DISTRICT BRIEFING

Friday, May 30, 2008

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.

-- Elissa Silverman

Unions Opposing Anti-Noise Legislation

Labor unions have banded together in a bid to stop final approval of an anti-noise law in the District, sponsoring a three-day radio campaign that begins today, said Dwight Kirk, a spokesman for the groups.

The D.C. Council voted 8 to 5 this month to give preliminary approval to legislation that would restrict noncommercial public speech during the day to no more than 80 decibels or 10 decibels above the ambient noise level when measured from 50 feet.

The five dissenters asked whether the legislation would infringe on the right to protest, and they wondered how noise complaints from the H Street NE neighborhood had escalated into legislation for the entire city. The council is scheduled to take a final vote Tuesday.

-- Nikita Stewart

SOUTHEAST CRIME

Man Found Fatally Wounded in Apartment

A man was found fatally shot in a Southeast Washington apartment last night, D.C. police said.

Officers went to the Anacostia Gardens Apartments, in the 3600 block of Ely Place SE, about 10 p.m. to investigate a report of gunshots, said Capt. David Taylor of the 6th Police District.

The man, who had multiple gunshot wounds, was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead a short time later. Police did not identify the man but said he lived in the second-floor apartment where he was found. Officers were interviewing neighbors and witnesses and trying to determine whether the shooting might have occurred during a robbery.

-- Clarence Williams