High levels of lead, arsenic found in wells near golf course

CHESAPEAKE

Well tests conducted on a golf course sculpted from 1.5 million tons of fly ash have revealed elevated levels of arsenic, lead and other contaminants, prompting the city to request help from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

At a hastily called meeting Thursday evening with residents who live near Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville, top city officials disclosed results of tests from three groundwater monitoring wells on the site, which showed some contamination in an aquifer, about 20 to 25 feet underground.

The test results, based on average readings from the three monitoring wells, found arsenic at eight times the drinking water standard and lead at more than five times the standard.

A copy of a July 16 letter from City Manager William E. Harrell to Donald S. Welsh, regional administrator of EPA, requested a “preliminary assessment of the site” by the agency based on data from an engineering consulting firm hired by the city.

“We are asking that your agency respond to this detection and provide support to our residents,” Harrell wrote.

Chris Wagner, an EPA representative based in Richmond, said the EPA will meet with the city and the Department of Environmental Quality next week. “Right now, we’re just trying to get our hands around the problem,” she said.

About 50 people attended the meeting, held at a church near the golf course, where city leaders tried to assure some worried residents that there is no evidence that any contamination has moved beyond the golf course.

“Certainly these results, from a public health perspective, are of concern and that’s why the city is responding as quickly as they are,” said Dr. Nancy Welch, director of the Chesapeake Health Department.

Water tests at homes in the vicinity of the golf course, conducted in April, did not find any significant contamination. There are about 60 homes in the immediate vicinity of the course and 200 potable wells within a 2,000-foot radius of its outer boundaries.

The city announced that additional water tests at nearly 30 homes to the east and south of the golf course – in the direction groundwater flows in the area – will be conducted today and Saturday.

The tests will be conducted by drawing samples from kitchen taps after first disconnecting water-softening systems, city officials said.

“We’re not talking about any immediate health concerns,” Welch said. “The issues related to these substances, the criteria that have been established in terms of the maximum allowable levels, are related to exposure over a number of years.”

Some residents responded with a mix of patient resignation – and some anger.

“I don’t like it one little bit, but I’m going to wait and see what’s going on,” said Emma Phillips, 65, who has lived in the Whittamore Road neighborhood just east of the golf course for most of her life.

Her well water had begun to smell like rotten eggs even before the construction of the golf course, though it’s more noticeable now, Phillips said.

“Since they’ve been there, it’s been worse,” she said, adding that she only drinks bottled water now.

Bob and Jean Stephenson, whose Murray Drive home backs up to the golf course , expressed frustration at continuing to have to pay real-estate and storm-water taxes for a home they consider worthless.

“We’re upset that we’re living in a house that’s basically worth nothing,” Jean Stephenson said.

“I couldn’t give it away,” her husband added.

The City Council unanimously approved a conditional-use permit for the golf course project on June 20, 2001.

The developers of the golf course were paid by Dominion Virginia Power to take 1.5 million tons of fly ash – a powdery residue left from the burning of coal for electricity – from Dominion’s Chesapeake Energy Center in the Deep Creek section of the city.

The fly ash was used to contour a rolling, 18-hole golf course on 217 acres that had been used as farmland for decades.

Fly ash is known to contain heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury, which pose threats to air and groundwater.

The developers were able to take advantage of state environmental regulations that encourage the recycling of fly ash as a “beneficial use,” as long as certain certifications are provided.

While groundwater monitoring wells and liners are required at a regulated fly-ash landfill on the grounds of Dominion’s Chesapeake plant, neither were required at the golf course under the state’s rules.

The golf course has several unlined “lakes” filled with groundwater, which are the course’s sole irrigation source.

The developers and Dominion officials say the fly ash used on the golf course was mixed with a binding agent to inhibit leaching.

The original developers of the golf course – CPM Virginia LLC, an offshoot of Combustion Products Management Inc. – sold the course to the current owners, Norfolk-based MJM Golf LLC in January 2007.

The course opened in the fall.

 Robert McCabe, (757) 222-5217, robert.mccabe@pilotonline.com