The Virginian-Pilot
©
CHESAPEAKE
The underground water beneath the Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville is contaminated from fly ash, according to a study released Wednesday. But it hasn't migrated to nearby residences.
The study by CDM Engineering showed 10 possible substances in the groundwater as a result of fly ash, a byproduct of burning coal for energy that can contain heavy metals hazardous to one's health.
Between 2002 and 2007, the golf course was sculpted from 1.5 million tons of fly ash from Dominion Virginia Power's generation plant.
The ash is also the subject of a lawsuit involving more than 400 people filed in Chesapeake against Dominion and other companies affiliated with the course.
For the first time in nearly three years, residents with homes surrounding the golf course got a chance to publicly voice their concerns to city officials.
Their overwhelming request: Remove the fly ash.
Robyn Pierce, a resident of Murray Drive, said she's concerned that the contaminants would leach and eventually reach the Pocaty River.
"If we don't want further contamination to happen, would we not need to remove fly ash?" she asked City Manager William Harrell.
"We're all in agreement," Pierce said. "Fly ash is bad. Fly ash needs to go away."
Her comments were met with applause and echoed by others.
"If you're telling me there's contamination under the golf course, we better shut it down," said Dean Parker, also a resident of Murray Drive.
Others asked the CDM consultant, Bob Sciacchitano, how far those contaminants might have spread in two years since the study analyzed samples from 2009.
"The groundwater moves very slowly, so I wouldn't think it had reached the ditch yet," Sciacchitano said. In an ideal scenario, the south drainage ditch would contain the contaminants.
Shortly after the meeting, Dominion issued a statement saying two separate studies found there has been no harm to residential drinking water.
"Beyond that, the installation of city water for nearby residents, funded by Dominion, means residents need not have concerns now or in the future about the quality of their drinking water," the statement said.
Mayor Alan Krasnoff announced during his State of the City address last week that residents in that area are now connected to public water.
As of this month, 22 households have been connected. The city provided the upfront cost of about $5.2 million, which will be reimbursed by Dominion, Harrell said.
"We firmly believe the best action is to allow the course to remain in place and operate," the statement from Dominion said.
The 600-plus-page consultant's report will be posted on the city's website and be available at Chesapeake Central Library.
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Pick It
Does this course have a no divot policy?
Q. What does Dominion call this?
A. "Clean coal."
Golf Course Water
Another case of the city fathers saying, "trust me, trust me, trust me...........sighhhh
Thelma Drake
How did Thelma Drake's son end up as an owner of this Agent Orange golf course? Did mommy help?
thanks for being part of the solution
I hope that this city and the other local cities (and maybe even the state) that gets a proposal to build a chemical plant, a dump site, or a golf course with "exotic" land fill will take ground water samples PRIOR to any construction happens so a baseline can be available.
How can anyone say that the "contamination" of the ground water was not there all along and the fly ash hasn't contributed? Unless there are continual samples for the next twenty years, it would be hard to prove scientifically that contamination comes from fly ash.
Logic
1) "Groundwater tests of the golf course site in 2001, before any fly ash was placed there, did not detect arsenic, lead, vanadium and other fly-ash related contaminants."
(http://hamptonroads.com/2009/05/dominion-kept-7year-secret-fly-ashs-environmental-risks)
2) The golf course was built in 2007 with 1.5 million tons of fly ash.
3) Fly ash contains high concentrations of arsenic, lead, manganese, chromium and other toxins.
4) The ground water under the golf course is now contaminated with arsenic, lead, manganese, chromium and other toxins.
Your conclusion: There is no proof that the contamination was from the fly ash.
consistency should be a virtue
Must have missed where I drew a conclusion that there was no proof of contamination.
Did you make that conclusion on your own since my post was to encourage those granting the permits to require ground water sampling prior to any construction? Are you saying that there should be no such requirement?
At least you are consistent with your posts. Too bad again the post addressed did not reflect the reply. And by the way, the golf course was started in 2002 and completed in 2007.
Have you wondered why fly ash (burnt coal) contains all those chemicals and yet we hear very little of the ground water pollution from the coal in the ground?
Your argument, as I
Your argument, as I understand it, was that ground water samples should have been taken prior to the construction of the golf course so that a baseline could have been established. Otherwise, there is no proof that the contamination came from the fly ash.
Actually, ground water samples were taken prior to construction. There was no contamination until after the highly toxic fly ash was put onto the site.
600-plus-page consultant's report
I wonder how much THAT cost. Does it say anything that you didn’t?
going for that St. Andrews look
There was an aerial photo of this course on page three of yesterday's local.
Looks like it was set on fire and put out with Agent Orange.