When the residents of Broad Run Farms alerted the county health department about the detection of tricholoroethylene (TCE), a chemical the EPA has deemed a probable human carcinogen in their well water, the county took the issue higher. Once the department noticed a pattern of contamination along Redrose Drive and Youngs Cliff Road in the subdivision, officials notified the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The county provided residents whose water was contaminated with bottled water in March 2005, until a more permanent solution could be determined.
In June 2005, with nudging from the county, the DEQ agreed to install and maintain whole-house carbon filtration units for the homes that detected TCE in the water, even if the levels found were below the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) drinking water standard.
Any delay in approving the filtration units for installation stemmed from trying to figure out how to pay for them, according to Richard Doucette, waste program manager with DEQ’s northern regional office. Ultimately, the DEQ was able to use money from the Virginia Environmental Emergency Response Fund to finance the filtration units.
“It was more [figuring out] what the long-term solution was going to be,” Doucette said. “We all agreed this was short-term.”
Meanwhile, officials notified the EPA about the water contamination, but received no immediate response. The agency came to the Hidden Lane Landfill in November 2006 and conducted a preliminary site visit, assessing the extent of the environmental problems. This site inspection was completed on May 26, 2007, with the recommendation that the site be considered for the hazardous ranking system scoring.
The EPA decided to propose the landfill for its National Priorities List (NPL), which if added would allow the agency to clean up the site. The landfill was officially added to the NPL in March 2008. Entities from all levels of the government worked together to getting the site listed for the Superfund program – almost two decades after the TCE was originally detected in Broad Run Farms.
Previous Problems with Response
While government entities seemed to cooperate with each other when issues arose regarding the Hidden Lane Landfill in the latest bout of contamination, other entities historically were not as pleased with governmental reactions.
James DeFrancia of the 437 Land Company, the developer for CountrySide, took particular offense at how the county handled the methane gas migration in the subdivision.
“I would like to bluntly ask whether you and the county are seriously interested in having the trench installed, or whether you are more interested in covering up the apparently inadequate performance of county officials in effecting the closure of the Hidden Lane Landfill?” DeFrancia wrote in a letter to David Williamson, assistant county attorney, on April 17, 1987. “Since the County Attorney’s office was the principal agency involved in that activity, it is becoming increasingly apparent that your motivations might be directed towards a more self-serving end than protection of the citizenry.”
Decades later, once the landfill was listed as a Superfund site, the EPA issued a community involvement plan for the Hidden Lane Landfill on April 20, 2009 as part of the investigation process. The guide gave a wealth of background about the site and about the history of contamination. There is a section devoted in the guide about how the residents have reacted to each of the problems thus far.
“Several residents expressed distrust with the Virginia Department of Health and with the Loudoun County government. These residents stated that the government agencies were aware of what was being dumped in the landfill, but did not let the community know about it,” the guide said.
However, the guide also noted that the county was never in favor of the landfill. It said:
“EPA found that the county has a readily identifiable and documented historical record of its many attempts to have the state close this private landfill operation through successive court actions and administrative actions. Loudoun County has never had any regulatory authority over private landfills. The county also provided much documentation of what may have been dumped at the Hidden Lane Landfill illegally as a part of this overall documentation of the enterprise.”
Governmental Opinions
Working with the community:
Jon Terry, regional waste management compliance manager at DEQ, sent an e-mail to John Ely of DEQ’s waste management program on February 12, 1998, following another methane detection in CountrySide. Terry mentioned that a resident requested DEQ’s attendance at a homeowners’ meeting. “As we discussed, I think DEQ (meaning me, and you if you want) should go to the meeting.. IF .. the county goes. Without the county, I think we are setting ourselves up for trouble,” the e-mail said. “This situation has the potential to get ugly, and we certainly don’t want to be in a position of trying to answer county questions, or getting misquoted/misrepresented to the county after the meeting if they don’t show.”
“I think this go around, they [DEQ] were very helpful. I’m sure it took longer than community wanted [to get filters installed], but it’s been a good experience and we were able to get EPA in there, get them started on the work,” said John Sandy, deputy county administrator.
Some residents have noted their distrust of officials at the state level, but felt more comfortable with county officials.
“From my perspective, it has been a positive reaction [from the community], both from the health department’s involvement since 2005, and the county’s involvement,” said Dr. David Goodfriend, director of the Loudoun County Health Department.
“We’ve gotten excellent reactions. We’ve worked very, very closely with the Broad Run community,” said Andrea McGimsey, County Supervisor for the Potomac District. “There’s a stakeholder group that I’ve met with a number of times, and I know my predecessor and Dr. Goodfriend have been meeting for a couple years on these issues. They seem to be very happy with the progress.”
“Anybody who wants…to be totally on top of this should become a part of the Community Action Group. That is the federal government’s way of making sure that citizens are as involved as possible, and are making sure they are serving us well,” McGimsey continued.
