"The area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
Donald Rumsfeld

ABC This Week
March 30, 2003

WW I Munitions Debris May Be Left Underneath Campus Parking Lot

We completed all planned field work at the former PSB [Public Safety Building] site in July 2024 and have determined debris is buried deeper in the hillside than our lagging wall allows us to go.  In discussions with the Partners (District of Columbia & the U.S. EPA) we are exploring the idea of leaving the remaining debris in place as the effort to get more out would be very disruptive and intrusive to AU campus operations and provide minimal risk mitigation.  A final determination will be made in close coordination with the Partners and the landowner.  While a decision is made on whether to leave debris in place, the remaining debris is being mapped as accurately as possible so as to allow a long term management plan with the landowner to be established if necessary.

Diagram of PSB hillside excavation (pg. 14)

With respect to mapping the remainder of the debris, we are now processing a change to our contractor’s tasking at the site and will issue a modification authorizing a rotosonic drill investigation to determine the boundaries of the remaining debris.  If this course of action is accepted by all parties (leaving debris in place), it would represent a change from the 2017 Decision Document and we would prepare a Record of Decision Amendment that would explain the deviation from the 2017 document [pgs. 25, 57 90 - 92] and discuss why such a change is appropriate and protective.  This amendment would then be made available to the public via our website upon completion during calendar year 2026.

Dan Noble, Military Co-Chair

Spring Valley RAB

February 7, 2025

8-foot stained AUES debris layer (pg. 23)

 

Our contractor has finished all digging at the Former American University PSB and for the last several weeks has been working to restore the hillside in preparation for re-planting.  We are dismantling site infrastructure and upon completion, will no longer have a daily presence on campus.  This significant milestone is tempered by the fact that the debris layer we have been excavating is continuing past our hillside retaining wall and going deeper into the hill than we realized.  Because of the danger of soil collapse, we cannot dig past the retaining wall.  Remaining debris is under a minimum of 15 feet of clean, overburden soil, and discussions to determine a path forward are underway with the Partners and American University, including the likelihood that we may have to consider leaving the remaining debris in place and managing it as is in the future.  We will continue to communicate with our stakeholders and will update this site as decisions are made.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Spring Valley FUDS

PSB Hillside Remediation Project Status

July 18, 2024

Debris area extends under parking lot (pg. 30)

Norton Asks OMB for Help Funding Comprehensive WMD Investigation

More than 100 years after the end of World War I, WTOP has learned D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is seeking funding from the Trump administration to investigate and clean up any remaining chemical weapons buried in Fort Totten Park in Northeast.  Almost five years after an empty World War I-era chemical weapon shell was discovered by the National Park Service [NPS] during construction of a trail through the park in July 2020, it’s still not clear whether Ft. Totten Park has additional munitions buried in the Ward 5 park, located near the Ft. Totten Metro station.  In 2022, WTOP reported the Ft. Totten discovery was a prequel to the decades-long Spring Valley cleanup at the former American University Experiment Station [AUES].  Once dubbed the “mother of all toxic dumps” — the site was used by the U.S. government for research and testing of chemical agents, equipment and munitions.  Since the 2020 discovery in Ft. Totten Park, WTOP has learned the munitions were likely trucked [pgs. 13 - 14] across town from one of the most wealthy neighborhoods in Ward 3, of Northwest D.C., to the less affluent Ward 5.  In a Jan. 31, 2025 letter to new Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum and Office of Management & Budget Acting Director Matthew Vaeth, Norton wrote, “I request that the budget include funding for the NPS, working together with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers [USACE], to conduct a comprehensive investigation of Ft. Totten Park.”  As recently as June 2024, USACE continued to find full or partial World War I-era munitions on the campus of American University, in a steep hillside on Rockwood Parkway Northwest, next to the former AU Public Safety Building, which was demolished in August 2017 ...

