the world’s leading experts on health risks associated with exposure to sodium dichromate.

Military contractor KBR had the contract for cleaning up Qarmat Ali, which provided water to Iraq oil pipelines and which was critical to the U.S. effort to restore the Iraqi economy after the invasion. Sodium dichromate was found throughout the site. In some places it was several inches thick and filled the air during frequent windstorms.

KBR’s role in the exposure of troops was examined at a June 20, 2008, DPC hearing which found multiple failures to take action to protect troops. The August 3 hearing will examine whether the Army responded appropriately to KBR’s actions, including whether the Army followed up with exposed soldiers to ensure they were tested, monitored, and received potentially life-saving medical treatment.

“Our previous hearing found KBR’s failures to be widespread and serious,” Dorgan said. “Now, we want to know whether the Army held KBR accountable and acted quickly to protect soldiers when KBR failed to do so. Did the Army tell soldiers the truth about the exposure and its health consequences? After the exposure, did the Army properly test and monitor the soldiers who were exposed and make sure they received the treatment they need?”

More to come on this, I’m certain.

My understanding is that DPC plans to webcast the hearing — check back here for the link when it goes live.

Last January, Sens. Dorgan and Casey and the Democratic Policy Committee pushed the Department of Defense to investigate multiple issues with electrocution deaths in Iraq.

The IG’s office delivered its initial report yesterday (PDF).  As Sen. Byron Dorgan says:

U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said Monday a new Defense Department Inspector General investigation confirms findings of a hearing he chaired a year ago: the electrocution death of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth was the result of poor-quality electrical work by contractor KBR and that the Army failed to adequately oversee KBR or hold the company accountable.

“This is a damning report,” Dorgan said Monday. “The conduct of both KBR and the Army is unacceptable.”

In the report, the Inspector General concluded that KBR failed to ground equipment which contributed to the electrocution death of Staff Sgt. Maseth. . . .

“KBR has repeatedly denied any responsibility for what happened to Sgt. Maseth and other soldiers who were shocked and electrocuted in Iraq. This report makes it impossible for them to do that any longer,” Dorgan added. “Instead of cutting corners and issuing denials, KBR needs to get very serious, very quickly about doing quality work that protects soldiers rather than endangering them.”

The IG report is blunt: KBR failed to ground a water pump that provided water to showers where Sgt. Maseth was stationed, and Army supervisors failed to set baseline standards, inspect negligent work, or hold anyone accountable for shoddy work product — and even for deaths of its own servicepeople — until forced to do so by a public shaming.

Huge kudos to Sen. Dorgan and the other members of the DPC for continuing to force this issue.

Because otherwise, it would have simply disappeared, with family members having been told on multiple occasions that their loved ones either died of natural causes or died of self-inflicted electrocutions.  Beyond shameful conduct from multiple actors in this.

Thus far, the ongoing IG review has found that at least 9 electrocution deaths of US troops in Iraq can be attributed to shoddy electrical work and failure to follow proper safety procedures, and failures on multiple layers of supposedly required military inspections which should have caught the errors.

Worse, I’m told there is still a lot to inspect and review, which means that this ongoing investigation may not have caught all the shoddy work as yet.  I am currently trying to verify this with DOD sources.

American troops are risking their lives in uniform. Who knew they’d also be risking their lives in the shower because of faulty contracting work?

They deserve a hell of a lot better than that. 

And so do we all, since we’ve paid "$83.4 million in bonuses that the Pentagon paid KBR under LOGCAP III Task Order 139 for its shoddy electrical work," per Sen. Dorgan’s press release on the IG report.  That’s your taxpayer dollars, folks. (more…)

The Democratic Policy Committee is still pushing for answers and accountability on the sodium dichromate leak issue in Iraq. You’ll recall that Halliburton subsidiary KBR was in charge of operations at a water facility in Iraq when this happened:

KBR’s employees and American military personnel at the facility are all alleged to have been exposed to sodium dichromate:

…"These soldiers were bleeding from the nose, spitting blood," said Danny Langford, an equipment technician from Texas brought to work at the Qarmat Ali Water treatment plant in 2003. "They were sick."

"Hundreds of American soldiers at this site were contaminated" while guarding the plant, Langford said, including members of the Indiana National Guard.

Langford is one of nine Americans who accuse KBR, the lead contractor on the Qarmat Ali project and one of the largest defense contractors in Iraq, of knowingly exposing them to sodium dichromate, an orange, sandlike chemical that is a potentially lethal carcinogen. Specialists say even short-term exposure to the chemical can cause cancer, depress an individual’s immune system, attack the liver, and cause other ailments.

The answers thus far from the Pentagon, KBR and Halliburton? *crickets*

(more…)