Our families at Fort Campbell have been unknowingly living in hazardous housing conditions due to the negligence of the Lendlease Group’s mismanagement of lead-based paint hazards. Many families at Fort Campbell were told upon lease signing that there are no known lead hazards in their homes. This is false. There are known lead hazards on these properties and the Lendlease Group had every opportunity to rectify these hazards within EPA guidelines, which they have failed repeatedly to do. By failing to properly disclose, remediate, and encapsulate the lead-based paint military families are at immediate risk.
Fort Campbell Garrison Commander, Col. Bell, has released a memo that states the Lendlease Group is to remove the carports, in a specific neighborhood, that have had failed remediations and chipping lead-based paint for years. Col. Bell’s memo also directed the Lendlease Group to perform lead hazard assessments in all pre-1978 homes on the installation, while this step should have been taken prior to ensure the safety of military families, it is a small step in the right direction.
This seems like a simple solution to a massive problem, but this small step took Fort Campbell MHAN advocate, Rachel Tijerina, 9-months of fighting, several EPA complaints, multiple meetings with Garrison staff, multiple meetings with the Lendlease Group, Senate inquires, White House inquires, and a personal conversation with General Perna after the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in the beginning of December. This amount of fight should not have been necessary to get a private company receiving tax-payer funded profit to follow the law.
What is the goal? Hold the Lendlease Group accountable to follow the law. We will continue to fight and we will continue to see these small steps. These small steps will lead to the larger victory. The victory is ensuring all military families living on an installation have safe and hazard-free homes!
