Tropical disconnect
Posted: Thursday, April 24, 2008 4:10 PM by Barbara Raab
By Mark Potter, NBC News correspondent
Editor's note: Mark Potter's report airs tonight on the broadcast.
Arriving on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico recently, it was clear we had come to an extraordinarily beautiful place. The beaches are gorgeous, the water is crystal clear, the tourist hotels and restaurants are laid-back and the tropical vegetation and terrain are stunning, especially in the fiery light of sundown.
Looking below the surface here, though, we found a lingering and ugly controversy involving allegations of environmental contamination by the U.S. military and elevated health risks to long-time residents. In the words of a lawsuit filed by more than 7,000 plaintiffs against the U.S. government, "residents of Vieques experience a 30% higher rate of cancer, a 381% higher rate of hypertension, a 99% higher rate of cirrhosis of the liver and a 41% higher rate of diabetes than the rest of Puerto Rico."
From World War Two to 2003, the U.S. Navy maintained a military training and firing range on Vieques, where millions of pounds of bombs, missiles and mortar rounds rained down on the eastern end of the island. Living downwind from the site were more than 9,000 people, many of whom now claim that the accumulated chemicals from all that weaponry made them sick and ruined the land. Among the "explosives, ordnance and contaminants" used here, according the lawsuit, were napalm, agent orange, depleted uranium, white phosphorous, chemical weapons, arsenic, lead, mercury and many other toxic substances.
The U.S. Navy has refused to pay medical claims from residents, and says that based on an environmental study, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has concluded "there were no health risks to the residents of the island."
Critics say the U.S. government study was incomplete, with a Puerto Rican epidemiologist insisting, "they cannot say that there is no link (between the target practice and cancer risks) because they never tested the population."
Two of Nannette Rosa's daughters were treated for cancer after one of them was born with eight tumors in her stomach and intestines and the other developed a tumor on her jaw. Rosa, who sold her house to pay for a trip to New York to seek treatment, says she wants the government to help finance her daughters' care. She also wants a cancer center built on Vieques, where currently there is only a clinic.
As the arguments rage, an undercurrent of despair, fear and anger flows along the stunning landscape here. Meantime, contractors are now detonating or retrieving millions of tons of unexploded bombs and other debris from the old firing range that, five years after the Navy left Vieques, has been turned into a wildlife refuge. It, too, is one of the most beautiful places on earth, although signs posted along the beaches there say it's still too dangerous for anyone to visit and is off-limits.