In a November 2023 announcement that a portion of Ft. Totten Park would remain closed and fenced, with cement barriers and “no trespassing” signs, the agencies suggested a more thorough investigation was appropriate, although funding was needed ... In her letter to the heads of Interior and OMB last week, Norton said, USACE “is currently remediating” the Spring Valley site.  “A similar investigation and cleanup are needed at Ft. Totten,” she wrote.  Even before a contractor digging a utility trench in Spring Valley in 1993 uncovered a buried military ordnance, which prompted the USACE investigation that revealed homes on Glenbrook Road were built atop chemical weapon burial pits, contaminated soil [pg. B-4] from Glenbrook Road was trucked to a landscaping project at Ft. Totten Metro station.  In November 2021, USACE said the cleanup at the Glenbrook Road site was completed, after it remediated, removed and recovered 556 munition items (23 of them filled with chemical agents), more than a ton of laboratory debris, 53 intact and sealed glass containers of chemical agents and 7,500 tons of contaminated soil.  However, chemical weapons from the former AUES site were later found in Ft. Totten.  In April 2023, WTOP reported two new metal canisters were discovered in another portion of the park: A 75 millimeter projectile, which contained only soil, and a Livens projectile which contained mostly water, but also a small amount of a commercial chemical that is not hazardous.
Neal Augenstein
WTOP News
February 3, 2025

Ft. Totten munitions found in 2020 (right) & 2023 (left)

FUDS Cleanup Centered Around American University Lasts for 32 Years

Cleanup of the former U.S. Army’s chemical weapons testing continues around American University’s campus as the United States Army Corps of Engineers [USACE] this fall began landscaping and restoration plans, and is expected to submit a final comprehensive report in November.  In June, USACE discovered four munitions underneath the former AU Public Safety Building, which was demolished in 2017. By July, the site was demobilized and cleaned up [sic].  Dan Noble, project manager with USACE, said it’s difficult to find precise details of exactly what was buried and where they could be found.  “While the military keeps a lot of records, they don’t always keep records about the stuff you would like them to,” Noble said. 

 

During the height of the first World War, American University’s campus housed weapons manufacturing and testing.  The War Department, now known as the Department of Defense, directed USACE and the Civilian Bureau of Mines to run Camp Leach, a program focused on the development of chemical weapons.  Camp Leach is sometimes referred to as the Manhattan Project of WWI. At its height, the program supported over 2,000 soldiers, scientists and civilians on AU’s campus.  Here, the U.S. Army manufactured chemical weapons such as sulfur mustard gas and arsenic bombs.  These weapons were often fired from East Campus to the Dalecarlia Reservoir, which program members nicknamed Death Valley.  When the armistice was signed in November 1918 between Germany and the Allied countries, the War Department ordered the area be demobilized.

War Secretary Baker & Gen. Bliss greet AU students in 1917 (LOC)

However, in January 1993, excavators found a plethora of munitions under houses in the Spring Valley neighborhood behind campus.  Underneath the houses were four unexploded mortar rounds with their fuses still intact.  This kicked off a cleanup effort by USACE, which ended in the removal of 141 items — 43 of which contained traces of chemical agents.  The remedial project was closed in 1995.  USACE returned to Spring Valley in 1998 to investigate potential sites of buried weapons on the residence of the Ambassador of South Korea.  Two pits were found and tests on soil samples revealed arsenic contamination.  USACE completed the clean up of the residence between 1999 and 2000. Two other burial pits were found on property owned by the University, one at 4825 and the other at 4835 Glenbrook Road, NW.  After discovery of these pits in 1998, a remediation effort ensued which finally concluded in August 2021.

Noble said the cleanup continues as some mistakes were made in the initial cleanup effort in 1993, and as more material has been found as recently as June 2024.  “The city of D.C. felt like, you know, now we think, a little bit more needs to be done ... a little bit more effort really needs to occur here,” Noble said.  However, despite its many challenges, Noble is hopeful that over a century since Camp Leach’s inception , the end of the cleanup project is in sight.  “We do believe, after all this time, we’re near the end of the process,” Noble said.  “In the next one to five years would be my time frame.”
Jackson Decker

The Eagle

December 3, 2024 

Army tents on Quad in front of Hurst Hall at AUES in 1918 (LOC)

