Anonymous wrote:Spring Valley was a chemical munitions site - that's not disinformation. People can make their choices about risk and so forth, but it was a dumping ground.

Anonymous wrote:I agree that this thread should go away - obviously very strong arguments by intelligent people have been made throughout by healthy residents of the neighborhood who have done their research. Clearly others are alarmists and others have chosen to live in other neighborhoods since they don't want to risk it.

Let's however go back to the dear OP's original inane statement that got this whole thing rolling: "Only dead people seem to live there." Is it over stating the OBVIOUS that dead people are not, in fact, LIVING?

Dear PP, "Spring Valley - for dead people and those who want to join the club." I counter you back with: Trolls - people who live in Pimmit Hills and wish they could live and thrive in Spring Valley so they continue to bash it on DCUM year after year. ENOUGH.

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Anonymous wrote:I think it's beautiful but I would worry about the poison

Agree. There was an article about it awhile back and the rates of cancer and other ailments are really alarming when compared to the national averages. Why chance it.

This to the nth degree. And I would hate to knowingly expose my kids to an increased possibility of cancer. Agree that the houses are beautiful (on the outside at least!), but I would always feel uneasy. And then, if you or someone in your family did get sick, you would always wonder what exposure tipped them over the edge. Clearly, at those prices, there are many people who have a much higher risk tolerance than I, but one really cannot say that those who don't choose to take the risk are crazed.

But if your soil test comes up clean, what's the concern then? I'm assuming the neighborhood is on city water (as opposed to well), right?

Here is the finding

A 2007 Hopkins study found a lower-than-average occurrence of cancer in the neighborhood. But compared with the demographically similar Chevy Chase community, Spring Valley had more cases of arsenic-related conditions that affect the kidney, lungs, skin and bladder.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/spring-valley-residents-still-harbor-health-concerns-despite-new-hopkins-study/2011/12/07/gIQA3uuDoO_story.html

You do know that you can read the primary documents instead of a newspaper article (from an intern (literally)), right? What is written may be a faithful representation of the data, but I'd prefer to draw my conclusions from the stuff written by the doctors, epidemiologists, toxicologists and statisticians conducting the surveys. It is all publicly available.

Here's the most-updated report: http://www.jhsph.edu/offices-and-services/practice-and-training/projects/_documents/Summary-Report-July2013.pdf
It is less than one year old, so very recent.

Key quotes from the executive summary (pp. 4-5):
"Community health in the Spring Valley and Chevy Chase areas continues to be very good. Rates for all of the 15 major causes of mortality in the Spring Valley area were lower than in the US overall. Rates for 14 of the 15 top causes of death were lower in the Chevy Chase area than in the US overall; the mortality rate for heart diseases in Chevy Chase was slightly higher than the US rate. Statistical differences between Spring Valley and Chevy Chase mortality rates were noted for heart disease, accidents and homicides;
with Spring Valley mortality rates lower than Chevy Chase for all three."

"Incidence and mortality rates of the selected cancers were also very similar when comparing the study areas. Only one statistical difference was found in the analysis of incidence and mortality of selected cancers in the study areas: the incidence of lymphoma in the 2005
-2009 period is higher in Spring Valley than in Chevy Chase." (page 5)

The report indicates an increasing trend for lung and bronchus mortality in Spring Valley. The trend is statistically significant. It further indicates that the trends in Chevy Chase for lung and bronchus mortality and for lymphoma mortality are increasing. The report doesn't indicated whether the Chevy Chase findings are statistically significant, or whether there is a statistically significant difference in trend between Spring Valley and Chevy Chase. (page 5)

It's human nature to try to find a cause of every malady. History is replete with examples. But life is complicated and there are rarely identifiable causes for sickness. I'm not saying that we should stop trying to identify causes, but we might want to acknowledge the limits of our n=1 experiences, or at least be skeptical of people trying for form policy on the basis of theirs.

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Anonymous wrote:Why would anybody want to buy there? Expensive, poison in the ground, and you don't see a person in the street - only dead people seem to live there.

Are you the same person who posts this sort of thing every year? I don't understand your motives. Perhaps you're an AU Park realtor? Or you have a long-standing feud with a Spring Valley resident?

