AU-owned house in risk of demolition
The Army Corps of Engineers said an AU-owned house in the Spring Valley area may have to be demolished after it was found that the house was sitting on materials used in World War I, namely weapons and ammunition, according to The Northwest Current.
The soil contained 124 parts per billion of perchlorate, a level well above the Environmental Protection Agency's 24 parts per billion level that requires officials to take action, The Current reported.
The Spring Valley excavation site was known as the AU Experiment Station during World War I, as The Eagle previously reported. Chemical weapons, such as mustard gas, were researched and tested at the site. At the time, the Spring Valley area included several family-owned farms and AU's campus.
According to The Current, the builder, Lawrence N. Brandt Inc., poured the concrete foundation of the house over a munitions pit, which means demolition of the $3.5 million house is the most likely plan for disposing of the munitions.
This would be the first house in the Spring Valley area demolished because of debris left from the Army's chemical weapon experiments, according to The Current.
MPD, Housing Authority lock out unauthorized tenants
Police helped the D.C. Housing Authority change the locks on 42 apartments in one of its complexes Thursday in an attempt to rid the building of unauthorized tenants and reduce crime, according to The Washington Post.
Officials asked residents in all 174 apartments of the Park Morton complex in Parkview to produce identification. If they could not or were not named on the lease, they were asked to leave. Residents were angry with this decision, as it required some of the tenants' friends, spouses and children to leave, The Post reported.
Park Morton, located near Howard University, is one of D.C.'s most crime-ridden housing complexes because of its high levels of drug- and property-related crime, according to The Post.
-K.S.