19 WW-I Munitions Unearthed Near AU's Former Public Safety Building

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed with WTOP that 19 full or partial World War I-era munitions were found Tuesday on the campus of American University in Northwest D.C. — which served as a chemical weapons testing and disposal site during the first World War.  All of the recovered munitions were 75 mm projectiles.  Two projectiles contained an undetermined fluid, which prompted USACE to summon the Army’s Fort Belvoir’s 55th Ordnance Company and D.C.’s Fire & Emergency Services to the scene.  The two suspicious munitions were safely assessed, packaged and transported to the nearest military installation — Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Harford County, Maryland — for additional assessment ... At Aberdeen Proving grounds, X-ray technology and a Portable Isotopic Neutron Spectroscopy System — or PINS — will enable investigators to identify the suspicious liquid non-intrusively, without having to open the projectile. 

 

PSB site cleanup began in fall 2019 (Squyres/EAGLE)

The devices were found in a steep hillside on Rockwood Parkway NW, next to the former AU Public Safety Building, which was demolished in August 2017.  The area where the projectiles were found was in a fenced-off Army Corps worksite, near Fletcher Gate, on the southern edge of the campus.  Remediation crews have been excavating potentially-contaminated soil under and near the former public safety building.  The painstaking, safety-based work is a continuation of the decadeslong cleanup in the Spring Valley neighborhood ... In a statement to WTOP, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said, “I’m deeply concerned about the suspected munitions found on American University’s campus” ... “I have sounded the alarm when similar munitions have been found in D.C. since 1993, and I’ll continue to work with the relevant entities until I’m satisfied the threat has been contained,” she added.  In 2022, WTOP reported that a World War I-era unexploded shell discovered by the National Park Service during construction of a trail through Northeast D.C.’s Fort Totten may have been transported from the Spring Valley cleanup site, adjacent to AU.
Neal Augenstein
WTOP News
 June 7, 2024

Army Corps Launches Overdue Excavation of PSB Hillside at AU

Under contract with USACE, Weston Solutions, Inc. completed remediation under the former PSB [Public Safety Building] foundation on 21 January 2021 and backfill on 23 March 2021.  During foundation excavation, a layer of dark American University Experiment Station (AUES) debris was observed in the slope north, east and west of the PSB foundation.  USACE contracted with Weston to investigate the AUES debris extent.  Weston completed Rotosonic drilling & test pit investigations on 12 April 2021 to define the extent of the AUES debris layer on the PSB hillside with Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) support ... The Weston Team mobilized to the PSB site at AU during the Labor Day week of September 4, 2023.  The Team is currently conducting the remediation.

The PSB was formerly AU campus police headquarters (pg. 5)

... The objective of the PSB hillside remediation is to assess, remove, and dispose of the munitions and AUES-related debris layer under the hillside, with an emphasis on sealed containers and soil contaminated with chemical warfare agents (CWAs), agent breakdown products or contaminants above the Spring Valley screening criteria or Hazard Index.  To reach the AUES debris layer under the hillside, Weston will install an active retaining wall system while excavating “clean overburden soil” down to the AUES debris layer ... WESTON and the USACE will be monitoring the site to ensure safety and minimize impacts to the college community and local residents: air monitoring by the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) for CWA at the site perimeter, in the excavation zone & headspace samples of soil & debris; and air monitoring for metals and organic vapor in the excavation zone and worker’s breathing zone.
USACE

Partnering Meeting Ppt.

January 4, 2024 (pgs. 4, 10 & 11)

Chasing contamination into hillside next to PSB (pg. 2)

Environmental Group Leads Toxic Tours of Former WW I Army Base

AUES Spring Valley tours provide context to better understand the issues surrounding the cleanup of this Formerly Used Defense Site. Tours focus on historical features of the American University Experiment Station, the current Army Corps of Engineers cleanup operations and residents’ health problems. Tours are led by a former Restoration Advisory Board member and Spring Valley resident. Each tour takes approximately 1½ hours.  Participants see where testing occurred during World War I and where chemical warfare materiel is being removed today. For more information contact ahengst@verizon.net.