[CPEO-MEF] Spring Valley meeting

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

While in the DC area this week for other meetings, I was able to attend
an Army Corps-sponsored community meeting in Washington's Spring Valley
neighborhood. Spring Valley is one of the wealthiest, whitest areas in
the District. It is also one of the Defense Department's highest
priority Formerly Used Defense Sites.

According to the Corps' fact sheet, "The Spring Valley site consists of
approximately 661 acres in the northwest section of Washington, DC.
During the World War I era, the site was known as the American
University Experiment Station (AUES), and was used by the U.S.
Government for research and testing of chemical agents, equipment and
munitions. Today, the Spring Valley neighborhood encompasses
approximately 1,200 private homes, including several embassies and
foreign properties, as well as the American University and Wesley
Seminary."

In 1993, after a utility contractor stumbled onto buried ordnance, the
Army Corps conducted an emergency response and remedial investigation.
In 1995, it prematurely declared victory and went home. Some people
living in the area were happy to see the investigation end, because they
felt any reminder of its chemical warfare past would depress property
values.

However, in 1996 the District of Columbia Health Department raised
concerns about the investigation, and after evaluating those concerns,
the Army Corps agreed that they had missed a likely contamination site.
It re-opened its project, and it found and began removal of large
quantities of ordnance items and contaminated soil. In cooperation with
U.S. EPA Region 3 and the DC Health Department, the Corps is pursuing a
systematic search for additional contamination. The partnership has been
holding regular community meeting, all of which - until February 13,
2001 - were attended by only a handful of local residents.

On January 8, 2001, the Washington Post ran an article explaining, among
other things, that high concentrations of arsenic - the active
ingredient in many early chemical munitions - had been found in soil
around the American University Child Development Center. Maybe it's
because the story was in the Post. Maybe it because it involved
children. At any rate, the community finally awakened to the hazards in
its midst.

On February 13, between 250 and 300 people crowded the auditorium at
Sibley Hospital, on the edge of the neighborhood, for the Army's regular
community meeting. Attendees appeared unusually empowered for a
community group. Reportedly, the wife of a U.S. Senator - who lives in
Spring Valley - was there. It seemed as if half those in the audience
worked as lawyers for the District's high-powered law firms. They were
upset, but polite. A few were outspoken. They had many questions.

The audience seemed unimpressed by the Army Corps' current
investigation, even though it seems to be finally on track. Some people
were unhappy at the Army's failure to find all the contamination in the
early 90s. Others wanted better equipment to be used in the search for
unexploded ordnance. But that's not why most of the residents were
there.

Residents came to the meeting because they're worried that their
properties, too may be contaminated with arsenic or other hazardous
substances. Many expressed concerns about the health of their families.
Others talked about property values. But they were dissatisfied with the
Army's plan, nearly completed, to conduct arsenic sampling at only 61 of
the 1,200 private properties in Spring Valley. They demanded that the
U.S. government sample each property, and soon.

The Army Major who chaired the meeting promised to take their request to
his superiors, and given the bi-partisan political clout present in that
room and in the neighborhood at large, I predict that the Army will do
its best to comply. It will take some creative thinking to mobilize
quickly, but the resources required for testing can probably be found. 

However, if high concentrations of arsenic are found in areas currently
believed clean, significantly higher levels of funding will be required.
That funding can be diverted from other, less influential former defense
sites, but it would make more sense to use the highly visible Spring
Valley problem to get Congress to devote more funds to Formerly Used
Defense Sites in general. The Army and Army Corps staff responsible for
former sites have identified a huge funding shortfall, but neither the
Pentagon as a whole nor Congress have stepped forward to fill the gap.

Lenny Siegel
-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org


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