No, the drinking water at Camp Lejeune is no longer contaminated. The wells responsible for the base’s notorious water crisis were shut down in the mid-1980s, and the water system has been rebuilt and modernized since then. Testing in 2024 found zero detectable levels of the volatile organic compounds that once poisoned the supply. The contamination that made Camp Lejeune a household name was a historical crisis spanning roughly 1953 to 1987, not an ongoing one.
That said, groundwater beneath the base is a different story. Cleanup of contaminated soil and underground water plumes continues today under federal Superfund oversight. Here’s what happened, what’s been done, and what it means now.
What Was in the Water
For roughly three decades, people living and working at Camp Lejeune drank water laced with industrial solvents and fuel byproducts. Two water treatment plants bore the worst of it: Hadnot Point, which served the main base area, and Tarawa Terrace, which served family housing. The contamination came from on-base industrial operations, leaking underground storage tanks, and an off-base dry cleaning business whose chemicals seeped into the groundwater feeding the Tarawa Terrace wells.
The concentrations were staggering. At Hadnot Point, trichloroethylene (TCE), a degreasing solvent, was measured at 1,400 parts per billion in treated drinking water in May 1982. The federal safety limit for TCE is 5 ppb. Benzene, a component of fuels, hit 2,500 ppb in one sample from the same plant. At Tarawa Terrace, tetrachloroethylene (PCE), the dry cleaning chemical, reached 1,580 ppb in a supply well and 215 ppb in the treated water that flowed to taps. The federal limit for PCE is also 5 ppb. Vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen that forms as these solvents break down in soil, was detected as well.
These chemicals are linked to cancers of the kidney, liver, and bladder, along with leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and birth defects. Up to a million people may have been exposed over the contamination period.
When the Contaminated Wells Were Closed
The most contaminated wells at Tarawa Terrace were shut down by February 1985, after testing confirmed the PCE levels. The remaining contaminated wells at Hadnot Point were closed by March 1987. Those closures ended the direct exposure pathway: contaminated groundwater could no longer reach the drinking water system.
The gap between when contamination likely began (the early 1950s, based on reconstruction models) and when it was finally stopped is the core of the Camp Lejeune tragedy. Internal documents suggest concerns about water quality surfaced years before the wells were shut down, fueling decades of legal and political battles.
What the Water Looks Like Today
Camp Lejeune’s 2024 water quality report paints a completely different picture. The base tested its water systems for volatile organic compounds, synthetic organic compounds, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) during the first half of 2024. All results for VOCs and synthetic organics came back as non-detect, meaning the chemicals were below the threshold lab instruments can measure. The base also conducted voluntary testing beyond what federal and Department of Defense regulations require, and all of those results fell within federal, state, and DoD drinking water guidelines.
The water system itself has been modernized. Upgrades include a new SCADA monitoring system (the computerized network that tracks water quality in real time), replacement of mixing and UV disinfection equipment, and conversion of some infrastructure from pumped to gravity-flow systems. The base no longer draws from the wells that were contaminated.
Groundwater Cleanup Is Still Underway
While the tap water is safe, the soil and groundwater beneath Camp Lejeune still carry contamination. The base has been on the EPA’s National Priorities List (the federal Superfund program) for decades, and active remediation continues across multiple sites on the property.
The cleanup involves several approaches depending on the site. At some locations, the Navy installed groundwater treatment systems and used chemical oxidants to break down contaminants underground. At others, biological treatment methods encourage naturally occurring bacteria to degrade the solvents. One site received a multilayer cap with an impermeable barrier, completed in 2014, to prevent contaminated soil from leaching further. The most recent large-scale remedy was implemented in 2020 at one site, using three different treatment technologies across three separate groundwater zones.
These efforts target the underground plumes of contamination that spread outward from the original source areas over decades. Groundwater moves slowly, and these plumes can persist for a very long time. Institutional controls, essentially rules that prevent anyone from drilling into contaminated aquifers or using that groundwater, remain in place alongside ongoing monitoring.
Legal Claims and the Camp Lejeune Justice Act
If your search brought you here because you or a family member lived or worked at Camp Lejeune during the contamination years, the legal landscape has a firm deadline you should know about. The Camp Lejeune Justice Act, signed into law on August 10, 2022, as part of the PACT Act, gave people exposed to the contaminated water the right to file claims with the Department of the Navy. That filing window closed on August 10, 2024. The Navy is no longer accepting new claims.
For those who filed before the deadline, claims are being processed through a Navy portal. If a claim is denied or no decision is made within six months of filing, the claimant can take the case to federal court. The law covers veterans, their families, civilian workers, and anyone else who spent at least 30 days at the base between August 1953 and December 1987.
What This Means for People on Base Now
If you’re currently stationed at Camp Lejeune or considering a move there, the drinking water meets all federal safety standards and is tested regularly. The contamination that defined the base’s reputation was eliminated nearly 40 years ago, and the infrastructure has been overhauled since. The remaining environmental work is focused underground, in soil and aquifers that are separate from the current water supply and restricted from use.