Residents Try to Spare Pocket Park from Groundwater Well Drilling

As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers investigates possible chemical contamination in Spring Valley’s groundwater, some residents are concerned about damage to a tiny park in the median of Rockwood Parkway ...  the Army has been trying to track the underground spread of the chemical perchlorate.  The Army has identified the park as the best location for a new groundwater monitoring well — joining 53 already installed in the area — which will identify whether contamination has spread into this section of the neighborhood ... 

Rockwood Parkway pocket park

[Spring Valley advisory neighborhood commissioner] Nan Wells said at the neighborhood commission’s March 5 meeting: “I think the Army needs to take another look at this and work with us, and preserve this beautiful park” ...  The neighborhood commission voted unanimously to ask the Army to find another site ... In an interview this week, Wells said some neighbors may organize a protest at the park if well-drilling does commence there.  In response to a neighborhood rumor that the Army was threatening to arrest demonstrators, [army spokesperson Andrea] Takash said, “No, no, that’s free speech.”
Brady Holt
Northwest Current
March 26, 2014

As part of the ongoing groundwater investigation ... USACE met with residents, ANC commissioners, RAB members and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton on April 29 to discuss locations for the proposed well in the vicinity of Rockwood Parkway.  Based on this meeting, USACE is looking for another area in public space on Rockwood Parkway or Indian Lane, other than the Rockwood Parkway Island.
Spring Valley FUDS
Project Update
April 2014

Completion of Glenbrook Road Project Slips to Summer 2015

This month the crews continued hand excavating the area under the former front porch of the home [at 4825 Glenbrook Road] down to saprolite.  They continued to recover American University Experiment Station (AUES)-related debris. Additionally, they demolished about a 10-foot section of the porch footer wall.  Due to the debris we have encountered under the former front porch (hand excavation is a slow process) and days lost due to the recent winter weather, we have had to revise our schedule for Glenbrook Road.  

     4825 Glenbrook Road (2/13/14)

We now expect to finish excavation work in spring of 2015 and restore the site to residential standards before returning the property back to American University in summer 2015.  This schedule could change, either direction, depending on what we encounter during the continued excavation work.  At the March 11 RAB meeting we will provide more details and video footage of the current work.
Spring Valley FUDS
Project Update
February 2014

Precise Source of Lewisite in Soil Under Front Porch is Unknown

The analytical results for the liquid in the intact container discovered on Jan. 17 tested positive for lewisite.  The bottom layer of liquid in the bottle contained a small amount of lewisite ... There was no release of lewisite during the discovery or removal of the item.  With the results of the testing complete, the container will be properly disposed of by the Edgewood Chemical Transfer Facility.
Spring Valley FUDS
4825 Glenbrook Road Update
January 31, 2014 

 AUES bottle containing Lewisite

Until recently, the soil samples have been non-detect for chemical agents or industrial compounds.  A report received Jan. 31 showed that recently excavated soil tested positive for lewisite.  This soil came from the area around the location where we discovered the Jan. 17 intact glass bottle that also contained lewisite.  The soils currently being excavated are 6-8 feet below ground surface.
Spring Valley FUDS
4825 Glenbrook Road Update
February 7, 2014
  

Army spokesperson Andrea Takash said the container found was not leaking and that she could not speculate on the source of the lewisite found in the soil.  Workers have removed countless pieces of glassware from the site.  The burial pit is believed to have been disturbed when the home at 4825 Glenbrook was constructed in the early 1990s, and construction workers building the house reportedly suffered injuries consistent with chemical weapons exposure.  Residents of the house also reported illnesses before moving out in 2001; the home was subsequently left vacant before it was demolished. 

     
At their meeting last Wednesday, several members of the Palisades/Spring Valley advisory neighborhood commission expressed concerns about the Army’s findings.  “Lewisite is nothing to fool around with.  It’s a very serious thing,” said commissioner Tom Smith, whose single-member district includes 4825 Glenbrook.  Smith said he was also worried that lewisite may have also contaminated neighboring properties — the American University president’s house and the South Korean ambassador’s residence.

Brady Holt

Northwest Current

February 12, 2014 (pg. 5)

Longtime Resident Geza Teleki was Fierce Critic of Corps' Cleanup

We write to honor the life of Geza Teleki.  After a long battle with many health issues, Geza passed away on January 7, 2014, in his home on Szentendre Island, Hungary.  He lived in Spring Valley from 1984 to 2003 at 3819 48th Street.  We remember Geza for his deep concern over the cleanup and wellbeing of Spring Valley.  He fought for a more thorough and transparent investigation into the buried munitions and chemical remains resulting from the World War I chemical weapons development and testing at the American University Experimental Station and neighboring properties.  Geza eloquently spoke of these concerns while serving on the Spring Valley Restoration Advisory Board from its inception until he resigned in 2002.  
Ginny Durrin & Ken Shuster
Northwest Current
January 29, 2014 (pg. 11)

Dr. Virginia Marie Weaver, an occupational health specialist at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, reported in a five-page clinic note last January that her patient,  Geza Teleki, represented a puzzle for any health professional.  Teleki, who in 2003 moved to Maryland after living in his family home on the 3800 block of 48th Street in Spring Valley for more than 30 years, suffers from diabetes, hypothyroidism, advancing kidney disease, colon disease and a heart ailment that may require surgery.  This multi-organ breakdown occurred in a two-year period after more than a decade of robust good health ... 

