.jpg)
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers abruptly stopped its chemical munitions dig at a Spring Valley home on Monday after unearthing an artillery shell that may be both explosive and armed with a deadly chemical ... An Army Corps official said Tuesday that the discovery of the shell, which occurred on November 19, could force the Corps to revise its safety plan for the neighborhood..jpg)
"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, acting out of caution at a time of war and terror attacks, will not publicly reveal the locations or nature of chemicals and munitions found at a Spring Valley site now undergoing digging operations in a search for World War I ordnance."
Daiva MacKenzie, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she was in the lobby of Anderson Hall when the siren sounded around 4:05 p.m. but could not hear it. "But I knew it went off," she said. "I hope something will be done so that we would be able to hear it, especially if we are supposed to be in the building when it goes off."
Shelter-In-Place Zone Map
Operating under tight safety restrictions, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers yesterday began excavating what it calls the "last known burial pit" of World War I chemical munitions in Northwest Washington's Spring Valley neighborhood. The Army expects to excavate at least fifteen 75mm artillery rounds -- a dozen or more with mustard gas and three with arsine, both toxic chemical agents -- buried in the affluent residential neighborhood that was once a site for developing and testing chemical weapons ... Washington Post (October 30, 2007: pg. B-1)
The view of 4825 Glenbrook Road from the back side. NOTE: the siren in the foreground is supposed to warn neighborhood residents (and presumably AU's campus) in case of an on-the-job accident.
1918: AUES northern trench system (aka, 52nd Court) 
1993: 52nd Court in northwest Washington, DC 
Each morning George Temple fell in line in front of the History Building (Hurst Hall) for roll call. It was here that the calls were issued for volunteers to submit to being burned by experimental gases. Temple responded to that call seven times ... Most gas victims were stray dogs. "Hundreds and hundreds of them" running loose in the streets were picked up and gassed. Scientists and doctors studied the canines' reactions and the carcasses were shaved and dissected for examination and testing.
Through 1918, the campus was anything but academic. Abandoned barracks were coverted to kennels to house dogs used in toxicological research. Trenches and "bomb pits," used for exploding chemical shells filled with toxic materials, scarred the campus ... When the "occupation" ended, one "permanent" and 70 wooden buildings remained ... In the war's aftermath, the DC Fire Department burned most of the wooden structures. The buildings had been so impregnated by toxic ingredients that they were unsuitable for student use.
View of McKinley Hall from south side of AUES (1918)
There were munitions on hand, including multiplex gas and an invented explosive many times dynamite, valued at $800,000 ... The numerous collections on hand, just ready to go overseas, was valued at nothing now but the expense of putting them away. As "this was to be the last war," permission was given to go far back on the University acres, to dig a pit deeper than the one into which Joseph was cast, bury the munitions there and cover them up to wait until the elements shall melt with fervent heat, when the earth and the works therein shall be burned up.
Livens projector fired one mile downrange to Dalecarlia Woods.jpg)
In the years between the World Wars, most military leaders were averse to using chemical weapons, but decided they needed to have these weapons in case the other side used them. So most of the major combatants in World War II built up stockpiles of chemical weapons that were never used. As was true in World War I, the only Lewisite casualties in World War II were plant workers who made the poison and soldiers who "volunteered" to test the weapons.
"This report updates the general locations, types, and quantities of chemical munitions or chemical agents (CA), collectively referred to as chemical warfare material (CWM), disposed of in U.S. coastal waters ... The Department of Defense's research into sea disposal of chemical warfare material has identified approximately 30,000 tons of disposed CA at 21 sites in U.S. coastal waters."b.jpg)
This site is dedicated to the memory of Charlie Bermpohl (1935 - 2010) who chronicled the cleanup of buried World War I munitions in Spring Valley for The Northwest Current.
