Correction appended
The Army Corps found an arsenic level slightly above the recommended amount on a section of AU’s campus, according to Dan Noble, Army Corps of Engineers Spring Valley project manager.
An Army official knowledgeable in the matter said the higher-than-recommended arsenic level was found slightly northeast of the Mary Graydon Center. However, AU Chief of Staff David Taylor said the level was found close to Bender Arena in the Butler Garden.
“We will be contacting AU,” Noble said at a Feb. 14 Restoration Advisory Board meeting.
That 20.6 ppm level in Lot 44 is only slightly above the normal level of 20, so it is likely that AU administration officials will ask the Corps not to disturb the land and other big trees in the area, as they have before, Noble said.
“A reading of 20.6 is not ‘off the charts’ high,” Taylor said.
If necessary, AU will ask that the soil be returned to a normal level, Taylor said in an email.
The Army Corps will also install the last deep well for groundwater study on AU’s campus during spring break, Noble said at the RAB meeting. The well, used to monitor arsenic and perchlorate levels, will be near Kreeger Hall.
The Kreeger investigations should be completed by March, Taylor said.
Glenbrook property to be demolished
The Department of the Army is reviewing the Army Corps’ plan for the demolition of the AU-owned property at 4825 Glenbrook Rd., according to Brenda Barber, an Army Corps of Engineers Spring Valley project manager.
The Corps is hoping to have all the signatures they need from Army officials, including Lt. Gen. Michael Ferriter, assistant secretary of the Army for installation management, and Herschel E. Wolfe, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for environment, safety and occupational health.
The Environmental Protection Agency, D.C. Department of the Environment and AU have all approved the plan according to Barber.
After tearing down the house and removing the debris, the Army Corps will dig about 12 to 14 feet, until they reach bedrock, the rock layer underneath the soil, Gaines said.
At the RAB meeting, Noble said the Corps is likely to find items similar to those found on the 4825 property in the past, which included glass jars and large barrels.
A report conducted by Lockheed Martin, a national aerospace and engineering contractor, and commissioned by the EPA designated “the back portion of the lot at 4825 Glenbrook” as the likeliest of three locations for the burial pit. The designation is based on a 1918 aerial photograph of the area taken by the Army.
“I don’t want to say that this is absolutely what we believe, that this is a definitive report,” Noble said at the RAB meeting. “The report offers up three potential locations for this pit and says that this is the best one.”
However, some believe the Army Corps is not digging in the right place.
Allen Hengst, a librarian at AU’s Pence Law Library, said the Sgt. Maurer Pit is not underneath the 4825 property, but behind it on the edge of the Kreeger roadway.
Hengst has followed the Spring Valley project throughout its 19-year history and attended the Feb. 14 RAB meeting.
“The Army claims there were no maps of where these pits were buried,” Hengst said. “We believe there may be records of these burial spots.”
Hengst’s claim is based on another map provided in the report, on which a sketch of six overlapping circles designate the possible location of the pit. The circles on this map put the pit at a location behind the 4825 property, on AU’s campus, Hengst said.
In response, the Army Corps’ position is that they are digging in the backyard of the property, in addition to digging underneath the building.
The Sgt. Maurier Pit is named for the Army sergeant who oversaw some of the burials of munitions.
A previous version of this story said the Glenbrook Rd. Decision Document requires the signature of Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy. The Army officials who will sign the document are Lt. Gen. Michael Ferriter, assistant secretary of the Army for installation management, and Herschel E. Wolfe, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for environment, safety and occupational health.
