CHESAPEAKE
The city will pay to test wells of homeowners living near a golf course made from fly ash beginning this weekend, City Manager William E. Harrell said Thursday.
Hand-delivered letters to homeowners immediately adjacent to the course are expected to go out today , Harrell said.
The announcement came less than a week after a report in The Virginian-Pilot about Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville, an 18-hole course sculpted from 1.5 million tons of fly ash, a powdery byproduct of the burning of coal for electricity, that came from Dominion Virginia Power’s Chesapeake Energy Center in Deep Creek.
“I’m glad they’re doing it, if they’re really going to do it; it’s the proper thing to do,” said Harriet West, whose Murray Drive home backs to the golf course.
She and her husband, Mark, have lived there for 22 years.
“They approved the mess and they should help straighten it up,” she said.
Testing also is planned on the golf course itself, Harrell said.
“The city certainly expects Dominion Virginia Power and the property owners to be partners in resolving any problems that are determined from the analysis of the wells,” Harrell said.
The issue also has drawn the attention of environmental groups.
“Even if groundwater contamination has not yet occurred, it’s going to be a perpetual threat, so the entire site needs to be monitored for hazardous constituents,” said Lisa Evans, a former EPA attorney who now works with Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm that began in the 1970s as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund.
The testing of private wells will be offered on a voluntary basis, according to a draft of a letter to residents by J.K. Walski, the city’s director of public utilities.
Testing may be expanded to include additional residences based on the results from the first samples, according to the draft letter, released late Thursday.
An independent company will take well water samples and test them against U.S. Environmental Protection Agency drinking water standards.
The letters, to be delivered to those whose homes are within 2,000 feet of the course, also will notify them officially of the June 20 deadline for reporting any wells that have dried up or show signs of contamination.
That deadline was included as a stipulation in the conditional use permit for the golf course project unanimously approved by the Chesapeake City Council on June 20, 2001.
The stipulation gave homeowners seven years to make claims on the golf course owners for wells damaged by the project.
Fly ash, which years ago went up the smokestacks of power plants, now is captured, stockpiled and regulated as a solid waste because it contains heavy metals such as arsenic that can leach into groundwater, contaminating wells.
Arsenic has been linked to cancer, according to the EPA .
Dominion was not the applicant for the city’s use permit but only supplied the fly ash for the project.
The utility said the fly ash was mixed with a chemical additive to bind the metals, making them unable to dissolve and inhibiting leaching.
The golf course project was exempt from the requirement for a solid-waste permit for landfills because it met the criteria for “beneficial use” programs encouraged by the EPA.
The golf course was developed by CPM Virginia LLC, an affiliate of Combustion Products Management Inc., or CPM, which was based in Ithaca, N.Y., when the project was approved.
The applicant for the city’s conditional use permit was Robert S. Diberardinis, a CPM executive.
The original developers no longer are involved in the project, having sold the property to MJM Golf LLC, a Norfolk-based company, in January 2007.
City officials on Thursday clarified the operational status of the golf course. Though the city said the course had been temporarily shut down last week, golfers still were in plain view through the first half of this week.
City officials explained that while business operations on the golf course were suspended – meaning there could be no cash transactions for greens fees and the like – those with club memberships still were allowed to play the course.
Patrick M. Hughes, director of Neighborhood Services for the city, said the golf course had been cited with a second “notice of violation” on Thursday, for not having an approved site plan.
A month ago, the course was cited for a building code violation relating to improper permitting for its construction trailer.
On March 27, a misdemeanor summons was issued to the golf course alleging failure to obtain a building permit before use of a structure.
A tentative court date is set for April 30, Hughes said.
Robert McCabe, (757) 222-5217, robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com
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What if?
All this jumping to conclusions! Lawyers and property market values. Enough already! What if there is no groundwater contamination -- no matter who conducts the analysis? How long has this stuff been used in construction? What about the DEQ, EPA, government watchdog, oversight agencies charged with policing this? Aren't they a part of this golf course scenario? If there was so much of a health threat, why did they permit its use in this manner? Probably because there is no problem with its use in the first place!
We live in an information-rich world. Google fly ash and see what you come up with! Here's an interesting fact I discovered: 'The EPA's headquarters building in Washington, D.C. is constructed with concrete containing fly ash.'
We don't need to accept as Gospel what the city, golf course owners, or anyone else says. We can learn on our own and be armed with the facts. The fact is, this whole story is a tempest in a teapot
Doing the Right Thing, A little too late
The site well tests were mandatory and should have been taken long ago. Just like closing the proverbial gate after the horses have left. There is now 1.5 million tons of fly ash buried adjacent to homes that are dependent upon well water. As a public health issue all residential wells within 2,000 feet should be tested at the golf course owners expense at independent testing labs selected by the respective home owner. Unfortunately, due to developer negligence and bureaucratic bungling there is no baseline well data to compare the groundwater test results. The residents on Murray Drive are the unfortunate experimental subject to this "beneficial" waste disposal/golf course development scheme.
