Norton to Press for Answers on Spring Valley and Flood Control at Hearing Tomorrow
WASHINGTON, DC – The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that Norton, a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, intends to ask questions regarding pressing local D.C. issues, including the Spring Valley munitions site clean-up and the 17th Street levee construction project, at the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment hearing tomorrow. The hearing, entitled “The President’s Fiscal Year 2015 Budget: Administration Priorities for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” will take place Wednesday, April 2, 2014, at 10:00 a.m. in 2167 Rayburn House Office Building.
“Wednesday’s hearing will provide an opportunity to address some very pressing questions of concern to the District that require answers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,” said Norton. “The clean-up of the Spring Valley munitions site, which is in a densely populated neighborhood and has forced one family with small children to move temporarily, and the long-delayed 17th Street levee construction project, are of particular interest to our local D.C. neighborhoods, and I intend to get answers.”
Last year, Norton wrote a letter to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lieutenant General Thomas Bostick, urging him to temporarily relocate a family in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. because they have very young children, ages 2 and 6, living directly across the street from property, where the Army Corps has demolished a home and is excavating. The Army Corps had already removed a large amount of hazardous substances from the property at 4825 Glenbrook Road at the time of Norton’s letter, but full excavation is necessary because a 2011 Army Corps remediation investigation report indicated that chemical weapons-related debris are likely buried under the house. However, now, because of the amount of additional hazardous material found, the project’s projected completion date has been pushed back six months, from December 2014 to June 2015. Meanwhile, no action has been taken by the Army Corps to relocate the family, who has now rented an apartment at their own expense.
The Army used Spring Valley in Northwest D.C. as the major U.S. chemical weapons testing and development site during World War I. Norton has been working with the Army Corps since 1993 to clean the site, where numerous toxins, including arsenic, lewisite, and mustard gas, have been found. Unlike most Formerly Used Defense Sites, Spring Valley is the home of a major university, American University, which has more than 12,000 students, and is located in a densely populated residential area.
Also last year, after a long contracting delay in the midst of construction, the U.S. Army Corps announced that construction of the levee at 17th Street and Constitution Avenue NW would be completed by the end of summer 2014. The 17th Street levee, which Norton secured $5.8 million in federal stimulus money to build to protect the National Mall and surrounding neighborhoods from flooding, is a key part of the Washington, D.C. Local Flood Protection Project. Norton said its completion has become increasingly urgent because of unprecedented storms in the east, such as Hurricane Sandy. She will seek an update on the status of the construction and an on-the-record completion date from the U.S. Army Corps.
Published: April 1, 2014