Clovewood Water Becomes A Strange Blue-Greenish Tint & Has Spread All The Way To Round Hill Road

Spring Lake Cottage Community on Route 208 in the Village of South Blooming Grove 2 days after Clovewood Developers put an additive at the Clovewood site and at the intersection of Clove Rd. and Route 208

When was the last time you saw really blue water in local streams? Probably never. Ideally it's supposed to be as clear and colorless as possible.

An additive was put in the water of Lake Anne/Clovewood and at the intersection of Clove Road and Route 208. Is it truly non-toxic? Is it just a dye, or some chemical to address the turbulanlce in the water that the developer was cited for because of massive land disturbance without proper building and drainage permits. Does an additive like this require permits, and did the developer get them? If not, what is the State's recourse?

While we try to get more information on the exact additive, residents in the area say they are very concerned, because whatever it is....they don't want to be drinking it or having it seep into their wells. One said "I don't care, even if it's just a dye and not a chemical I'm allergic to dyes. I'm not even allowed to have medical treatments that involve dyes."

By Wednesday afternoon the color of the Satterly Creek at the bridge on Round Hill Road, about 7 miles away (last photo), appeared to have taken on some of the same blue-greenish hue that the water at Clovewood and Route 208 had become when the blue additive mixed with the brown water.

And what about the water that comes out of the Great Bear pipe that so many people with water problems in the area have relied on for years, is it still safe? The lake directly across from it is the most affected.

Very near the top of the list of reasons people are angry about this is that after months of months of work at Clovewood, after ignoring Cease and Desist orders that carried a fine potential of $37,500 PER DAY, they were cited this week and fined only a$228,000 fine (with some of it returnable if the developer starts to follow the law. This in addition to a County lawsuit over Gonzaga Park impacts from a road without permits, but NO action as of yet about the impacts of this vast deforested area with multiple impacts not only on the ecosystem, but the view from Schunnemunk Ridge and the State Parkland there. State Parkland was supposed to be an involved agency to oversee visual impacts and limit the damage this could do to the growing Tourism base in the Schunnemunk Valley as well as the important trail systems above.

People are asking for more action from the State on this project with its multiple environmental and financial failures. If the State imposed the fines they are allowed by law to do, the public says they would own the entire site and could oversee every part of a development that was never supposed to ruin the area's parkland assets and do massive damage to the environment, finances, and what were supposed to be protected tourism assets.