What Lies Beneath: Vets worry polluted base made them ill

By MARTHA MENDOZA, JULIET LINDERMAN and JASON DEAREN
Associated Press

FORT ORD NATIONAL MONUMENT, Calif. (AP) — California’s Fort Ord has been on the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of the most polluted places in the nation since 1990. Dozens of chemicals, some that cause cancer, have been found in the base’s drinking water and soil. The Department of Veterans Affairs says the water at Fort Ord has always been safe, but hundreds of sick veterans — especially those with rare blood cancers — worry that their health problems might be tied to toxic exposures there.