A retired U.S. Marine drill sergeant has started a petition asking the Department of Veterans Affairs and Congress to provide medical care to the Camp Lejeune veterans poisoned by cancer-causing chemicals from 1957 to 1987.

Sgt. Jerry Ensminger started a petition on Change.org asking Congress and the VA to provide necessary medical care to the 200,000 people who lived on Camp Lejeune during the thirty-year period in which the water was contaminated with cancer-causing human carcinogens. The petition currently has over 76,000 signatures.

“We've made progress over the years,” said Ensminger in a press release, “but the measures we need now are being held up by politics. I hear from people who are suffering from the water every day. We need action, and we can't wait any longer.”

Ensminger lost his daughter, Janey, from childhood leukemia when she nine years old. He suspects the Camp Lejeune contaminated water is to blame.