Not necessarily a problem
Fly ash isn't necessarily a problem. What used to be a waste product allowed to go into the air is being collected and recycled in a number of different ways including a soil stabilizer like this. Much of what you find hyping hazards are actually advocate groups bending the facts in order to campaign against coal burning.
It still does appear that they violated good engineering practices by using it in an overly wet environment. Testing the water for PH and trace metals will definitively answer the question if there's any real problem.
The tests of course should be done by an independent group not related to the city or any environmental advocacy groups. There's even companies that sell kits you can test your own water if you want to make sure it's independent. If you want to do that, I would go with one where you send the samples to a lab rather than a do it yourself.
Don't Forget Bell Harbour in SoNo
Don't forget, this City council last year approved the Belharbour residential development on a superfund site, right in the middle of ongoing industry.
How long until we read a similar story? I know history repeats itself, but this move is outrageous.
Fly Ash is Industrial Waste! Legally it's supposed to go to a
PERMITTED industrial waste landfill! Industrial landfills are lined to prevent contamination from migrating to risk receptors (drinking water wells) Chesapeake has once again allowed the "good ol boys" to fill wetlands and skirt environmental laws to make $ at the taxpayer's expense.
Well
Well that explains why my request for a well was denied. The land wont perk or was it that they know its already contaminated. What a mess ang the Gold Course looks horrible from centerville. Thanks for the view and the poison.
Way to go Chesapeake
Mary
Who exactly owns MJM Golf, LLC?
You do a search within the SCC's site and it shows you the officers and such. Beware, it may not be a Virginia Corp.
Arsenic
Mix their well water & city water and you get a unique combination. Arsenic & pharmaceuticals, yummy.
63impala
You are right on! What's good for the Taxor is good for the Taxee.
who owns this Golf Course
I heard that Thelma Drake's son owns the place??? Why do you think it was approved. He got it real cheap!!! More Pork belly stuff. Good old boy network. Politicians and thiers get rich while we the tax payers pay for the tests, etc....
Va SCC Info
MJM GOLF LLC
CURRENT REGISTERED AGENT:
NAME: RICHARD H MATTHEWS
STREET: 222 CENTRAL PARK AVE STE 400
CITY: VIRGINIA BEACH STATE: VA ZIP: 23462-0000
STATUS: 4 MEMBER OF EFF DATE: 03/05/08 LOC: 228 VIRGINIA BEACH CITY
NO JONES
I agree 1000%, although I do have a suggestion...you stated "condemnation attorneys & experts making their clients whole with market-valued property buyouts,"...If I were one of the possibly affected homeowners in that area, I would DEMAND an ASSESSMENT-valued property buyout. Afterall, why should the city benefit by being able to offer the homeowners less that they assessed their properties at and took taxes based on that amount. No, methinks that the city should step up and make sure that their citizens are covered, protected, and compensated for what looks to be at least some culpability by the city in this mess.
Placing blame on others is easier than taking responsibility
Ok, this fly ash has to be somewhere. It was created and collected and has to go someplace. I guess the residents would very much like to blame someone else, but who actually caused this material to be generated? They did, I did, everybody that flipped a switch that turned on an electrically powered device is responsible for this stuff. But then the nature of people is always to blame someone else.
MJM Golf ?
Who exactly owns MJM Golf, LLC? I tried to google the firm but could not find a link to the firm.
This is a travesty and not unlike the City of Chesapeake under Mayor Ward to jeopardize people's lives due to incompetence and negligence.
I still would like to know who owns the firm, MJM Golf? How did they come to acquire the property? We know who is at risk here when the water becomes contaminated. That is unfortunate. We have a right to know who stands benefit financially from the sale and use of this property and how they managed to acquire it. Why no information on MJM Golf???
My question is?
Since this is City funded, is the City doing the testing? My point is, if the City is doing the testing who will hold them accountable to make sure the testing results are true? The City has been known the fudge the figures when they do the testing/studies. Example: Traffic studies, parking studies, students per condo study, and so on. The City does a study by City departments and therefore all the figures fall within the guidelines? Something to think about!!!
centerville golf course
(i think it is all sumed up in a few words) the city of chesapeake,council members and planing board are just so so stupid its unreal.
Unintended Consequences
Two simple solutions. Install free city water and sewer lines INTO these affected homes or risk percolates leaching from a reported 1.5 million tons of solid waste into their well-water and a courtroom full of condemnation attorneys & experts making their clients whole with market-valued property buyouts, full moving and settlement expenses, and possible medical and punitive damages. This is way beyond Wingfield baby.
how far will the fly ash leak?
Just in local wells, or into the deeper water veins that travel all over the area? Who is going to track this? I can't believe that they would allow something so poisonous into the water supply. I guess that I can believe it, as it was a financial gain for the investors, and it gained momentum with political pull.
I love golfing as much as the next person, but I like to golf on actual TURF, not deadly waste that reacts with water.