Fort Ord’s unanswered health questions
Guest commentary by JULIE AKEY
Monterey Herald (CA)
July 13, 2026 l
Sean Tubo’s July 10 Monterey Herald article, “New study says Fort Ord water posed no public health hazard,” accurately reports the conclusions of ATSDR’s updated Health Consultation. However, the ATSDR answers only a narrow question: whether a limited number of contaminants found in drinking water between 1985 and 1994 were likely to pose unacceptable health risks. The ATSDR report does not answer the broader question that thousands of former soldiers, military families, civilian employees, and Monterey County residents have been asking for decades: Did contamination at Fort Ord sicken and kill many?
The agency limited its evaluation to 1985 through 1994 largely to remain consistent with an assessment it conducted in 1996. That may satisfy an administrative objective, but it is not a scientific one. Fort Ord remained occupied after 1994, and thousands of people continued to live, work, attend school and recreate there for years after the Army closed the base.
I know because I was one of them.
I lived at Fort Ord in 1996 and 1997. Twenty years later, I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. Since then, I have identified 138 people who lived or served at Fort Ord and later developed the same blood cancer. Altogether, I have compiled a database of nearly 2,000 former residents and military personnel suffering from cancers and other serious illnesses associated with chemicals known to have contaminated the installation. Most of these diseases are associated with military activities.
…
For the entire column, see
https://www.montereyherald.com/2026/07/13/guest-commentary-fort-ords-unanswered-health-questions/
—
Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)
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