WTOP has learned two metal canisters [sic] discovered Tuesday in Fort Totten Park, in Northeast D.C., were World War I-era weapons, with physical similarities to chemical weapons found during a decades-long cleanup of a former chemical weapons site near the American University campus ... “We expect preliminary/unofficial results on content this week, and final confirmation next week,” [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) spokesperson Cynthia] Mitchell wrote in an email. This is not the first time a World War I-era weapon has been discovered in Ft. Totten — one of seven Northeast D.C. forts used by the Union Army to defend the nation’s capital during the Civil War. In 2020, the National Park Service [NPS] discovered a World War I-era metal canister [sic] on the ground in a different area of Ft. Totten Park ... WTOP reported last year that the empty shell found in 2020 had been modified for use as a chemical weapon. Mitchell said the canisters [sic] discovered Tuesday were very similar to chemical weapons found in Ward 3’s Spring Valley cleanup at the former American University Experiment Station [AUES] used by the U.S. government for research and testing of chemical agents, equipment and munitions — once dubbed the “mother of all toxic dumps.”
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“Munition one is ‘Livens-like’ — it doesn’t fit the exact measurements of the Livens projectors we’ve encountered during the Spring Valley cleanup, but it is very similar,” said Mitchell. A Livens Projector was a simple mortar-like weapon that could throw large drums filled with toxic or flammable chemicals ... “Munition two is a 75 mm ordinance with a hex plug burster adapter, and is very typical of past finds at Spring Valley,” said Mitchell. In a February 2022 interview, Spring Valley cleanup project manager Dan Noble told WTOP the shell found in 2020 had been modified for use as a chemical weapon. “When we looked at the X-rays, it was a 75-millimeter ordnance item that we encounter quite a bit at Spring Valley. It had a hex plug burster adapter screwed into the nose, ... [which] would convert what was developed as a conventional munition into a chemical munition,” Noble said. D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and ANC commissioners Zachary Ammerman and Gordon-Andrew Fletcher have been calling on the NPS to more fully search the Ward 5 park, to investigate a possible link to the Spring Valley cleanup of chemical weapons.
Neal Augenstein
Neal Augenstein
April 20, 2023
People who live around Ft. Totten Park said they weren’t surprised when someone found more mystery items buried beneath the soil there Tuesday afternoon. The National Park Service [NPS] closed part of the park after one of its employees found two metal canisters [sic] in a mound of soil. NPS subsequently urged locals to stay away from cordoned off part of the park east of Fort Totten Drive, south of Gallatin Street, & north of Brookland Avenue NE. Metro trains even bypassed the nearby Ft. Totten station, for more than an hour, as federal authorities conducted their investigation. NPS said the canisters [sic], which appeared to be pushed into the park from the road, will be analyzed by the U.S. Army at Marine Corps Base Quantico ...
This latest discovery comes after NPS found an empty, unfused World War I-era metal canister [sic] in Ft. Totten Park in July 2020. Its discovery prompted locals to push NPS to further examine the park for similar canisters [sic] and possible WWI-era munitions ... Local Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Zach Ammerman contacted Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton about the issue. She, in turn, wrote a letter to NPS Director Charles Sams to investigate ordnances and soil and groundwater contamination throughout Ft. Totten Park. She specifically noted she was disappointed NPS only looked at parts of the park around Fort Totten Trail after she requested a “thorough investigation” following a meeting in 2020 with the service, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. “I believe it is imperative that NPS conduct an investigation throughout Ft. Totten Park,” she said. “This park is located in a residential neighborhood and is regularly used” ...
People who live around Ft. Totten Park said they weren’t surprised when someone found more mystery items buried beneath the soil there Tuesday afternoon. The National Park Service [NPS] closed part of the park after one of its employees found two metal canisters [sic] in a mound of soil. NPS subsequently urged locals to stay away from cordoned off part of the park east of Fort Totten Drive, south of Gallatin Street, & north of Brookland Avenue NE. Metro trains even bypassed the nearby Ft. Totten station, for more than an hour, as federal authorities conducted their investigation. NPS said the canisters [sic], which appeared to be pushed into the park from the road, will be analyzed by the U.S. Army at Marine Corps Base Quantico ...
This latest discovery comes after NPS found an empty, unfused World War I-era metal canister [sic] in Ft. Totten Park in July 2020. Its discovery prompted locals to push NPS to further examine the park for similar canisters [sic] and possible WWI-era munitions ... Local Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Zach Ammerman contacted Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton about the issue. She, in turn, wrote a letter to NPS Director Charles Sams to investigate ordnances and soil and groundwater contamination throughout Ft. Totten Park. She specifically noted she was disappointed NPS only looked at parts of the park around Fort Totten Trail after she requested a “thorough investigation” following a meeting in 2020 with the service, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. “I believe it is imperative that NPS conduct an investigation throughout Ft. Totten Park,” she said. “This park is located in a residential neighborhood and is regularly used” ...
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Ammerman believes the discoveries in Fort Totten Park are tied to weapons waste material, once found in DC’s Spring Valley neighborhood in Upper Northwest D.C., in 1993. “I think we just need to do testing of the entire [Ft. Totten Park] and quit pretending like there’s not an issue when there clearly is,” he said. According to the US Corps of Army Engineers, Baltimore District [USACE], during World War I, the US government used the American University Experiment Station [AUES], in Spring Valley, to research and test chemical agents, equipment, and munitions. A remediation project at that site, located along the 4800 block of Glenbrook Road, concluded in August 2021 with the ultimate discovery of more than 550 munition items. Officials said 23 of them had been filled with chemical agents.
The NPS said the source of the empty canister [sic] found in Ft. Totten Park has still not been determined. However, during a meeting in January 2021, Dan Noble, the USACE’s Spring Valley Project Manager, said [pg. 7] it was possible the Ft. Totten canister [sic] did originate in Upper Northwest: “[D. Noble] explained that USACE inspected and obtained x-rays of the shell,” a meeting transcript reads. “The shell was found to be a 75mm with a hex plug. This type of munition was often found in Spring Valley” ... Ammerman said he wished the issues at Ft. Totten were treated with the same urgency as they were in Spring Valley. “Why can’t we get – I think I know why – just an iota of attention that was given to the other side of D.C. where the richest people in D.C. live, here?” he said ... WUSA-9 reached out to NPS to see if it has any plans to examine the entirety of Ft. Totten Park for munitions, ordinances, or any other types of waste. It said it is working to determine the next steps to evaluate the area and no other additional information on the park is available at this time.
John Henry
The NPS said the source of the empty canister [sic] found in Ft. Totten Park has still not been determined. However, during a meeting in January 2021, Dan Noble, the USACE’s Spring Valley Project Manager, said [pg. 7] it was possible the Ft. Totten canister [sic] did originate in Upper Northwest: “[D. Noble] explained that USACE inspected and obtained x-rays of the shell,” a meeting transcript reads. “The shell was found to be a 75mm with a hex plug. This type of munition was often found in Spring Valley” ... Ammerman said he wished the issues at Ft. Totten were treated with the same urgency as they were in Spring Valley. “Why can’t we get – I think I know why – just an iota of attention that was given to the other side of D.C. where the richest people in D.C. live, here?” he said ... WUSA-9 reached out to NPS to see if it has any plans to examine the entirety of Ft. Totten Park for munitions, ordinances, or any other types of waste. It said it is working to determine the next steps to evaluate the area and no other additional information on the park is available at this time.
John Henry
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