Spring Valley is an affluent neighborhood in northwest Washington, D.C., known for its large homes and tree-lined streets and more recently for being a military superfund site of former Camp Leach. It houses most of the main campus of American University, which gives its name to the neighborhood to Spring Valley's northeast, American University Park.
Description
The neighborhood houses the main campus of American University at 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, the Wesley Theological Seminary at 4500 Massachusetts Avenue, and Washington College of Law at 4801 Massachusetts Avenue and 4910 Massachusetts Avenue. Nebraska Avenue and Loughboro Road are to its south, Dalecarlia Parkway is to its west, and Massachusetts Avenue is to its northeast. Paradoxically, the neighborhood to the northeast is called American University Park, even though the bulk of the main campus is located in Spring Valley.
Spring Valley's residents include notable media personalities (e.g., Ann Compton, Jim Vance), lawyers (e.g., United States Attorney General Eric Holder, Brendan Sullivan), politicians, corporate officers, and elite Washington society (e.g., Washington Nationals principal owners Ed Cohen and Debra Cohen). After the second world war, General of the Army Omar Bradley moved to a house on Indian lane in Spring Valley. Richard Nixon lived in neighboring Wesley Heights before becoming President; his immediate predecessor, Lyndon B. Johnson, after becoming Vice President under John F. Kennedy, purchased a three-story mansion named Les Ormes (The Elms) in Spring Valley along 52nd Street NW that had previously been the home of socialite and ambassador Perle Mesta. George H. W. Bush also lived in the neighborhood prior to his White House years. Presently it is the residence of the ambassador of Algeria. Warren Buffett and sister Doris Buffett lived on 49th Street during their years attending Wilson High School.
Several embassy residences are located in the neighborhood, such as the ambassador's houses of South Korea, Canada, Croatia, Mexico, Bahrain, Qatar, Uganda, Chile, Luxembourg, Algeria and Yemen. Spring Valley's median home sale price in 2007 was US$2.725 million and in 2008 $3.022 million.
Military Superfund Site
During World War I Spring Valley was an undeveloped area on the main campus of American University that the Army was allowed to use for testing chemical weapons, such as mustard gas, therefore also known as the "American University Experimental Station" or Camp American University and Camp Leach. In 1993, during excavations of a utility trench, construction workers found unexploded ordnance, and scientists found high levels of arsenic in the soil. This touched off a cleanup effort by the Environmental Protection Agency and Army who call it the "Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site". Cleanup lasted merely two years at first. A decade later, in 2003 many more dangerous sites in the area were uncovered, including perchlorate in groundwater and three burial pits on grounds of the South Korean ambassador's residence. In 2005 ATSDR issued a "Health Consultation", and 2 years later Johns Hopkins University was contracted for a health study, and reported in 2007. A review of all site data and previous health studies was supposed to be completed by 2013. As of 2014, the work is still ongoing with tons of earth being replaced and at least one house being scheduled for demolition. A Restoration Advisory Board is in place. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the lead agency in clean up.
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