Audrey Williams-Pride moved to Camp Lejeune in the 1980s when her husband served there. She had no idea the water they used for drinking and bathing was contaminated.

The federal government has acknowledged the toxic water, on the base for decades, caused everything from cancer to Parkinson’s disease.

A bill that’s awaiting a minor technical change and the president’s signature will finally provide a legal avenue for those who got sick or had family members who got sick and died. Lawyers aren’t waiting for the president’s John Hancock. They’re paying for a flurry of online commercials and television ads to recruit plaintiffs.

Between 1953 and 1987 at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina more than 1 million military and civilian staff and their families lived and worked on base and were unknowingly exposed to contaminated water.