Heather Browne, KBR’s Director of Communications on when the Company was told about Sodium dicromate at Qarmat Ali Water Injection Plant:
It is important to remember that to date the plaintiffs still show no signs of illness consistent with the long-term sodium dichromate exposure they allege.
Medical reports by both the U.S. and British Military support this finding as well as findings from the plaintiff’s own doctors.
KBR engineers learned around June 1, 2003, that sodium dichromate was previously used at Qarmat Ali by the Iraqi state-owned Southern Oil Company. The Southern Oil Company had used sodium dichromate as an anti-corrosive agent in the chemical injection process, but it was no longer being used and the water plant was not operational. The June 21, 2003 memo attached to your email reflects KBR's first awareness that the sodium dichromate used in the past may have contaminated some of the soil surrounding the plant.
As KBR's efforts at the Qarmat Ali facility continued, it notified USACE about the potential contamination of the soil by sodium dichromate in late July 2003. KBR subsequently worked with the military to conduct air and soil testing to confirm the presence and extent of the contamination. Once contamination was confirmed, KBR received authorization from the military to commence remediation efforts, which it immediately began.
In addition, KBR initiated a medical surveillance program for its workers. The U.S. military and the British military initiated a similar medical surveillance program for military personnel who had been at the plant. The results were negative for signs and symptoms of exposure to sodium dichromate or hexavalent chromium. Regardless, out of abundance of caution, the U.S. Army and KBR decided to discontinue all work at the plant pending additional air and soil testing. The plant subsequent was closed and remained closed until mid-October 2003.
Mike Doyle, Attorney for Indiana National Guard members in Federal Lawsuit:
"Having spent time recently with Jim Gentry and knowing what the VA has recently confirmed for the US Senate about the health affects of soldiers exposed to hexavalent chromium at KBR's Qarmat Ali project, KBR's claim of no ill health effects is contrary to the known facts. KBR has been continually changing its story about what it knew and did about the dangerous chemicals present, and these most recent admissions only came when the previously concealed Kimbro memo was revealed during his testimony this month. There is still no explanation, nor can there ever be, for KBR's concealing of what it knew for months from Jim Gentry and our soldiers serving in Iraq."
