FEATURED PROJECT:
Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission
Silver Spring, Maryland

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) property is approximately 115 acres in size. The property was historically used as a sand a gravel quarry from the 1950s through 1980. In the mid-1980's the property was developed by WSSC as a municipal waste composting facility which accepted sewage sludge from the Blue Plains Waste Water Treatment Plant for processing into compost and topsoil. WSSC closed the facility in 1999 due to odor complaints from the surrounding area.

Arc Environmental was retained by Montgomery County to complete all work necessary to guide the property through Maryland's Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP). Arc Environmental completed an AAI compliant Phase I Environmental Site Assessment in July 2007 which identified several Recognized Environmental Conditions (RECs) including former underground storage tanks and filling of quarried areas of the site with rubble fill.

In August 2007 the completed VCP application was submitted to the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) VCP and included the application forms, the Phase I ESA, and a Phase II Sampling and Analysis (S&A) Plan for site characterization in accordance with MDE VCP guidelines.

In July 2008, the S&A Plan was implemented. Approximately 50 soil samples were collected from 30 geoprobe boreholes; four of the boreholes were converted to monitoring wells for collection of groundwater samples and depth to water measurements. Additionally, sediment and surface water samples were collected from the Site's two storm water ponds and test pits were excavated to investigate several areas where rubble fill was historically placed.