Please fill us in, OP! I'm intrigued about what motivates someone to keep doing this.

OP. No, I haven't posted this before. Just wonder why Spring Valley is so expensive while, at least to me, it seems so unattractive. As said, a dead place. Con mortuis in lingua mortua.

I used to live in AU Park - a world of difference; we moved as, unfortunately, the space became too small for the growing family, and looked at Spring Valley. We soon decided it's lousy value for money and ended up in CCDC. No comparison.

I reckon Spring Valley is the Potomac for people who don't want to drive that far.

Oh, I take it all back. You clearly have a very informed opinion from the three listings you decided to visit.

Have you ever read about ski towns in the Rockies? I'm looking to buy a vacation rental and could use your expert knowledge on which town is best. I don't want to make a mistake and buy in an unattractive area.

By the way, Latin doesn't make you sound smart. It makes you sound pompous. Suum cuique.

Would be happy to.

Although I reckong folks who bought in Spring Valley will in the end choose what is most expensive, thinking that it must be better. Otherwise their choice is hard to rationalize.

Veni vidi vici.

What makes you think I live in Spring Valley you dolt? You seem to be a very sophisticated person.

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Anonymous wrote:I bet all the people posting mean things about spring valley could never afford to live there.

We are not from around here and looked in Spring Valley when we were buying a house. I didn't know anything about the issues until I read the disclosures and researched it a bit. At that point, we said no way. Just not worth the risk. Too bad, because I really loved one of the houses. Had it just been my husband and me, maybe we would have risked it. But not with young children.

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Anonymous wrote:Why would anybody want to buy there? Expensive, poison in the ground, and you don't see a person in the street - only dead people seem to live there.

Are you the same person who posts this sort of thing every year? I don't understand your motives. Perhaps you're an AU Park realtor? Or you have a long-standing feud with a Spring Valley resident?

Please fill us in, OP! I'm intrigued about what motivates someone to keep doing this.

OP. No, I haven't posted this before. Just wonder why Spring Valley is so expensive while, at least to me, it seems so unattractive. As said, a dead place. Con mortuis in lingua mortua.

I used to live in AU Park - a world of difference; we moved as, unfortunately, the space became too small for the growing family, and looked at Spring Valley. We soon decided it's lousy value for money and ended up in CCDC. No comparison.

I reckon Spring Valley is the Potomac for people who don't want to drive that far.

Oh, I take it all back. You clearly have a very informed opinion from the three listings you decided to visit.

Have you ever read about ski towns in the Rockies? I'm looking to buy a vacation rental and could use your expert knowledge on which town is best. I don't want to make a mistake and buy in an unattractive area.

By the way, Latin doesn't make you sound smart. It makes you sound pompous. Suum cuique.

Would be happy to.

Although I reckong folks who bought in Spring Valley will in the end choose what is most expensive, thinking that it must be better. Otherwise their choice is hard to rationalize.

Veni vidi vici.

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Anonymous wrote:Why would anybody want to buy there? Expensive, poison in the ground, and you don't see a person in the street - only dead people seem to live there.

Are you the same person who posts this sort of thing every year? I don't understand your motives. Perhaps you're an AU Park realtor? Or you have a long-standing feud with a Spring Valley resident?

Please fill us in, OP! I'm intrigued about what motivates someone to keep doing this.

OP. No, I haven't posted this before. Just wonder why Spring Valley is so expensive while, at least to me, it seems so unattractive. As said, a dead place. Con mortuis in lingua mortua.

I used to live in AU Park - a world of difference; we moved as, unfortunately, the space became too small for the growing family, and looked at Spring Valley. We soon decided it's lousy value for money and ended up in CCDC. No comparison.

I reckon Spring Valley is the Potomac for people who don't want to drive that far.

Oh, I take it all back. You clearly have a very informed opinion from the three listings you decided to visit.

Have you ever read about ski towns in the Rockies? I'm looking to buy a vacation rental and could use your expert knowledge on which town is best. I don't want to make a mistake and buy in an unattractive area.

By the way, Latin doesn't make you sound smart. It makes you sound pompous. Suum cuique.

Anonymous wrote:I bet all the people posting mean things about spring valley could never afford to live there.