EPA Reports Superfund Cleanup Site in Broad Run Farms Still in 'Investigation Stage'

Officials from the Loudoun County Health Department, the Office of Solid Waste Management, County Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Supervisor Andrea McGimsey met with residents of Broad Run Farms at the subdivision’s Civic Association meeting Wednesday night to talk about the progress of cleaning up the Hidden Lane Landfill and the residents’ water contamination.

The landfill, which was closed in the mid-1980s, was listed as one of the EPA’s Superfund sites in March 2008, signifying that the EPA would take control of cleaning up the old refuse site. Residents aired their concerns about the health effects of trichloroethylene (TCE)—a chemical that the EPA has designated as a “probable human carcinogen”—in their water, resulting from seepage from the landfill.

Larry Johnson, the EPA’s community involvement coordinator for this Superfund site, told residents that the EPA is currently in the remedial investigation stage of the process and although the agency is testing frequently, the cleanup process will take a significant amount of time. The length of a remedial investigation can run anywhere from 18 to 36 months. During this remedial investigation, the EPA will attempt to identify exactly where the TCE is, where it is going and any issues that may arise with the clean-up, Johnson said.

“Good science takes time,” Johnson said. “If we want to do this project right, we have to do the project right.”

Alan Brewer, director of the Environmental Health Division of the Loudoun County Health Department, spoke to residents about the testing the agency is doing in the private and monitoring wells around the subdivision. There have been one or two more instances of TCE detection recently, but the levels were below the EPA’s maximum contaminant level (MCL), which is 5 parts per billion. The wells with recent detection are adjacent to wells that had already been found with TCE, Brewer said. The Health Department is continuing to test the wells quarterly.

Both Johnson and the leaders of the Civic Association urged interested residents to join the Community Advisory Group to give their input to the EPA throughout the cleanup process. “We want to make sure we’re being responsible guests,” Johnson said.

Some residents voiced frustration with county officials for their delay in getting involved with the subdivision’s TCE problem. Johnson, McGimsey and leaders of the Civic Association gave the county credit for their actions and their continual interest in remedying the problem.

“The county had people at our meeting in the first week we discovered there was a problem,” said Civic Association president Eric DeJonghe. “Our county government and our state government have not let us down.”

Follow the issue of the Hidden Lane Landfill and TCE contamination in the Loudoun Independent series, “The Hidden Truth on Hidden Lane.”