Sunday Walk Revisits Scene of 1918 Chemical Weapons Testing

 Lot 18 excavation behind homes on Rockwood Parkway

"The purpose of the tour is to encourage more historical research, investigation and cleanup here," said Kent Slowinski, who led more than a dozen people on the walk ... Aaron Lloyd, 38, grew up in Spring Valley. Less than a decade ago, his stepfather found munitions buried in the back yard of the home where Lloyd grew up and where his mother had kept a garden. "It's very disturbing," he said. "Someone had to have known about these chemical weapons before 1993." Nan Wells, an advisory neighborhood commissioner from Spring Valley, said she hopes that the tour will help engage the public ... She also hopes that the Army Corps of Engineers, which along with the D.C. Department of the Environment is overseeing the cleanup and destruction of the munitions, will continue to fund the project. For fiscal 2010, the Corps has allotted $11 million to the cleanup effort. The number drops to $3 million in fiscal 2011 and $500,000 the following fiscal year.
Yamiche Alcindor
Washington Post
September 21, 2009 (pg. B-1)

Nan S. Wells, ANC Commissioner 3D03

During the tour, EcoSense members heard details about the Spring Valley FUDS - one of more than 5,000 contaminated sites in the United States once used by the military that require cleanup. The Spring Valley FUDS holds the unique distinction of being the only site with both chemical warfare agents and munitions in a residential neighborhood and on a university campus ... Kristin Kozlowski, a graduate student in AU's Public Anthropology program, said the information came as a surprise. "It's pretty shocking. I didn't know any of this previously," she said. "I hadn't seen this in any literature from campus or anything." 
Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle
September 27, 2009