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After Norton Intervention, Army Corps to Place Well in Road, Not in a Community Park

May 21, 2014

WASHINGTON, DC – The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that Norton got the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) to place a groundwater testing well in a roadway rather than a residential park in the Spring Valley neighborhood in Northwest D.C. Since concern arose in the Spring Valley community over an Army Corps proposal to dig a well to trace groundwater contamination in a park area that residents helped create and maintain, Norton has worked with the Army Corps and the surrounding community to ensure that the well is placed in a more suitable site. Norton's office has received confirmation that the Army Corps will build the well in the road on Rockwood Parkway. Construction is expected to begin in June or July, but is dependent on when the Army Corps receives the permit from D.C.

"I appreciate the Army Corps for agreeing to reevaluate and change its prior decision on the placement of the monitoring well," said Norton. "The road is a more suitable location than a park the community itself has built and maintained. This outcome is a model example of a community successfully working with Congress and a federal agency to effect positive change in their neighborhood."

Last month, Norton, a senior member of the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee, pressed the Army Corps and got a commitment at a subcommittee hearing to work with the community on a more suitable site for the well.

Published: May 21, 2014