Chesapeake criticizes Dominion for assurances of fly ash's safety

CHESAPEAKE

Top city officials criticized Dominion Virginia Power for assuring them that creating a golf course from fly ash was environmentally safe and said they want the energy company - and possibly others involved in the project - to help pay for providing public water to residents living near the site.

In a July 31 letter to Dominion Virginia Power that the city released Thursday, City Manager William Harrell wrote he was disappointed in what he called the utility's "initial lack of responsiveness to this critical matter."

"Your staff assured us in April that the project was properly engineered, constructed, permitted and that appropriate due diligence was followed," Harrell wrote. "However, the test results received to date clearly do not support this assertion."

Harrell said earlier this week that preliminary estimates show it may cost between $4 million and $6 million to extend city water lines to Murray Drive and Whittamore Road, which lie near the property.

Last month, city officials announced that groundwater monitoring on the golf course found high levels of arsenic, lead, chromium and other contaminants.

It asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to intervene, and the agency will begin its work at the site on Aug. 25.

Along with Dominion, the city's list also includes VFL Technology Corp.; CPM Virginia LLC, the original developers of the course; and MJM Golf LLC, the current owners.

"But there may be others, too," Harrell said.

The firms all played some role in the creation of Battlefield Golf Club at Centerville, a 217-acre tract of former farmland, on which 1.5 million tons of fly ash were used to contour an 18-hole golf course that includes a series of unlined, man-made lakes.

Fly ash is a powdery residue left from the burning of coal to generate electricity. It contains heavy metals such as arsenic, lead and mercury that pose environmental threats to air and water.

Roughly 200 potable wells are near the course.

Testing on the site and of tap water at homes in the immediate vicinity began shortly after a March 30 report in The Virginian-Pilot about the golf course, which opened last fall.

More than 80 tests at homes conducted in the spring showed no significant contamination, though there were some elevated boron readings. Boron can be a "marker" indicating leaching from fly ash into groundwater.

Also on Thursday, the city released t he results of a round of follow-up tests at 24 homes. It did not show any significant contamination, though slightly elevated levels of boron were detected at every home tested, city officials said.

Harrell asked that Dominion appoint a "senior level official with decision-making capability" to oversee the matter.

In an Aug. 11 response, J. David Rives, a Dominion executive, said he would lead a team of Dominion employees responding to the situation.

"We appreciate how distressing this matter is for the residents," Rives wrote. "Ensuring that the residents' drinking water is safe is vital, and I trust our efforts together will result in a clear understanding of any actual or potential threat to groundwater and how best to address it."

Rives said Dominion representatives will attend a community meeting on Wednesday evening at a church near the golf course, along with officials from the EPA and the city.

VFL reportedly trucked the fly ash from Dominion's Deep Creek plant to the golf course, where CPM Virginia oversaw the course's construction, city officials said.

MJM Golf bought the property in January 2007, completed the project and now operates the course.

The City Council unanimously approved a conditional-use permit for the project in June 2001.

On Tuesday, Mayor Alan Krasnoff, who was on the council at the time the project was approved, asked Harrell to begin the process of extending city water to the affected neighborhoods and to "negotiate" with any parties that may be responsible.

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