Letter to the Editor, Free Lance Star:
On behalf of the Fairview Beach Residents Association, I would like to thank you for your continued efforts to bring attention to the issues affecting our community. However, our Association believes that one article (“A ‘smoking gun’ in Fairview Beach?,” 10/5/17) needs clarification and some updated information to present a more accurate picture of where things currently stand. I apologize for the length of this letter but the situation is complicated.
First, the water contamination in the Potomac River is a public health hazard. The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) obviously agrees that there is a problem because they post the advisories not to go swimming because swimming in contaminated water is hazardous to your health. In addition, the dogs from Environmental Canine Services have on a number of occasions indicated that the bacteria that is getting into the river contains human waste. Clearly, there’s a problem. And it needs to be fixed.
Second, the meeting that was held on July 31 of this year was attended by 12 government officials from various agencies, both state and local. Since that meeting was held over 2 months ago, FBRA has been working closely with these agencies in an attempt to locate the source of the contamination. Much has happened since that meeting.
Third, since the July meeting, Mike Shrewsbury, the local caretaker for the trailer park (the owner is based in Northern Virginia) has been cooperative and helpful to this effort. He spent 2 hours walking the property with us. He had one septic tank pumped out and has said that he will assist us in trying to find the other septic tank on the property. He has granted access to trailer park property to me and our Vice President and to VDH and the King George Service Authority to do further investigation. VDH has begun dye testing to see if septic or sewer systems are leaking into the river.
Fourth, after 13 weeks of clean water this summer, we had swimming advisories caused by elevated bacteria readings 3 times in August. The measure that triggers an advisory is above 104 MPN/100ml. For the August advisories, we had numerous readings over 1000 MPN/100ml, some as high as 1400 and 1500.
But, here’s where it gets really complicated. Some of those high readings are likely (but not definitely) caused by septic system problems at the trailer park. But, there were also very high readings from other areas that most likely were not caused by problems at the trailer park. The source of the problem continues to be a mystery that has not yet been solved.
The bottom line is we’ve got a problem but we’re making progress. We’re getting cooperation from all of the relevant players but there’s still more to do. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution. There may be a smoking gun but we don’t know it’s the murder weapon. But, we’ll keep working on it until we do get it solved. Thank you for the opportunity to clarify the situation.
Mike Bennett
President, Fairview Beach Residents Association
October 7, 2017