WASHINGTON — Litigants sometimes play dirty. They don’t often argue over physical dirt.
About 37,000 cubic yards of that land are at the center of a case that connects two of President Trump’s popular initiatives in the nation’s capital: building a White House ballroom and plans to transform a beloved (but decidedly unremarkable) public golf course on an island on the Potomac River into a championship-level facility.
The dirt came from the White House grounds where Trump was demolishing the East Wing, where construction crews spent months digging underground to make way for what the president said were bunkers and other necessary facilities.
Workers hauled 150 truckloads of soil 2 miles to the East Potomac Golf Course, where it now sits on a large mound on one of the site’s nine-hole courses. A local conservation group has filed a lawsuit to block the renovations. One of the arguments is that if dirt is used in renovations, it could become contaminated and harm golfers and the environment.
The National Park Service said it has not yet decided whether or how the dirt will be used for any course construction. The government says the soil, which is fenced off and covered with grass, is clean — or at least clean enough. The Park Service tested it and said no asbestos was detected. While other toxins were present, including arsenic and lead, the department said it was not enough to harm anyone. The Washington Conservation Alliance now wants to test the dirt itself.
The fate of the pile of soil rests with U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, who said at a hearing this month that she didn’t understand why the government didn’t provide some soil samples to conservation groups.
“If there’s no problem, who cares?” Reyes asked.
But the government is working hard to address the issue. “We have no legal obligation to do this,” Justice Department lawyer Michael Robertson told the judge.
The Trump administration says there are currently no detailed blueprints for redesigning East Potomac Stadium, which first opened as a municipal ballpark in 1920. But Trump himself has picked an architect and announced September 1 as the start date.
“When complete, the course will have the capacity to host major golf events, including the U.S. Open, Ryder Cup, PGA Championship and other top PGA Tour events,” he wrote in a social media post late last month.
Trump also continues to accelerate the construction of ballrooms. Another preservation group wants to halt the project until Congress approves construction plans. The court allowed work to continue while the proceedings were ongoing.
Dirt is big business in real estate development.
“It’s a major cost of construction,” said Richard Turner, who has been selling infill on farmland in southeastern Virginia for more than two decades. In 2022, his company, Isle of Wight Materials, provided much of the fill material for a 3 million-square-foot Amazon distribution warehouse in Suffolk, Virginia.
If a company is dealing with dirt, it could jeopardize development deals, drive up project costs and put the business at risk. Last year, a construction company agreed to pay $11 million to resolve environmental violations after admitting to using more than 4,000 tons of contaminated fill to rebuild a Rhode Island highway overpass.
at present, The dirt was strewn with grass to prevent runoff, but that didn’t affect the East Potomac race. The government estimated in a court filing that moving the mounds would cost as much as $5.4 million.
The judge said she could not force the government to haul the dirt away without more evidence that it was harming anyone. However, the judge said there appeared to be large amounts of arsenic in the soil, which “seemed to be a bad thing”.
Write to Lydia Wheeler: lydia.wheeler@wsj.com