DISTRICT BRIEFING

ENVIRONMENT

Spring Valley Weapons Search to Continue

The cleanup of World War I chemical weapons buried under the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest Washington could last three more years, as crews search for more shells and remove tainted soil, officials said yesterday.

The Spring Valley cleanup began in 1993, after a construction crew uncovered buried shells from a former testing ground for chemical weapons near American University.

More weapons and chemically tainted materials have been found since 2001, both on university grounds and around neighboring homes. Yesterday, at a briefing about the cleanup at the downtown offices of Friends of the Earth, an Army Corps of Engineers official said that arsenic contamination remains to be cleaned up at 50 properties in the area.

He said authorities are also trying to determine whether more munitions are buried near a house on Glenbrook Road NW or in woods near the Dalecarlia Reservoir. Officials are testing groundwater in the area for traces of chemical weapons and perchlorate, which was used in smoke-screen shells.

-- David A. Fahrenthold

CITY GOVERNMENT

Fenty Backs Ban on Consumer Fireworks

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) announced his support yesterday for legislation to effectively ban the sale and use of all consumer fireworks in the District. He said an emergency bill would be introduced at Tuesday's D.C. Council meeting.

Fenty was joined at the Engine 11 firehouse in Columbia Heights by council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) and D.C. Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin, who said that last year in the District, there were six "significant injuries" related to fireworks.

Rubin said the fire department has yet to issue licenses for fireworks sales this year, in hopes that the legislation will pass. Emergency legislation needs the votes of nine members of the 13-member council. It is effective immediately upon approval.