Halliburton failed to purify GIs’ water:could've caused death

[jbfam4]

Memo: Halliburton failed to purify GIs’ water
Internal report says contamination could've caused 'mass sickness or death
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11854311/

Updated: 6:28 a.m. ET March 16, 2006
WASHINGTON - Halliburton Co. failed to protect the water supply it is paid to purify for U.S. soldiers throughout Iraq, in one instance missing contamination that could have caused “mass sickness or death,” an internal company report concluded.

The contaminated, non-chlorinated water at Ar Ramadi was discovered in March 2005 in a commode by Ben Carter, a KBR water expert at the base. In an interview, Carter said he resigned after KBR barred him from notifying the military and senior company officials about the untreated water.

A supervisor at Ar Ramadi “told me to stop e-mailing” company officials outside the base and warned that informing the military “was none of my concern,” Carter said. He said he threatened to sue if company officials didn’t let him be examined to determine whether he suffered medical problems from exposure to the contaminated water.



A lack of training for key personnel. “Theatre wide there is no formalized training for anyone at any level in concerns to water operations.”
Confusion between KBR and military officials over their respective roles. For instance, each assumed the other would chlorinate the water at Ar Ramadi for any uses that would require the treatment.
Inadequate or nonexistent records that could have caught problems in advance. Little or no documentation was kept on water inventories, safety stand-downs, audits of water quality, deliveries, inspections and logs showing alterations or modifications to water systems.
Relying on employees the company identified as semiskilled labor, and paid as unskilled workers in the pay structure.
The report said the event at Ar Ramadi could have been prevented if KBR’s Reverse Osmosis Units on the site had been assembled, instead of relying on the military’s water production facilities.

[katsy]

1. Could have caused death???

Like we'd ever know if it did, right?

[dipsydoodle]

2. Halliburton and others

were featured on BBC2 news last night here in the UK. See this link :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm

Video replay link is near top right.

[kiraboo]

3. Aw, who cares?

Those people are disposable anyway. Right? :sarcasm:

[Uncle Joe]

4. Well, that was a close call for Helliburton,

this could have been a major drag on their quarterly profits.:sarcasm: