"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
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.
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.
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.
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)
"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."
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