What happened at Camp Lejeune
Camp Lejeune is a Marine Corps base in North Carolina. Two of its water treatment plants, Tarawa Terrace and Hadnot Point, delivered water contaminated with chemicals including trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial solvent, and tetrachloroethylene (PCE), a dry-cleaning solvent, along with vinyl chloride and benzene.
Federal health researchers at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) traced the contamination to an off-base dry cleaner, leaking underground storage tanks, spills and waste sites. The most contaminated wells were shut down in February 1985.
In 2022 Congress passed the Camp Lejeune Justice Act as part of the PACT Act. It lets people harmed by the water seek compensation from the federal government.
Who may be affected
The law covers people who lived, worked or were otherwise exposed to the base water for at least 30 days between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987. That includes Marines, sailors, their family members, civilian workers and children exposed before birth.
The VA uses the same dates and the same 30-day rule for veterans' disability benefits, and it helps with health care costs for family members who lived on the base.
Illnesses linked to the water
The VA treats eight conditions as presumptive, meaning it accepts the link to the water without the veteran having to prove it: adult leukemia, aplastic anemia and other myelodysplastic syndromes, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Parkinson's disease.
Family members may get help with health care costs for a list of 15 conditions. Lawsuits have raised many more illnesses, but whether the water caused a particular person's illness is decided case by case.
Where things stand (as of October 2026)
More than 400,000 administrative claims, the required first step before any lawsuit, were filed with the Navy, and thousands of lawsuits followed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the only court that can hear these cases.
As of September 18, 2026, the Justice Department reported Camp Lejeune settlement offers worth more than $1.1 billion and payments of more than $879 million. Its Elective Option, a fixed-amount offer for certain illnesses, is no longer reconsidering decisions or accepting new documents.
The first trial under the law, decided by a judge rather than a jury, began on October 26, 2026, in a former Marine's kidney cancer case. The court had asked both sides to work toward a global settlement framework by October 30, 2026. Fewer than 1 percent of claims had been resolved at that point.
Deadlines and what to gather
The deadline to file a new claim with the Navy passed on August 10, 2024, two years after the law was signed. People who filed in time generally have 180 days after the Navy denies their claim to file a lawsuit, so anyone with a pending claim should confirm that date with a lawyer. VA benefits are a separate program with their own rules.
- Service, housing or employment records showing your time at the base
- Medical records showing your diagnosis and when it was made
- Your Navy claim number and any letters from the Navy or the Justice Department
- A death certificate and estate papers, if the claim is for a family member who died
Talking to a lawyer
Because most of these claims are already in the legal system, a licensed attorney familiar with the Camp Lejeune litigation can check where your claim stands, confirm your court deadline and explain any settlement offer. Your state bar's lawyer referral service can help you find one.
Injury lawyers usually charge a contingency fee, a percentage of any recovery set out in a written agreement. For these claims, the Justice Department caps fees at 20 percent for administrative settlements and 25 percent for cases resolved after a lawsuit is filed.
