CHESAPEAKE
City staff met Tuesday with representatives of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Environmental Quality and attorneys to assess the situation at the Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville.
The session came within a few days of a hastily called meeting last week between city officials and residents who live near the golf course, in the Fentress section of the city.
At last week's meeting, residents were told that elevated levels of arsenic, lead and other contaminants had been found in groundwater tests on the golf course site.
There are about 200 potable wells within 2,000 feet of the outer boundaries of the golf course.
Residents also were given copies of a letter from City Manager William Harrell to the regional head of the EPA, requesting a "preliminary assessment of the site," which is the trigger to start the Superfund process.
About 10 people attended the meeting Tuesday at City Hall, said Chris Wagner, a Richmond-based on-scene coordinator with the EPA, who was among the participants.
"The EPA agreed to prepare a plan for the preliminary site assessment as requested by the city," according to an e-mail from Lizz Gunnufsen, a city spokeswoman. "The EPA and the city will work together on this additional testing on the golf course site. This testing may be completed as early as September."
Officials from the city, EPA and DEQ plan to meet again with affected residents in August to report on the most recent water tests of nearby residents, Gunnufsen stated.
Samples of tap water from nearly 30 homes near the golf course were taken last week. The results are expected within about three weeks, according to the city.
Another meeting is planned once the preliminary site assessment results are back, Gunnufsen added.
Requesting a preliminary site assessment in no way means the Chesapeake golf course is going to be listed on the EPA's National Priorities List or that it would need cleanup work, said Roy Seneca, an EPA spokesman based in Philadelphia.
EPA funds used to help with additional sampling at the golf course will come from the Superfund program, he said.
"It's just the process of getting EPA assistance for this kind of an assessment," he added.
Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville was sculpted from 1.5 million tons of fly ash from Dominion Virginia Power's coal-burning power plant in Chesapeake. Fly ash, which is the residue left from the burning of coal for electricity, contains heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury that can pose threats to air and water.
Robert McCabe, (757) 222-5217, robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com
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proactive or reactive
Blog boy has been following this and I have not heard anything about what the city is doing for the residents other than testing their water. Shouldn't the city officials be getting the residents an immediate source of fresh water? The article states the poisens in the ground are only 2000 feet away. They are very slow in the process of protecting the people. Wait 3 weeks for the test results to come back.,.,what if it too late???? Not that the city water has been that great. It has had its share of insults, but we are talking about POISEN right? Be proactive and most of all don't drink the water.
What about the golfers who have been using the course?
Amazing that when I drive by the course is still pretty well used. Golfers, everytime you take a swing and kick up dirt how much of that contaminant is getting airborne for you to breathe in?? I don't think I am going golfing there anytime soon!!! At least not until it is declared safe!
another fine mess chesapeake city council has gotten us into
Chesapeake is on the verge of another first. The first city in the nation to create its own superfund site in the 21st century. What a proud accomplishment. They and the Chesapeake taxpayers will soon be required to provide millions of dollars in water and sewer infrastructure to the residents on Murray Drive and Whittamore Road because they approved the dumping of 1.5 million tons of coal fly ash adjacent to residential property using groundwater. Would they have approved a landfill next to the same residents? This is what they did. The developers were crafty enough to disguise this industrial dump with grass and called it a golf course. Talk about sweeping dirt under the rug. The irony is that when water and sewer is extended to these resident at taxpayer expense the real winners will be adjacent land owners that will be able to develop their property into new subdivisions since the taxpayers have paid to extend utilities into a new area saving the developers millions.