[CPEO-MEF] Summary of Spring Valley Hearing

[Aimee Houghton <aimeeh@cpeo.org>]

[This hearing was held last Friday, July 27, 2000.]


The integrity and competence of the Environmental Protection Agency, the 
Army, and the Army Corps of Engineers were called into question in the 
District of Colombia subcommittee hearing of the House Committee on 
Government Reform Friday regarding the issue of contamination in Spring 
Valley, an area in North West Washington DC, parts of which are occupied by 
American University.  The land, which was volunteered by American 
University to the US government for military use during World War I, was 
left contaminated by the Army with buried chemical munitions and unexploded 
ordnance.  The occupants of the Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) have only 
recently been made aware of the contamination left behind by the Army 
almost a century ago.  Although appearing to have followed regulations for 
the proper disposal of chemical munitions for the time, the Army was 
questioned about whether it had adhered to necessary procedures when 
evidence of further danger was discovered in Spring Valley in 1986, 1993, 
and then again in 1998.  The Army accepted responsibility for an 
ill-advised decision in claiming that the "conditions at the OSR [Operation 
Safe Removal] FUDS do not pose unacceptable risks to human health and the 
environment", but no other admissions of fault were extended.  Both the 
Army and the EPA were interrogated to see if either or both were negligent, 
incompetent, or otherwise involved in a cover-up with respect to the 
residents of Spring Valley during the past sixteen years.  The committee 
further addressed why no one, save the EPA, the Army, and American 
University was made aware of the imminent dangers until 1998.

  The Army Corps of Engineers, in conjunction with the EPA, successfully 
diffused the situation when AU records were uncovered indicating the burial 
of dangerous chemical munitions by the Army on the AU campus in 1986, and 
again when unexploded ordnance was unearthed on the campus in 
1993.  However the issue was rekindled with the discovery of dangerously 
high levels of arsenic in the soil, present as a result of the natural 
breakdown process from the chemical weapons used, which was discovered only 
as a result of independent research done by the DC Department of 
Health.  The committee (was highly suspect) appeared skeptical of (the) 
EPA, (which being drastically under-represented as well as unprepared for 
the hearing,) when they claimed to have checked the soil for arsenic in its 
1993 study of the land, but for unknown reasons found no such indications 
of danger.  American University proceeded on both the occasions (1986 and 
1993) with a green light from the Army and the EPA.  The Army, backed by 
the EPA, claimed that it had met all prescribed criteria required by 
official regulations at both times, declaring; "No further action was 
necessary," but mitigating this statement by assuming full responsibility 
for future discoveries.

The committee investigated what was being done to insure dissemination of 
proper and accurate information to the residents of Spring Valley in light 
of the previous omissions and failures.  The committee further addressed 
what measures were being pursued to test the soil of the 1200 homes 
effected, as well as what was being done to evaluate the health of the 
Spring Valley residents.  The committee appeared particularly concerned 
that an over all plan be developed for the soil testing, subsequent clean, 
up and comprehensive health studies--including following up with residents 
who have been tested to see if any adverse health effects surface at a 
later date.  Members of the committee voiced concern, on more than one 
occasion, that what appeared to be going on at Spring Valley was an ad hoc 
process at best.  A process with no particular thought on how to develop a 
pro active approach to replace the reactive one that appears to have 
characterized most of the agencies' responses to Spring Valley.

During opening statements both the sub-committee chair and the ranking 
member alluded to further hearings on this topic as well as the need for an 
independent review by the General Accounting Office.  Ranking member 
Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-DC) further remarked that she was supporting the 
"Ordnance and Explosives Risk Management Act" for the very reason that it 
would direct much needed resources to the cleanup of the nations' FUDS.

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Aimee R. Houghton
Associate Director, CPEO
122 C Street NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC  20001-2109
tel: 202-662-1888; fax: 202-628-1825
Email: aimeeh@cpeo.org
www.cpeo.org
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