Basra, Iraq: July, 2003
Courtesy of Larry Roberta
Oregon National Guardsman Larry Roberta says he went to Iraq fit, and came back barely able to breathe.
Courtesy of Andy Tosh
Soldiers say that sodium dichromate was spread throughout Qarmat Ali.
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Larry Roberta, a specialist in the Oregon National Guard, sat on a stack of sacks brimming with one of the most carcinogenic chemicals known to man and chomped on his chicken patty.
Unsuccessful in his mission to swap his rations with any of the British soldiers, who were stocked with heavenly corned beef hash and chocolate pudding, he braved the mystery meat's gooey coating while keeping an eye on the contractors' trailer a few yards away. While the Kellogg Brown & Root guys ate inside the trailer, Roberta could've taken lunch in one of the vehicles, but he figured vehicles were prime targets for any insurgents or Saddam loyalists who might be scouring the area. Better to suffer the hundred-plus-degree heat.
To Roberta's knowledge, the chicken patty, with its gooey coating, was the only toxic substance he was currently in contact with. The sand around the sacks was mixed with a dark-orange, crystalline powder, but it didn't faze him — the entire water-injection facility he was guarding was filthy with chemical residue.
The facility, Qarmat Ali, was a sprawling, approximately 50-acre plant where chemically treated water was pumped deep underground to maintain balance in the reservoirs while the oil was extracted. The plant had already felt the pains from years of U.N. sanctions before looters descended like human twisters in early spring and ran away with whatever wasn't bolted down, and much of what was, knocking out electricity and leaving some buildings as mere husks. One building was littered with human feces; exposed machinery was coated with sludge and sand and colored powders.
A gust of wind kicked up the orange-tinted sand around the bags, and some blew into Roberta's left eye and mouth, and onto his slimy chicken patty. It burned. He ran a few yards, then grabbed his canteen and tried to wash down the stubborn sand clinging to the back of his throat, but doing so only made him retch.
After collecting himself, he walked back to where he'd been sitting and partially lifted one of the bags. SODIUM DICH was all he could see, and all he could think of was when he used to swim in the ocean as a kid, how his parents warned him not to swallow any of the saltwater, and to shut his eyes tight if he wanted to dive below the surface. Must be some weird sort of salt, Roberta thought. Not a huge deal.
But as the month progressed, he had trouble breathing; he had trouble sleeping for all the coughing, and it hurt to eat and swallow.
Roberta had been sitting on sacks of sodium dichromate, a compound containing hexavalent chromium, an especially hazardous material that most people might have first become aware of from the film Erin Brockovich. Banned for more than a decade in the United States, sodium dichromate had been used at Qarmat Ali as an anticorrosive, and questions surrounding its presence there are the basis of two federal lawsuits filed against Houston-based KBR on behalf of more than 200 military personnel from four U.S. states and England.
According to the lawsuits, filed in Oregon and Houston, KBR health and safety workers knew about the sodium dichromate in April or May of 2003, but did not notify the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers until mid-August, allowing the troops to be exposed to the potentially deadly chemical for months. During that time, according to the lawsuits, KBR personnel deceived the troops by first concealing the chemical's presence, then downplaying its danger. They told soldiers that their bloody noses and breathing problems were due to sand, or too many protein drinks, or pre-existing conditions.
The soldiers' lawyers say that two National Guardsmen who served at Qarmat Ali have died as a direct result of sodium dichromate exposure. But KBR maintains that the Army's own medical evidence proves that no troops suffered dangerous levels of the chemical.
Lead KBR attorney Geoff Harrison told the Houston Press that the mere presence of sodium dichromate at Qarmat Ali does not automatically mean everyone there was overexposed.
"Whether a chemical actually or even likely causes any adverse health effect — no matter how minor — depends on your level, duration and dosage of exposure," he says. "It is meaningless to say, 'There was an exposure,' without analyzing the level, duration and dosage of each individual's exposure. And that work has not been done by the plaintiffs and their hired medical expert at all."
The litigation has produced memos and e-mails showing an alarming lack of communication among and between Army and KBR personnel, especially involving so-called safety officers on both sides who, for a $7 billion contract, appeared to take a remarkably lax approach to potential health hazards and the concerns of their own men.
However, even if KBR is found liable, an indemnity clause in the company's contract means that it won't have to cover legal costs. There's a reason both KBR and the Army wanted a last-minute addition to the contract to remain classified for as long as possible: It indemnifies KBR for any soldier's on-site injury or death — even if due to the company's willful misconduct.
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