Army Corps Comes Clean, Releases Suppressed 1986 Photo Analysis

This report utilizes historical aerial photography to identify potential problem areas at American University, Washington, D.C., originating from past activities at a World War I Chemical Warfare Experimental Station.  During World War I the Bureau of Mines was allowed to use American University and surrounding property to conduct research and small-scale testing of chemical warfare items.  In 1986 American University requested assistance from the Department of the Army in obtaining information relating to these activities.  

Three years of historical aerial photography (1918, 1927, and 1937) were obtained and analyzed by the U.S. EPA's Environmental Photographic Interpretation Center (EPIC) ... Significant features identified include shell pits, trenches, possible test areas, and possible burial sites ... The location of those features identified in the analysis that are related to possible disposal (burial) of munitions and chemical agents have been transferred to a 1982 aerial photograph. 
EPIC
Historical Photographic Analysis
July 1986, Vol. I (pgs. 24, 28)

1986 EPIC Photo Analysis, Vol. II (fig. 2)

Allen Hengst: [47:05]  Did the report identify areas other than Bender Arena where there might be buried munitions in Spring Valley?

   
Dan Noble: I don't believe so.  I mean, we'd have to get the report and see the conclusions ... 
 
Hengst:  Well, I've read about it and I think they did identify areas outside Bender Arena.  So that becomes a crucial event.  In 1986, which was seven years before the discoveries on 52nd Court — before the beginning of Operation Safe Removal — AU knew, the Army knew and EPA knew but they kept quiet about it ... 
  
Noble:  I mean, let's think about this.  In 1920 the Army completed its activities at American University Experiment Station and left.  Since then, the Army knew what it did ... Institutionally, the Army knew what it did since 1917 ... 
  
Ginny Durrin:  I think, to be historically accurate, you should include all of the documentation that was produced by this 1986 effort ... There are aerial maps of Spring Valley showing the ground scars, showing the points of interest (or things that were going to become "Points of Interest") ... Those documents should be in the Tenley Public Library.
     
Noble:  [50:31] I think they are.  If they're not, I'll get a copy of the report and put it in there.
Spring Valley RAB Meeting
May 5, 2015 (audio recording)

Norton Presses USACE Chief to Expedite Spring Valley Cleanup

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is trying to expedite federal efforts to excavate and restore the Spring Valley FUDS, located in Spring Valley, the residential neighborhood near American University.  At a Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee hearing, Norton, a senior member of the subcommittee, asked Lieutenant General Thomas Bostick, Chief of Engineers, United States Army Corps of Engineers,  if there was any way to speed the project’s timeline.  Norton requested a response from the Corps within 30 days ... 

Norton said: “If there are dangerous chemicals that still hide in this highly residential neighborhood, the sooner we know it the better"... Norton has been working with the Army Corps since 1993 to clean up the site, where numerous toxins, including arsenic, lewisite and mustard gas, have been found.  Unlike most FUDS, Spring Valley is the home of a major university, American University, which has more than 12,000 students, and is located in a sought after, densely populated residential area.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Press Release
April 22, 2015

Lieutenant General Thomas P. Bostick

Del. Norton: [1:32]  During WW I there were chemical weapons manufactured in one of our neighborhoods ... Because all the information wasn't known, one of our most illustrious communities was built over that.  The Corps has pledged to make sure that community is cleaned up ... I don't know if you've ever had an older project than this, but we're talking about 25 years if we keep this up ... I have to ask you, General Bostick, is there any way to speed up this timeline, considering we're talking about a neighborhood where real people live and go to work every day and have had to abide this work for almost 25 years? ...

Gen. Bostick: [1:34] I know that they're working as hard and as diligently and as safely as they can ... Honestly, I suspect that they're going as quickly as they can.

Del. Norton: [1:35] I was sure that you would say that and I'm sure that they are, but I wish that you would get back to me — perhaps within a month's time — and see whether there's any way to speed up that timeline.     

