A federal agency's reconstruction of decades of toxic drinking water at Camp Lejeune says the contamination could date to 1948, five years earlier than researchers have previously reported.
    
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released its report Friday, reconstructing the contamination. (CLICK HERE to read full report).
    
The agency report says an industrial solvent called TCE likely first exceeded the maximum contaminant level in August 1953. But evidence shows it might go back as far as November 1948. TCE is now a known human carcinogen.
    
In January, the agency tentatively set 1953 as the starting date for the contamination in Lejeune's residential area called Hadnot Point. A law passed last year granted health care and screening to Lejeune Marines and their dependents between 1957 and 1987.