Water for troops in Iraq

[Hey Bubu]

Anyone else hear about this?


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060316/...aminated_water

The Pentagon's official watchdog will investigate allegations by Halliburton Co. water experts that their company endangered U.S. troops in Iraq by failing to provide safe shower and laundry water.

[darki]

Hawalta.

[Keith P]

hawtalta but it still pisses me off.

[E-Nice]

must have been a mistake. halliburton just... simply... doesn't purposely do things to cut costs and undermine the troops welfare.

[E-Nice]

should've been posted in politics and awareness

[Hey Bubu]

Originally Posted by E-Nice

should've been posted in politics and awareness

Yet there are some that don't venture there...

[LaVitaBella]

hmmm great.

[Hey Bubu]

It's okay kid, you are fighting for freedom. That's the most important thing.

[LaVitaBella]

Originally Posted by TypeH

It's okay kid, you are fighting for freedom. That's the most important thing.

lol...is that i'm doing over there?

[Nyteshade]

Originally Posted by TypeH

Anyone else hear about this?


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060316/...aminated_water

The Pentagon's official watchdog will investigate allegations by Halliburton Co. water experts that their company endangered U.S. troops in Iraq by failing to provide safe shower and laundry water.

The link isn't working for me. Did some dumbshit try to drink that water?

[Hey Bubu]

Originally Posted by LaVitaBella

lol...is that i'm doing over there?

http://www.oscars.org/press/pressrel...ges/030423.jpg


Nyte

The most serious allegation came from the company's water treatment manager in the war zone whose internal report said troops and civilians in Iraq were left vulnerable to "mass sickness or death."

A former Halliburton water expert who found contamination at the Ar Ramadi base a year ago said he was told by superiors not to advise the military or senior company officials of his discovery.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., who had asked for an investigation, released a letter Thursday confirming the audit from John Crane, the Pentagon's assistant inspector general for communications and congressional liaison.

Gary Comerford, spokesman for the Defense Department's inspector general, said the audit would be among the first two by the inspector general's new office in Qatar.

The audit will "look at everything involved in this issue," Comerford said.

Dorgan, who has held Democratic-only hearings on the water issue, said the risk to U.S. forces in Iraq "should not include behavior by contractors who cut corners and whose incompetence fails to manage a program that is supposed to deliver safe water supplies."

The internal company report, obtained by The Associated Press, was written last May by Wil Granger, the "Theatre Water Quality Manager" for Halliburton's KBR subsidiary.

The report cited confusion between the military and the company over their water treatment responsibilities, a lack of training and the absence of records that might have provided warnings of contamination.

Despite the author's management position with KBR, the company said parts of his report were incomplete and inaccurate. A company report four months later found no problems in the contractor's stewardship of water supplies for U.S. troops and civilians, and no incidence of illness, Halliburton said in a statement. The company has declined to make either report public.

Granger wrote of the discovery in March 2005 of contamination of laundry and shower water at Camp Ar Ramadi in Ramadi. At the time, the nonpotable water came directly from the Euphrates River.

"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," Granger wrote.

The report said company water treatment units "had been on site for a considerable amount of time without assembly" due to resistance from a KBR foreman, who believed if they had been operating, "it would expose his weak knowledge base."

Granger wrote that the problems were not confined to Ar Ramadi.

"Countrywide, all camps suffer to some extent from all or some of the deficiencies noted," Granger wrote in the May 2005 report.

The AP reported this year on allegations from whistle-blowers about the Camp Ar Ramadi incident.

The water quality expert warned Halliburton the problems "will have to be dealt with at a very elevated level of management" to protect the health and safety of U.S. personnel.

Halliburton said it has "worked closely with the Army to develop standards and take action to ensure that the water provided in Iraq is safe and of the highest quality possible."

Halliburton was headed by Vice President
Dick Cheney for several years before he became George W. Bush's running mate. Its KBR subsidiary, also known as Kellogg Brown & Root, works under contract to provide a number of services to the U.S. military in Iraq, including providing water and purifying it.

The contaminated, nonchlorinated water at Ar Ramadi was discovered in March 2005 in a commode by Ben Carter, KBR's water expert at the base.

In an interview, Carter said he resigned after KBR supervisors at the base "told me to stop e-mailing" company officials outside the base and warned that informing the military "was none of my concern."

He said he threatened to sue if company officials did not let him be examined to determine whether he suffered medical problems from exposure to the contaminated water.

Granger's report cited several countrywide problems:

_A lack of training. "Theatre wide there is no formalized training for anyone at any level in concerns to water operations."

_Confusion between KBR and military officials over their respective roles. For instance, each assumed the other would chlorinate the water at Ar Ramadi for any uses that would require the treatment.

_Inadequate or nonexistent records that could have caught problems in advance. Little or no documentation was kept on water inventories, safety stand-downs, audits of water quality, deliveries, inspections and logs showing alterations or modifications to water systems.

_Relying on employees the company identified as semiskilled labor and paid as unskilled workers.

Granger's report confirmed that KBR officials at Ar Ramadi tried to keep the contamination from senior company officials.

"The event that was submitted in a report to local camp management should have been classified as a recordable occurrence and communicated to senior management in a timely manner," Granger wrote. "The primary awareness to this event came through threat of domestic litigation."

Beginning last May, Halliburton said it began using its equipment to remove contaminants, bacteria, and viruses in Ar Ramadi, and disinfect the water with chlorine. The company said KBR has worked closely with the Army to develop safe water standards.

It said its subsequent review in August-September 2005 found nonpotable water used for washing "was effectively filtered" to remove at least 99 percent of the parasite giardia and 90 percent of viruses. The Ar Ramadi water also tested negative for bacteria, Halliburton added.

[LaVitaBella]

i only drink bottled water over there, but damn i gotta shower in that shit. no wonder my hair got all wretched last deployment!!!!!

[Nyteshade]

That was damn near the FIRST thing we were told was to only drink bottled water. All of the water tanks that supplied the showers and laundry were labeled non-potable.

[LaVitaBella]

Originally Posted by Nyteshade1

That was damn near the FIRST thing we were told was to only drink bottled water. All of the water tanks that supplied the showers and laundry were labeled non-potable.

i believe they still are.

[LaVitaBella]

um i don't see why this got moved