Navy to hold open house on PCB results

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The Navy plans on holding a community open house in Williamsburg on February 17 to present the results of an investiation into the migration of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from Camp Peary toward the Waller Mill Reservior.  The reservoir is Williamsburg's main source of drinking water.

The open house, presented by Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC), Mid-Atlantic and Armed Forces Experimental Training Activity (AFETA) Camp Peary, in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), will be held from 6:00pm-8:00pm at the Williamsburg Community Building, 401 N. Boundary Street.

This open house is a follow-up to an open house held in April 2009, where the Navy presented information about PCBs that had been discovered in a drainage swale leading under I-64 from Site 49F toward Waller Mill Reservoir.

Site 49F is a now abandoned World War II-era swimming pool originally used to train Navy Seabees. It was used in the 1970s as a general dumping site for construction debris. It is located just inside the western fence line of Camp Peary, next to the I-64 corridor.

Since last April, the Navy has completed environmental investigation activities in Waller Mill Park and Reservoir, which involved collecting samples of soil, sediment, surface water, fish tissue, and invertebrate tissue from various locations; analyzing those samples for PCBs; and conducting ecological and human health risk assessments.

The open house will focus on that investigation, and the associated results and conclusions as they relate to the release of PCBs from Site 49F.

According to the Navy, the draft report states that results of the human health and ecological risk assessment indicate that the PCB concentrations in Waller Mill Reservoir that are attributable to releases from Site 49F do not pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment. Based on these results and established risk guidance issued by the EPA, no further investigation or remedial action is recommended for the site.