Water Resources & Environment Subcommittee

April 22, 2015

"Chemical weapons were manufactured in one of our neighborhoods."

45-Day Public Comment Period Begins for Draft RI Report

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District is releasing the draft Remedial Investigation report for the Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) in accordance with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or CERLCA.  The Remedial Investigation report details 22 years worth of investigations and work, such as removals of arsenic contaminated soil and munitions related items that have taken place at the Spring Valley FUDS.  The report also outlines the potential unacceptable risks and hazards thought to remain within the Spring Valley FUDS ... The Feasibility Study will outline how the Corps of Engineers plans to address any potential unacceptable risks and hazards.  

After the Feasibility Study we will prepare a Proposed Plan, which will identify a preferred clean-up action to address remaining risks and hazards.  You are encouraged to review the Remedial Investigation report in the public record and submit comments on the report ... A 45-day public comment period will run from April 8 - May 26, 2015.  Written comments can be sent to the following mailing address: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ATTN: Brittany Bangert, Rm. 11400, 10 South Howard St., Baltimore, Md. 21201; or by e-mail to: Brittany Bangert no later than May 26, 2015.  Mailed letters must be postmarked by May 23, 2015.

Legal Notice
Washington Post
April 8, 2015

Corps Hopes to Complete Spring Valley Site-Wide Cleanup by 2020

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it will return to Spring Valley every five years after completing its cleanup in 2020, to check that the area is verifiably free of contamination.  The Army has been working for over two decades — and has spent over $200 million — to rid the neighborhood of munitions and chemical contamination left there during World War I, when American University hosted a munitions testing site.  While the plan is to finish remediating the site within the next five years, the Army Corps will “check in perpetuity,” Dan Noble, who  manages the cleanup effort, told the community at a recent meeting of the Restoration Advisory Board ...  

This new pledge to stay involved is a significant and welcome shift from the past: About a decade and a half ago, the Army declared the neighborhood clean.  Luckily, the D.C. Health Department raised doubts.  When the cleanup resumed, workers soon found elevated arsenic levels in the soil near American University’s child development center and intramural fields, as well as buried munitions on Glenbrook Road.  This time, we look forward to both an accurate bill of health and continuing checkups to ensure that status is maintained.
Editorial
Northwest Current
March 25, 2015

Dan Noble:  CERCLA is the environmental regulation that guides our efforts here at the site ... The remedial investigation phase that we are reporting on in tonight's presentation, is right here at the yellow star ... The report looks at all the effort that we've done and all the data that we've gathered and is basically intended to boil it down to what really matters ... We've thought about the tentative schedule to get through the process and to get to the point where we're actually taking action to address these cleanups.  We want to finalize the RI Report by early summer, complete the Feasibility Study by the end of the year, by next spring we want to bring you a Proposed Plan and by the end of summer [2016] have the Decision Document signed.  So we hope by the start of calendar year 2017 that we can start undertaking some of these actions.
Dan Noble, Project Manager
Spring Valley RAB Meeting
March 10, 2015

Army Report Identifies Areas with 'Unacceptable Risks and Hazards'

The Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) consists of approximately 661 acres in Northwest Washington, D.C.  During the World War I-era, the site was known as the American University Experiment Station (AUES) and Camp Leach.  It was used by the U.S. government for engineer troop training, research and testing of chemical agents, equipment, and munitions ... The Site-Wide Remedial Investigation Report summarizes the results of completed field activities performed to characterize the nature and extent of any potential contamination resulting from past DoD activities in the Spring Valley FUDS ... 

