Army Conducts Shelter-in-Place Alert System Test on Wednesday

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will soon be testing its “shelter-in-place” alert system before starting work to dig up the third and final portion of 4825 Glenbrook Road NW, where the Army anticipates a “high probability” of finding dangerous World War I-era chemical contamination.  During the war the Army operated a munitions testing station at American University, and buried leftover materials in the surrounding area.  Most of the contamination has been cleaned up in recent years for $250 million.  At 4825 Glenbrook in Spring Valley, where the Army tore down a house to conduct its investigation, workers are operating under a protective tent due to the level of contamination expected there ... 

As before, if toxic fumes escape from the tent, an alert system will contact neighbors asking them to shelter in place until further notice.  Re-training about the shelter-in-place program will be available for residents of seven nearby homes and users of American University’s Watkins Building ...  Excavation of the riskiest areas at 4825 Glenbrook is expected to last through late 2016 or early 2017, followed by investigation of “low-probability” spots where the Army doesn’t expect to find contamination.   The property will then be restored to residential standards in spring and summer 2017.
Northwest Current
January 27, 2016
 

Three CAFS units (left) were activated on February 3 (USACE)

This week concluded with all snow at the site either removed or melted, and any storm damage repairs completed. The on-site team continues with preparing the site for high probability operations to begin in about 2 weeks, sometime during the week of February 15th. The Chemical Agent Filtration System (CAFS) units, with all new filters, were activated on Wednesday so that they will be ready to perform for next week's smoke test ... Next week we will begin several days of refresher training, conduct the smoke test, and complete the installation and testing of the Shelter-in-Place system sirens.  We will be briefly testing the Shelter-in-Place sirens on Monday, Feb 8th throughout the day.  We will then perform a complete Shelter-in-Place alert system test, including the ring-down and email alerts, on Wednesday, Feb 10th at 4:05pm.
Weekly Update
4825 Glenbrook Road
February 5, 2016

Shelter-in-Place zone during Tent 3 work (pg. 41)