  Geza P. Teleki testifies at DC City Council hearing

 Weaver wrote that her patient "could have had exposure to volatile chemicals from soil evaporation or water leaking into his basement.  He could have had exposure to particulates and metals through gardening.  The extent of the exposure remains unknown due to the absence of extensive sampling during the time he was in the home."  She further wrote that the nature of the chemicals still in the ground "is unclear since they were experimental -- and the byproducts that could have formed over the 80 years are even more unclear." 
Charles Bermpohl
Northwest Current
November 10, 2004 (pg. B-3)

Nevermore, I realized as I hastened homeward to my own bed ... would I regard chimpanzees as "mere animals."  On that singular eve, which also marked the twilight of my youth, I had seen my species inside the skin of another ... Having spent some years in the company of chimpanzees, both free and confined individuals, I find myself no longer able to cleave to the majority human view of chimpanzees as inferior beings.  
Geza P. Teleki
They Are Us (1993) 

Live 75mm Shell Shuts Down Glenbrook Road Dig for Two Days

On Monday workmen unearthed another crusty munition from its current excavation of the toxic-waste site on Glenbrook Road, a stone's throw from the American University campus.  The fourth such find pulled from the ground in tony Spring Valley since September, the artifact turned out to be a 75-millimeter shrapnel round buried when the Army abandoned a experimental warfare station after World War I.  The Army Corps of Engineers immediately shut down the Glenbrook Road operation, transported the bomb to a secure site behind Sibley Memorial Hospital, and checked it for explosives.

The fill was determined to be a riot-control agent that was used during World War I," the Corps announced Wednesday, saying that it "poses no danger to the workers or community."  Christine Dietrich, who lives across the street from the dig with her husband and two young children, is not reassured.  "It's absolutely unacceptable," she told Washingtonian.  "I cannot have my children playing in the front yard when they are digging up one bomb after another across the street." 

Harry Jaffe

The Washingtonian

 January 16, 2014

MK IV adapter/booster

On Jan. 13, crews safely removed two items.  The first item was encountered during the morning effort and was determined to be a Mk IV adapter/booster.  In the World War I era, an adapter and booster casing was designed to convert a 75mm conventional munition into a chemical munition.  The team concluded that the item is MPPEH (material potentially presenting an explosive hazard).  The item will not detonate without a fuze.  It was packaged and transported to the Federal Property.  The project team assessed this finding and based on experience and prior efforts determined that high probability excavations could resume using our existing multiple layers of engineering controls ...

The second item, encountered in the afternoon of Jan. 13, was determined to be a 75mm shrapnel round, unfuzed and unfired. The initial assessment indicates the item has an unknown solid fill. The item was packaged and transported to Federal Property, where it is waiting an additional assessment. Until the second assessment is complete, the site is shutdown.

Spring Valley FUDS

4825 Glenbrook Road Update

January 15, 2014  

75mm shrapnel round

The Munitions Advisory Review Board reviewed the assessments of the 75mm shrapnel round that was encountered at the Glenbrook Road project Jan. 13.  After looking at X-rays and a chemical analysis, the team determined the item does not contain energetics.  The fill was determined to be a riot control agent that was used during World War I.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has reviewed these results and determined that our existing engineering controls are adequate and no modifications to our procedures are needed at this time.  Based on this determination, we plan to resume high probability operations on Thursday, Jan. 16. 

Spring Valley FUDS

4825 Glenbrook Road Update

January 16, 2014

Itinerant Digital FUDS Archive Moves for 2nd Time this Year

GASSED by John Singer Sargent (1919)

Our selected archived Spring Valley project documents have been moved and are now at http://springvalley.ertcorp.com/.  These documents were most recently housed on a SharePoint site that required a username and password.  This new site is public and does not require a username and password to assist in ease of access to these selected archived project documents.

Spring Valley FUDS

Project Summary

November 2013

Editor's note:  i.e.  for the second time in 2013 the Spring Valley FUDS project archive has been moved to a new website,  once again changing all previously bookmarked URLs.

 75mm under Glenbrook Road front porch

Perchlorate Levels Next to Kreeger Hall "Went Up Significantly"

Up on American University in front of Kreeger Hall we have wells PZ-4, MW-45 and MW-44 all within twenty feet of one another ... MW-44 is a more recent well that we sampled in March and September of 2012.  When we first sampled it was 33, 34, 36 parts per billion; it looks like it went up a little bit in April to about 41 ppb at 80 - 95 feet.  And then 45(S) and 45(D) at 120 feet and about 150 feet: when we first sampled that in September 2012, it looked like there were relatively low levels of perchlorate, but then when we sampled it again in May the concentration went up significantly [to 54 ppb].

 MW-44, MW-45 & PZ-4 in front of Kreeger

... We're going to continue our semi-annual and quarterly sampling efforts.  We have a sampling event planned next month in December and we'll also sample again in June.  For the quarterly sampling locations, we'll sample in March and September as well ... When we determine that we have sufficient data to define the nature and extent of contamination, we'll begin writing the draft remedial investigation report.  We'll also need to sit down with EPA 
and the District to talk about what these results mean.
Todd Beckwith, USACE
RAB Meeting
November 12, 2013