[CPEO-MEF] Spring Valley (DC) perchlorate readings

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Low Toxin Levels Seen in NW Water
Tests Show Some Perchlorate and Arsenic in Wells in Spring Valley, 
Officials Say

By Susan Levine
Washington Post
October 7, 2005

The most extensive testing to date for groundwater problems in Northwest 
Washington neighborhoods contaminated by World War I munitions has found 
low levels of perchlorate and arsenic but no chemical warfare agents or 
explosives, officials announced yesterday.

A network of monitoring wells, installed this summer in the latest 
chapter of a contentious multimillion-dollar federal cleanup of the 
Spring Valley community, detected the two potentially harmful substances 
just east and south of the Dalecarlia Reservoir. The groundwater 
sampling is intended to determine any danger to the reservoir and the 
Washington Aqueduct, which supply drinking water to more than 1 million 
people in the District, Arlington County and Falls Church.

...

The results released yesterday said that the summer's highest reading 
for perchlorate, a chemical used as a stabilizer in weapons and 
explosives, was found in a sump on the grounds of Sibley Memorial 
Hospital. Although the quantity was less than half the 58 parts per 
billion that provoked such concern at the same location two years ago, 
it still measured 24 ppb.

A perchlorate level of 10.6 was detected in a monitoring well just 
northeast of the hospital, though other wells in the immediate vicinity 
showed levels a fraction of that or that could not be measured.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100601909.html

--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
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