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Navy to Release Toxic Dump Report, Waller Mill Test Results

By Desiree Parker Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Five months after testing was completed to determine if PCBs leached into Waller Mill Reservoir and a year after their cleanup concluded, the Navy is ready to have another public hearing to share results with Triangle residents.

At a previous public meeting in April 2009, representatives from Camp Peary and from Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) came to answer residents’ questions about a waste site that may have released PCBs into the reservoir. The site, called 49F, was an abandoned swimming pool that over several years had been filled with construction debris. The trash included transformers treated with a specific type of PCB called Aroclor 1260, which was produced domestically by Monsanto and widely used before 1950. NAVFAC organized a cleanup of the site beginning October 2008.

Tests of fish from the reservoir were completed on August 31, according to NAVFAC spokesman Jim Brantley. The data was sent to a third-party chemist and a draft of the report was released to interested parties (including the city of Williamsburg) on January 31. NAVFAC officials told the city the final report wasn’t complete as of last week.

The city does not have a health advisory against eating the fish from Waller Mill Reservoir because there is not yet a report indicating any tests having been done on the reservoir's fish. The health department will use the NAVFAC results to determine if eating the fish is safe.

The public meeting to inform residents of the test results will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 17 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Community Building on North Boundary Street. The meeting will be set up much like the April meeting, with experts standing at various poster stations to answer questions people might have and to explain the poster information to them.

The City of Williamsburg has posted information about the new meeting on their Web site, according to city spokeswoman Kate Hoving.

Comments  

 
0 #4 Guest 2010-02-09 14:39
This fifty year time lag between the event and disclosure of the event pales compared to the 80 or 90 year lag in the event involving General Electric and its addressing remedial action from polluting the Hudson River with pcbs.
The lesson to be learned is we must be more vigilant about industrial chemical disposal.
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+1 #3 Guest 2010-02-09 11:52
There is great truth to the fact that most of the #1 toxic waste dumps cited to be cleaned up by the EPA are on Military bases. Many of what is speculated about this situation makes for great conspiracy theories. I personally feel that the government has a credibility problem as to the so-called truth, third parties included.
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0 #2 Guest 2010-02-09 08:20
We TRUSTED the "government", at Waller Mill Reservoir, to protect us as we fished and often dined on the fish we caught. Now, we're beginning to realize that a special check was done on the Waller Mill fish, and we still don't know if what we have been dining on WAS toxic. It's 2010 for gosh sakes!! Who do we trust anymore? And how many years down the road will we find out that we have a disease that's been languishing for years? Well......?
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+1 #1 Guest 2010-02-09 07:47
I find it rather annoying that the most consistent habitual offenders of environmental regulations are branches of the Federal Government, particularly the military. There is hardly a military base in this country that does not have significant amount of toxic waste impact. The coal ash lagoon breach at the TVA site in Tenn. is yet another example of the govt. giving themselves a pass to the detriment of society.
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