The debris is coming from the East Wing, which is being demolished to build the US president’s ballroom
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenAssociated PressPublished: 7:00am, 6 May 2026Debris from the demolition of the White House East Wing that was dumped at a nearby public golf course has tested positive for lead, chromium and other toxic metals, the National Park Service said.
An interim report by a Virginia engineering firm says the toxic metals, along with PCBs, pesticides, petroleum by-products and other chemicals were detected at levels above laboratory reporting limits in soil at the East Potomac Golf Links, a historic golf course that US President Donald Trump plans to renovate.
The park service began dumping debris from the East Wing onto the golf course in October, and more than 30,000 cubic yards (810,000 cubic feet) of excavated soil had been transported to the site as of last month, the report by Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. said. The report was requested by the park service.
The non-profit DC Preservation League has sued the Trump administration, arguing that the dumping was unlawful and possibly hazardous. The group also is challenging the Republican administration’s takeover of the golf course, about 3km (two miles) southeast of the White House, and others in the city.
The suit is one of several legal battles challenging Trump’s extraordinary efforts to put his mark on public spaces in the nation’s capital, including renaming and shuttering the Kennedy Centre and building a 76-metre-tall (250-foot-tall) triumphal arch near the Lincoln Memorial.
Demolition begins on White House East Wing for Trump ballroom
Demolition begins on White House East Wing for Trump ballroomAt the end of last year, a separate group of preservationists filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the administration from demolishing the East Wing so it could build a ballroom, a project slated to cost US$400 million.
