Corps Pursues "PRP" Investigation to Recoup Added Cleanup Costs

Brenda Barber, Spring Valley Project Manager: USACE is conducting an investigation regarding the post-AUES development of three properties within the Spring Valley FUDS, focusing on 4825 Glenbrook Road, 4835 Glenbrook Road, and the Public Safety Building at 4400 Massachusetts Avenue on AU’s campus.  The purpose is to identify additional potentially responsible parties (PRP) for the presence and/or extent of contamination at these sites ... Anyone who has information about this matter is encouraged to contact USACE’s PRP investigation contractor: Watermark, Inc.  Contact information and brief details can be left on the contractor’s toll free phone number (866-383-7327) and James Carney will return the call to conduct a comprehensive interview.

 

  PRP targets Glenbrook Road & Public Safety bldgs.

Linda Argo, AU Representative clarified that, to her knowledge, AU does not know which fraternity constructed the Public Safety Building ...

The ultimate purpose of the PRP search is to determine whether any of the property developers and/or their subcontractors possessed any knowledge of the contamination at the site, and whether they exacerbated the extent of contamination during their activities, thus requiring the USACE to conduct larger remedial efforts than would have been necessary had the contamination remained undisturbed ... If the developer is identified as a PRP, then USACE may be able to recoup some of the remediation costs from the developer ...

Dan Noble, Spring Valley Project Manager explained that the Spring Valley FUDS cleanup is governed by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), which includes a liability framework for determining a wide range of parties that are potentially liable for site contamination.  The USACE is a PRP for the Spring Valley FUDS and has spent significant time and funding on site cleanup.  D. Noble further explained that as soon as USACE has spent cleanup funding at the site, they are permitted to pursue other PRPs for the purpose of sharing cleanup costs.
Spring Valley FUDS 
RAB Meeting Minutes
January 8, 2013 (pgs. 12 - 14)

Army unearthed this 75mm shell under PSB

The Army Corps of Engineers unearthed more munitions debris next to the Public Safety building during this winter break.  On Jan. 4, workers found a single 75mm round buried four feet underneath a concrete slab that they had removed in front of the building’s lower entrance ... Although heavily corroded and empty, the projectile was still largely intact ... Kent Slowinski, a community activist and former Restoration Advisory Board member, said recent work conducted by the Army Corps indicates a likelihood that the debris field around the Public Safety building extends underneath the building, because debris from the AU Experimental Station has been found behind and in front of it.
Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle
January 21, 2010

 Shell found beneath slab 4 ft. under lower entrance