U.S. military has sordid history with housing its own

Laurel Bay is part of a much larger national pattern; for decades, the Marine Corps has grappled with issues of pollution near base housing all over the country.

This is the fourth story in the nine-part series — Buried: Contamination, confusion in a Beaufort military community.

In the 1950s, more than a thousand tanks filled with heating oil were buried underneath Laurel Bay, a Marine housing community in Beaufort County. Decades passed by, and those tanks corroded. Fuel leaked into the soil, contaminating the ground. Now Laurel Bay residents battle with leukemia, infertility and rare diseases. And they can't help but wonder, is contamination the cause?

Click here to view the special presentation.

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 8:36 AM with the headline "U.S. military has sordid history with housing its own."