University Will Only Consider “Alternative 5” as Acceptable

Proposed High & Low Probability Excavations

Alternative 5 is the cleanup alternative that is most effective and protective of human health and the environment. It is the only alternative that removes the long-term risk posed by the 4825 Glenbrook Road site by excavating the property (Areas A, B, D, E and F), including the area beneath the house (Area E), to competent saprolite or bedrock; Alternative 5 provides the best long-term solution for minimizing future risk at the site.  

… Area A will address any potential World War I related materials that may remain behind the retaining wall in the backyard of the property. If AUES related items, such as munitions and laboratory glassware, are found in Area A, the Army will continue excavating behind the retaining wall until the AUES related waste has been identified and removed.

U.S Army Corps of Engineers
Proposed Plan for 4825 Glenbrook Road
September 30, 2011

Historical Sampling at 4825 Glenbrook Road

AU does not consider any remedial alternative other than "Alternative 5, Removing the House and cleaning up to Residential standards with Unrestricted Future Use,” to be acceptable.

... AU has commented repeatedly regarding the arsenic cleanup level of 20 mg/kg and has been repeatedly ignored. While 20 mg/kg may be appropriate as an action level or screening level, it is not appropriate as remedial goal especially at a site where there are so many chemical and toxicological uncertainties in the assessment of the nature and extent of contamination. Even a rough calculation reveals that the residual lifetime cancer risk associated with residential exposure to 20 mg/kg exceeds 5:100,000.

American University Comments on
Feasibility Study: 4825 Glenbrook Road
September 26, 2011 (pg. 11)

Army Corps Would Excavate to Bedrock at Glenbrook Road Site

Detailed Analysis of Remaining Alternatives

"While Alternative 5 is the most expensive, it was ranked as favorable in five out of six of the nine criteria that were ranked [above] ... The new figure [below] visually depicts Alternative 5 and highlights the areas that we would excavate. Areas A, B, D, E and F are all the areas that we would excavate to bedrock or competent saprolite under Alternative 5."
Brenda Barber, Project Manager
RAB Meeting
September 13, 2011

Remedial Actions Under Alternative 5

Corps Admits Having Transcript; Will Try to Locate Home Builders

In response to a question from commissioner Kent Slowinski following her presentation at the September 9th Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3-D meeting, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project manager Brenda Barber acknowledged that a ten-year-old videotape transcript, of an interview with construction workers who helped build the house at 4825 Glenbrook Road in 1992, is in the Army's possession. 

SLOWINSKI (33:12): Have you talked to the construction workers who built the house, many of whom suffered exposure to chemical warfare agent? ... There's a videotaped interview where the construction workers were sitting around a site plan of the property and they pointed to areas on the property where they said they found munitions or bottles filled with chemicals. They even went on to say, "You can find more munitions behind this wall."

4825 Glenbrook Road Project Mgr. Brenda Barber

BARBER (33:55): Yes, we have copies of the transcripts from those videotapes and our legal counsel is actually engaged in trying to find out the names of those employees so that we can do additional interviews with them.
U.S. Army Corp of Engineers presentation
ANC 3-D Meeting (audio recording)
September 7, 2011

[DC Department of Health environmental scientist] Richard Albright investigated further and found that five workers building 4825 Glenbrook Road had fled the site in May 1992 when fumes from broken lab glassware and contaminated soil caused pain in their eyes and lungs. Suffering from eye pain and burning skin, some of the workers went to a hospital emergency room. It was beginning to look as if both [AU President Benjamin] Ladner's house [at 4835] and 4825 Glenbrook had been built on top of a laboratory-waste dump.
Harry Jaffe
The Washingtonian
December 1, 2000

Proposed Army Cleanup Would Demolish Glenbrook Road House

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is recommending tearing down a Spring Valley home to identify and remove World War I-era munitions and chemicals feared to be buried beneath it. Since 2000, the Army Corps has removed more than 500 munitions items, 400 pounds of laboratory glassware and more than 100 tons of soil contaminated with arsenic and other hazardous substances from 4825 Glenbrook Road, officials said.

4825 Glenbrook Road Remedial Investigation Report

... In 1918, 4825 Glenbrook Road was a dumpsite for chemical and explosive munitions and related debris; officials believe a pit was disturbed when the home was built, scattering that material throughout the property. The Army is now proposing to clean up whatever it finds beneath the home to a depth of 12 feet, spending an estimated $12.5 million to restore the site to residential standards.
Brady Holt
Northwest Current
August 10, 2011 (pg. 1)

Campus Groundwater Sampled in Ongoing Perchlorate Investigation

No Entry: Source Area Investigation

The installation of sixteen temporary wells at American University in the vicinity of Kreeger Hall was completed in an effort to identify the source of elevated perchlorate levels in the groundwater in this area. The wells were installed, sampled and closed during a three-week period in July ... Also this month, data generated from the first quarterly sampling effort in May at existing groundwater monitoring wells and surface water locations, such as creeks and streams, was reviewed.

Drilling for Groundwater at Source Area #2

The field team plans to conduct the second quarterly sampling effort the first week of August to assess whether seasonal fluctuations affect contaminant levels in groundwater within the Spring Valley project area. Three new deep groundwater monitoring wells are expected to be installed later this year to determine if perchlorate has migrated into the deeper groundwater flow areas.

Spring Valley FUDS
Project Update
July 2011

Preparing to Sample Source Area #1 Groundwater

Norton Seeks $1 Million to Study Spring Valley FUDS Health Effects

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton [D-DC] today will offer an amendment on the House floor to the Defense Appropriations bill to provide the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with $1 million to study the health effects of the Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) located in upper Northwest Washington, DC ... Under House Rules, Members may no longer earmark funds to a specific jurisdiction or project. However, Norton's amendment would require the study or studies to be done of FUDSs in cities with more than 500,000 residents where chemical agents were tested. Spring Valley appears to be the only FUDS that meets that definition.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Press Release (July 6, 2011)
On Thursday Norton took to the House floor and offered her amendment. For the Army, $1 million represents a comma in its budget, but no one's adding funds to anything; her amendment got voted down. But after the vote, Washington's Norm Dicks, top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said he could help direct funds for the health study. "I lost the amendment," Norton says, "but I might have won the issue."
Harry Jaffe

The Examiner

July 7, 2011

Kent Slowinski & Ginny Durrin after the Palisades July 4th parade

District Government Soliciting $250,000 Follow-Up Health Study

To provide a follow-up analysis of the initial health study completed by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health approximately four years ago, the study will consist of: documenting community concerns about health impacts possibly related to the Spring Valley FUDS, conducting open communication on project methods and findings in conjunction with the previous work completed, following-up on issues raised in the initial 2007 Scoping Study, and providing specific resources and education as needed to community members, groups and other interested parties.
Solicitation for Follow-up on Spring Valley Health Study
DC Office of Contracting & Procurement
June 21, 2011

Amendment No. 1
June 27, 2011

Spring Valley residents are hoping a proposed health study will be able to offer more information about the health effects of World War I-era contamination in their community. If the District and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health successfully hammer out a contract, the school’s researchers will immediately begin an update on a 2007 study that found an elevated incidence of arsenic-related cancers and other illnesses in Spring Valley, according to Mary Fox, a lead researcher in the study ... The contamination occurred during World War I, when the U.S. Army used the American University campus to test chemical weapons, which it fired into the then-undeveloped woods that later became the Spring Valley community.
Brady Holt
Northwest Current
July 13, 2011 (pg. 1)