U.S. Sens. Kay Hagan and Richard Burr are pushing a measure that would force the Navy to hold off on disposing of claims about water contamination at Camp Lejeune.

The amendment to a defense appropriations bill must still survive a conference with the House.

From 1957 to 1987, the water at Lejeune was contaminated with toxins at concentrations up to 280 times what is currently considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency and may have contributed to health problems faced by Marines and their families, according to Hagan's office. As many as 1 million people may have been exposed to tainted water.

The bill would halt efforts to dispose of claims filed by those families until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention completes studies of the health effects of the water contamination.

"Our amendment makes the desire of the Senate perfectly clear: the Navy should not dispose of claims until the scientific studies are complete,” said Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "Marines and their families, who were exposed to dangerous chemicals in the Camp Lejeune drinking water over several decades, deserve to know how that exposure impacted their health.”

In July, Burr and Hagan introduced a bill that would open access to Department of Veterans' Affairs health care for veterans and their family members that lived on the base during the years of water contamination.

U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan plan to meet Wednesday with top Navy and Marine Corps officials to talk about the decades-old controversy surrounding contaminated water from Camp Lejeune.

Thousands of Marines and their families stationed at Camp Lejeune in the 1970s are thought to have been exposed to well water that contained chemicals called trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene. Many of those exposed – some of the children at the time – have been diagnosed with a variety of ailments, including cancer.

Burr, a Republican, and Hagan, a Democrat, were disappointed at a National Academy of Sciences report released in June that gave inconclusive information about the impacts of the tainted water on families, reports Barb Barrett.

The study listed 14 health conditions and diseases that could potentially be linked to exposure from harmful chemicals at Camp Lejeune. At the time of its release in June, Burr argued that more investigation was needed.

Read more after the jump.

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