Undisclosed data on fly-ash site leave incomplete picture

CHESAPEAKE

Contaminants found in groundwater-monitoring wells beneath a golf course sculpted from coal ash are at alarmingly dangerous levels, according to environmental experts who have seen more detailed results of city-sponsored tests on the site.

The city refuses to release the full report of the findings, making it difficult to assess the scope of the risks that the contaminated groundwater poses to people living around Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville.

"This is serious; they have a problem," said Dr. Peter deFur, an environmental consultant in Richmond and a part-time faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University.

"All of these heavy metals cause neurological damage, especially to the developing brain."

Water tests in nearby homes have shown no evidence that contaminants are being ingested or have affected drinking water in any of the roughly 200 potable wells in the vicinity of the golf course.

The city has provided summaries of its findings, which show elevated levels of arsenic, lead, chromium and manganese, all elements associated with fly ash.

City officials have refused, however, to disclose the complete findings of its investigation thus far on the golf course. The testing began following reports in The Virginian-Pilot that 1.5 million tons of fly ash was used to build the golf course and that safeguards such as groundwater-monitoring wells and liners in man-made lakes were not required as part of the project.

The city posted detailed summaries of the test results on its Web site on July 25, eight days after sharing some of the findings with residents living near the golf course and four days after The Virginian-Pilot filed a Freedom of Information Act request, seeking the full set of data.

The Pilot followed up by clarifying its request, asking for the complete set of consultants' records from the golf-course tests. The city provided some additional information, including a map of the well locations, but has declined to release all of the requested records.

In addition to the other heavy-metal contaminants, the findings showed mercury levels well above the state's groundwater standard.

Environmental experts who reviewed the available information from the city said it presents an incomplete picture, lacking such specifics as the depth of the sampling from each well, whether the samples were filtered and how much fly ash, if any, was on the well sites.

"Until they produce the construction diagrams for those wells, nobody knows how to interpret the data," said Charles Norris, a Denver-based hydrogeologist, who in June was part of a panel of experts that appeared before a congressional subcommittee looking at fly-ash disposal regulations.

"The numbers are there; we know they're bad," he added. "But we don't know where those numbers are coming from."

The Pilot asked the city for access to all of the records generated by the firm that conducted the tests on the golf course - Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. - including all maps, diagrams and drawings.

The city released about 10 items, including summary charts and maps of the site, but the full report has been withheld.

"The city has provided all documents requested regarding the on-site environmental tests except those which are protected by the attorney-client privilege and the attorney work product doctrine under the Freedom of Information Act," Jan L. Proctor, deputy city attorney, said in a July 30 e-mail.

"The specific 'data set' you have requested has not been made public and is being withheld based on a determination by the city attorney's office."

"Perhaps when the report is complete, the information will be released," Lizz Gunnufsen, a city spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail.

Under state regulations that allow for the beneficial use of fly ash, the material was trucked from Dominion Virginia Power's Chesapeake Energy Center in the Deep Creek section of the city and used to sculpt an 18-hole golf course on what had been farmland.

Last month, at a meeting with residents who live near Battlefield Golf Club, city officials released data showing, in most cases, the averages of contaminant levels from the three wells.

The newer data - posted in late July at www.CityofChesapeake.net/BattlefieldGolfClub - shows the actual readouts from each of the groundwater-monitoring wells.

"They do pose a very significant health threat," said Dr. Jeffery Foran, an adjunct professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois-Chicago, who has worked on fly-ash contamination cases nationwide.

"Arsenic would be first on my list," Foran said. "We clearly know that arsenic causes skin cancer and a variety of other ailments."

The data showed arsenic ranged as high as 103 parts per billion - more than 10 times the municipal drinking water standard.

Chromium in one sampling was 302 parts per billion, or three times the standard.

Manganese ranged up to 1,540 parts per billion, or 30 times the standard.

While mercury levels were below the drinking-water standard of 2 parts per billion, samplings from all three wells were at levels four times the Virginia groundwater standard of 0.05 parts per billion.

Fly ash is a powdery residue left from burning coal to generate electricity. It contains heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury that can pose environmental risks through air and water. The developers of the Chesapeake course said the fly ash used on the site was mixed with a binding agent to block any leaching.

Norris, who works with Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, said that concerns him.

"That raises all kinds of questions," he said. '"That stuff hasn't been in place very long."

In Pines, Ind., which became a Superfund site after fly ash dumped by a local power company was linked to well contamination, levels of arsenic and manganese dwarfed those detected so far in Chesapeake.

However, the dumping of about 1 million tons of fly ash in Pines had gone on for nearly 20 years; the placement of 1.5 million tons of fly ash on Battlefield Golf Club began in 2002 and ended only last year.

A map of Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville, released by the city, shows the three monitoring wells clustered in the southeast quadrant of the golf course.

Another map depicts the groundwater flow moving southeast, in the direction of homes on the eastern end of Murray Drive.

Norris, however, said the information released had established groundwater flow only in the southeast corner of the golf course, where the three wells were placed, not in other sections of the course.

It's still unclear how far the contaminants may have moved and whether the wells on any adjacent properties have been affected.

More than 80 water tests conducted during the spring at homes in the vicinity of the golf course showed no contamination, though some elevated boron levels were found. Boron can be a "marker" indicating leaching from fly ash.

Last month, after the city shared some of the test results from the golf course and asked for help from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, another round of water testing was conducted at nearly 30 homes in the direction of the ground water flow indicated by the recent tests.

The results are expected back within the week, city officials say.

Further testing on the golf course, in conjunction with EPA and the Department of Environmental Quality, is in the planning stages, city officials say.

Last month, the city formally petitioned the EPA for a preliminary site assessment, which is the first step in the Superfund process.

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