Defencelink.mil : Your source for quality news

Okay, so on sunday CNN.com publishes an AP article on the whole water contamination issue. I'm sure it was everywhere, but since i'm cheap i didnt buy a Times or Post.

Part 1

Anyways....in brief (or read the whole thing here):

"Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company...A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.
The Defense Department's inspector general's report, which could be released as early as Monday, found water quality problems between March 2004 and February 2006 at three sites run by contractor KBR Inc., and between January 2004 and December 2006 at two military-operated locations."

Part 2
Logic would suggest the best place to find this report would be the Department of Defence site, defencelink.mil
and I didn't bother searching for the report since I found a better article on the fron page, published yesterday March 13, 2008:

Camp Liberty Water Facility Keeps Troops Hydrated
By Pfc. Samantha Schutz, USA
Special to American Forces Press Service
"As the desert weather heats up, Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers will need to keep drinking plenty of water to avoid dehydration. The Camp Liberty Oasis International Waters water treatment facility has been working 24 hours a day since the summer of 2005 to provide a continuous flow of purified bottled water to the thirsty troops.
...'Our water is probably more processed than (brand-name bottled waters in the United States) because of the military’s standard,' [Bruce] Everson said
....After the bottles are filled and sealed, a laser inscribes the water’s date of production and the code for which water purification system produced it. The code on the bottle is a way for the company’s quality assurance department to track complaints, although most people have only good things to say about the product, Everson said.
“Nothing gets released until it meets all the standards,” he added. “Our water is quality; I have no worries about that.”

Part 3
Alright, pretty clear cut...and the Defense Dept suggest that there is no evidence that anyone fell ill to the contaminated water during a press conference on the 10th.

Mr. Morrell: "Everywhere you go they make it perfectly clear that you don't want to drink the water, so I'm a little surprised myself that this is an issue. As I understand it, the bottled water, which is what you're supposed to be drinking in Iraq, had no issues whatsoever in the testing that was done. Evidently, there was some issue with some of the other water that was, I guess, primarily meant for washing. ...
....And -- but still, based upon this IG report, which I think is over 14 months old or something by now, the period in question, that there's no evidence that any of the illnesses were related to the water."

Part 4
But wait! Our friends over at Halliburton Watch have been talking about this since september.

"...Former KBR employees and water quality specialists, Ben Carter and Ken May, told HalliburtonWatch that KBR knowingly exposes troops and civilians to contaminated water from Iraq's Euphrates River. One internal KBR email provided to HalliburtonWatch says that, for "possibly a year," the level of contamination at one camp was two times the normal level for untreated water.
"I discovered the water being delivered from the Euphrates for the military was not being treated properly and thousands were being exposed daily to numerous pathogenic organisms," Carter informed HalliburtonWatch. ...
...Carter and May agree that KBR supplies bottled water for drinking, but that it's "absolutely untrue" that it's used for food preparation. Moreover, they never observed any posted signs or notices informing personnel not to drink the tap water, a possible sign of corporate negligence. ...
...Carter resigned two weeks prior to Ken May, discovering what he said was "unsafe water and pressure to cover it up." "I tried to correct the problem, only to be blackballed by management and I eventually left this employment," Carter told HalliburtonWatch."