Working with other government agencies:
“The state went further than they needed to and were providing filtration systems and bottled water to people who provided those people with a whole-house filtration system, even if that level remains the same for the duration of that person’s life.”
McGimsey was pleased working with the EPA’s point people for the Hidden Lane Landfill, Community Involvement Coordinator Larry Johnson, and Remedial Projects Manager Fred MacMillan.
“My experience with both of them is that they have been very helpful. It’s a completely transparent process,” she said. “We’re very, very happy that they’re involved now. We’ve got to get this cleaned up.”
“Everyone was very professional and wanted to do the right thing,” Doucette said. The major setbacks were just deciding who had the most authority and the best resources to solve the problems, whether that be expertise from a health perspective, about landfills, or the Superfund process – “who had the best resources to remediate the system,” he said.
“Initially, the state did its own testing, but that testing really is not nearly as robust as what the EPA is doing now,” Sandy said. “The better avenue from the community’s perspective was to get EPA involved.”
Residents’ Reactions
Residents had differing opinions about how the county and state handled the water contamination problem.
Once a number of homes reported TCE detection to the county health department and Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), some residents were disappointed in the lack of response from government officials.
“That information [about TCE detection] was provided to the county health department and the DEQ of Virginia to do something about it because they were well above the EPA limits, and we were told ‘Nope, can’t help you. It’s a private well; it’s a private matter. You’ve got to deal with it yourself,’” said Broad Run Farms resident Mike Clark.
He said that until eight or nine more wells had TCE detections, the county continued to do nothing. At that point, someone from the neighborhood contacted Rep. Frank Wolf to take action, which, in turn, pushed the county to act, Clark said. It had taken the county “the better part of nine months” to act before residents contacted Wolf.
“The problem with the county has been very reactive,” Clark continued. “Only when they were put into a corner by the federal government to actually do something did they actually get around to helping us.”
Not all residents feel the same about how the county handled the contamination.
“I think the county did a phenomenal job personally,” said Eric DeJonghe, president of the Broad Run Farms Civic Association. “They took control, and Bruce Tulloch [former County Supervisor for the district] jumped right on the bandwagon. When we went to the public safety meeting, they were 100 percent behind getting the residents bottled water immediately until filtration units could be put in.”
“The county, even though they don’t make decisions now [because the EPA has taken over], is certainly still involved,” DeJonghe continued. “They still come to stakeholders meetings. I keep them informed, they keep me informed. The county certainly is good.”
Some residents also had problems with the filtration units that the DEQ installed. Many complained of a sulfur-like odor coming from the filters, caused by bacteria.
“As a person who’s now on his third filtration system, they’re not fun,” Clark said. “The first ones failed, not from a TCE standpoint, but from a bacteria that grows in them that smells like rotten eggs when it comes through the water system. So we’d have guests over to the house and we’d turn the water on and not know what it’s going to smell like.”,
DeJonghe also noticed the smell in several of his neighbors’ filtration units, but he worked with the DEQ to address the problem with the filters. McGimsey noted that the smell was a common complaint she received, as well, but said that the problem has been remedied.
Another issue residents have with the filters is that their water usage has increased since the systems were installed. Clark has noticed that his usage has gone up a third since his family’s filtration unit was installed.
Clark appreciates that now that the EPA has taken control of the cleanup project, his well is now tested every quarter, instead of every six months. “We get a nice report in the mail about four weeks after the water sample is taken to show us what’s the contamination before [filtration] and what’s the contamination afterwards,” he said. He noted that the contamination before filtering, called the raw water, has been steadily climbing over time, indicating that the contamination of the raw water source is getting worse. However, the contamination of the water coming to his tap has always read zero, he said.
DeJonghe, who holds meetings of the Civic Association once a month, said that he has not gotten much negative feedback about the cleanup process from his neighbors. “I talk about the landfill at every meeting, and nobody is really mad, but wondering what’s going on, wondering when are they going to put city water in,” he said.
Residents seem to be split over what their ideal solution would be, either having municipal water installed like the neighboring subdivision, CountrySide, or keeping their own private well systems. Some residents are torn because of the cost, Sandy said. Residents have expressed frustration at the possibility of paying for the installation of municipal water when they were not the cause of the contamination, and had been fighting against the landfill throughout its history.
Clark said that if the water contamination issue can really be addressed and dealt with, he would love to keep having a private well for his water source.
“The Good news is that the EPA Superfund process is looking at the contamination, and one of solutions could be providing public water lines,” Sandy said.
Coming Up:
As the “Hidden Truth on Hidden Lane” series draws to a close, the Loudoun Independent will next examine the history of Superfund projects, the steps of the Superfund process, and will describe what Broad Run Farms residents can expect in the coming months and years regarding the cleanup.
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