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Announcements

October 2023 RAB Meeting

The October 2023 RAB meeting is set for Tuesday, October 10, at 7:00 p.m. at American University's Don Myers Building, 3501 Nebraska Ave, Washington, DC, 20016. The RAB presentation that will be shown during the October 10 meeting will be made available the day of the meeting on this site.

Parking/Metro Information: The entrance to East Campus is between New Mexico Ave and Massachusetts Ave. Attendees should park in the surface parking lot and proceed to the door on the left SIDE (not front) of the building. Parking is free.

The nearest metro stop is Tenley/AU. Attendees are welcome to use the free AU shuttle; disembark at the “Kerwin Building” stop.

If you have any questions, concerns, or issues please contact the Baltimore District Public Affairs Office at NAB-PAO@usace.army.mil.

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--- Final Site-Wide Decision Document Now Available:

The Final Site-Wide Decision Document is complete and is now available at the Information Repository and for download here on our site. The Decision Document outlines the selected remedies to address both unacceptable risks posed by soil contamination and unacceptable explosive hazards posed by the possible presence of munitions and explosives of concern (MEC).

Click here to visit the Site-Wide section of the Spring Valley page where the Final Site-Wide Decision Document can be downloaded

Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site - Notification of Five-Year Review

This Public Notice is to inform the community of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) intent to conduct the 2023 Five-Year Review (FYR) for the Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site (SVFUDS), located in the northwest section of Washington, D.C. Specifically, the FYR will evaluate the Munitions Response Sites (MRS) Burial Pits/Field Test Areas. The American University (AU) campus comprises a portion of the MRS along with the Dalecarlia Woods area located on the western edge of the SVFUDS, which is zoned for Federal or public use. It should be noted that the property located at 4825 Glenbrook Road, as well as the surface water and groundwater at that site, are not a part of this FYR.

The purpose of the FYR is to determine if the remedy selected in the Decision Document (DD) for the above listed MRS is, and will continue to be, protective of human health and the environment. The Army is required to evaluate the protectiveness of these remedies at least every five years in order to ensure selected remedies continue to meet acceptance standards for hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants remaining in the soil.

Work Previously Completed: The Remedial Investigation (RI) Report, prepared by USACE in 2015, determined that unacceptable risks posed by soil contamination and unacceptable explosive hazards posed by military munitions that may, upon recovery and evaluation by qualified personnel, be determined to be Munitions and Explosives of Concern (MEC), specifically unexploded ordnance (UXO) and discarded military munitions (DMM), potentially remain within the SVFUDS. Because of this potential risk, the DD, signed 15 June 2017, called for the Excavation and Off-site Disposal of contaminated soil to address unacceptable risk, which was completed in 2022. Additionally, to address the unacceptable MEC hazards, the selected remedy is Investigation and Removal of MEC and Institutional Control (IC) Implementation of 3Rs Explosives Safety Education. Soil is the only medium affected. The MEC removal work is on-going and the ICs remain in place.

Contact Information: Scheduled date of completion of this 2023 SVFUDS Burial Pits/Field Test Areas FYR anticipated to be 31 December 2023. If you have any questions or comments about the FYR, please contact the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2 Hopkins Plaza, Baltimore, MD 21201. USACE welcomes your comments and questions. The point of contact for further information is Project Manager Dan Noble, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District at (410) 962-6782 or Dan.G.Noble@usace.army.mil.

Spring Valley Overview

The Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) consists of approximately 660 acres in the northwest section of Washington, D.C. During the World War I‐era, the site was known as the American University Experiment Station, and was used by the U.S. government for research and testing of chemical agents, equipment, and munitions. Today, the site encompasses approximately 1,600 private properties, including several embassies and foreign properties, as well as the American University and Wesley Seminary.

Project Efforts

Community Participation

Partners

History

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District has the lead responsibility for investigation and cleanup actions at the Spring Valley FUDS and has entered into a formal partnering process with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington, D.C. District Department of the Environment. The three organizations, referred to as the partners, have agreed to prioritize the project work by risk, addressing the highest risks first. The Corps investigation includes the identification and removal of arsenic‐contaminated soil, a groundwater investigation, and the search for additional munitions, both in burial pits and isolated items on residential properties.

Information Repository

The Information Repository is located at the Tenley-Friendship Branch Library, 4450 Wisconsin Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. Hard copies and digital records of key project documents can be found upstairs in the Reference Section. The document collection includes a variety of materials created since the start of the project, 20 years ago. Check with the reference librarian to direct you to our shelves of materials. You can click here for a PDF scan of the master list of documents located in the Information Repository.

Also, on your next visit to the library, ask at the Reference Desk for the Spring Valley FUDS large binder, which has a table of contents and almost a hundred disks that contain years of digital records available for research and review. These disks must be checked out from the librarian and are only available for use on the library’s public computers during your visit. If there is a piece of information you cannot locate in the library, please contact the Community Outreach Team at 410-962-0157.

Additional archived documents not found in the library or here on the Web site can be found at http://springvalley.ertcorp.com.