Human health risk assessments, as well as an ecological risk assessment, were developed to evaluate possible chemical contaminants.  Munitions hazard assessments are documented in the report to evaluate potential munitions hazards at different areas throughout the Spring Valley FUDS.  Finally, the report describes areas identified through the risk and hazard assessment processes, where the Army Corps of Engineers recommends a Feasibility Study (FS) to address potential remaining concerns ... The FS will outline how the Corps of Engineers plans to address any potential unacceptable risks and hazards.  After the FS the Corps of Engineers will prepare a Proposed Plan, which will identify a preferred clean-up action to address remaining risks and hazards. 
Spring Valley FUDS
Site-Wide Remedial Investigation Fact Sheet
February 2015

Areas to be evaluated in Feasibility Study

California Lowers 'Health Goal' for Perchlorate in Water to 1-ppb

A state agency has lowered the Public Health Goal for perchlorate, a dangerous pollutant found in many underground water basins across the Southland ... The goal was lowered Friday from 6 parts per billion to 1 part per billion, officials announced ... The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment updated its Public Health Goal based on “the inhibition iodide uptake into the thyroid gland and the consequent disruption of thyroid hormone production,” the agency said in a statement.  The PHG update considers recent research providing new information on exposures to and possible effects of perchlorate, focusing on infants, the agency said.
Jim Steinberg
San Bernardino County Sun
February 27, 2015

Perchlorate treatment facility  

The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment today published an updated public health goal (PHG) of 1 part per billion for perchlorate in drinking water ... The updated PHG is lower than the previous goal because it incorporates new research about the effects of perchlorate on infants.  Like the previous PHG, the updated PHG takes into account exposure from all sources of perchlorate including food ... “This updated public health goal reflects infants’ increased susceptibility to the health effects of perchlorate,” said OEHHA Director Dr. George Alexeeff.  “It is set at a level that would provide health protection for people of all ages.”

... Perchlorate is known to block the thyroid’s ability to take in and process iodide, which is a nutrient essential to brain development, growth, heart function, and other systems.  Studies conducted by OEHHA scientists and others have revealed that perchlorate can harm the health of infants at lower levels than the levels that are harmful to healthy adults.  OEHHA’s updated PHG incorporates new data on how much water infants consume per kilogram of body weight. It also considers infants’ intake of perchlorate from infant formula reconstituted with tap water. 

Press Release

Office of Environmental Health Assessment

February 27, 2015

Site-Wide Remedial Investigation Report Will be Released March 10

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it will release an updated report about the progress of World War I munitions cleanup around AU and Spring Valley on March 10 ... The report is part of a regulatory process overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency and D.C. District Department of the Environment to determine if more cleanup efforts are required, according to Andrea Takash, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps segment that is overseeing the cleanup ... Takash said: “We have been talking about this remedial investigation report for over a year.  What is new is there are about 100 properties that this report will identify as properties that [the U.S. Army Corps] will want to look at further” ... 

Corps of Engineers evaluating these Spring Valley areas.

The sites of former weapons usage and disposal, the U.S. Army Corps has determined, need further evaluation about potential contamination or buried munitions, according to Takash.  Among the properties that will be examined and included in the remedial report are portions of the AU campus near Kreeger and Watkins Halls.  The March 10 report will include an overview of the project, analysis on findings and future plans and expectations for cleanup, as well as updated evaluation about the AU sites.  The properties identified for further evaluation will be notified and informed before the report is released to the public.
Katherine Saltzman
The Eagle
February 16, 2015

Many may have read the NW Current article in the January 21 issue ... We would like to clarify that the areas noted in the article are general locations that underwent focused evaluations in the report, not the recommendations made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for further investigation.  The Site-Wide Remedial Investigation report recommendations will be provided at the March 10 Restoration Advisory Board meeting and will be further discussed and presented at a community meeting during the 45-day public comment period this spring.  The report is currently being reviewed by our project regulatory partners (EPA and D.C. District Department of the Environment).   Comments are expected from the regulatory stakeholders in February.   We hope to address comments and obtain regulator concurrence sometime in March. 

Spring Valley FUDS

US Army Corps of Engineers

February 6, 2015