Weapons of Mass Destruction in DC

2012-01-25T21:54:00.000-05:00

"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, Secretary of Defense
March 30, 2003

Questions Raised over Extent of Planned Glenbrook Road Cleanup

2012-01-25T17:32:00.005-05:00

A late-February final approval is expected for plans to clear buried World War I-era poisonous waste from the property at 4825 Glenbrook Road. The recommended plan, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released in December, calls for tearing down the Spring Valley home and digging up to 12 feet beneath it to remove any buried munitions and chemicals ... The Army Corps has spent more than $200 million on munitions cleanup in the Spring Valley neighborhood since 2003. During World War I, the Army used American University as a testing site, firing weapons into then-undeveloped woods around the campus. In 1918, 4825 Glenbrook Road was a dumpsite for chemical and explosive munitions and related debris; officials believe a pit was disturbed there when a home was built in 1992 ...

4825/4835 Glenbrook Road Test Pit Investigation (10/18/07)

Kent Slowinski, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in the area and former member of the Restoration Advisory Board, has expressed concerns that the current plan doesn’t account for possible poisonous residue left beneath the adjacent property, 4835 Glenbrook Road. According to Slowinski, bulldozers ran over bottles of a blistering agent at the border of the properties when the two houses were first constructed. In addition, he said, contractors planting a tree at 4835 Glenbrook in 1996 suffered from chemical burns when they sliced through a bucket of chemical-filled bottles.
Northwest Current
January 25, 2012 (pg. 2)

Neglected Photo Analysis Put Sgt. Maurer Pit on University Grounds

2012-01-11T17:39:00.032-05:00

The Spring Valley partners and the Restoration Advisory Board have failed to act on many of these critical issues, which could cause the cleanup to drag on even longer. My main concern with the Army Corps’ “proposed plan” for 4825 Glenbrook Road is that there is no contingency for cleaning up adjacent properties ...

The Spring Valley partners failed to follow through on various commitments. For example, in 2001 the partners agreed to conduct indoor air monitoring at 4825 Glenbrook Road and five other properties to determine what chemical vapors were migrating from the soil into the house [pg. 2 of 6/24/02 Partnering Mtg. minutes] ... Eleven years later, this still has not been conducted at 4825 Glenbrook Road.

Advisory neighborhood commissioners do not need advanced technical expertise to make informed decisions on these issues. There are many experts who can explain the issues in ways that anyone can understand. Examples include the Restoration Advisory Board’s technical expert, Dr. Peter deFurr, who compiled a list of the chemicals detected at 4825 Glenbrook Road; American University’s public health consultant, Dr. Paul Chrostowski, who asked the Army Corps to clean up the Glenbrook Road site to a stricter standard given the number of toxic chemicals detected on the site; and the Environmental Protection Agency’s Terry Slonecker, who identified the possible burial pit locations on the university campus.

Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3D needs to practice due diligence to make sure that a thorough investigation and cleanup of the Glenbrook Road properties is conducted. We need more oversight, not less.
Kent Slowinski, ANC-3D
Northwest Current Viewpoint
January 11, 2012 (pg. 9)

Figure 10: Intersection of six circles denotes location of 1918 pit

UPDATED RANKINGS OF POSSIBLE SITES: Findings from the previous report, Terrestrial Photogrammetry of a 1918 Ground Photograph: Analysis of Three Potential 1918 Disposal Sites, Lockheed Martin, Las Vegas, NV August 2000, indicated that Site 2 was the most likely location of the burial pit, and sites 1 and 3 were ranked the next likely sites, in that order of likelihood. Site 3 was placed last because the resolution in a 1918 aerial photomosaic provided was so poor that the outline of buildings could not be discerned, providing insufficient evidence to support a higher ranking.

Sgt. Maurer pit likely south of Army trailers above

In the process of determining the new coordinates for the three possible sites, a geographically-corrected map of the 1918 building locations and a much higher-resolution version of the photomosaic was acquired which showed the area in the vicinity of the burial site very clearly ... Figure 10 depicts the intersection of six circles that denotes location of 1918 pit for possible site 3 ... Coordinates of the site 3 1918 pit are: 773,328.3 feet in x; 401,185.8 feet in y (Maryland State Plane Coordinate System, NAD 1927).
E. T. Slonecker
Coordinate Computation of Ordnance Burial Site
December 2000 (pgs. 4 & 6)

Likely location of pit is to the left (south) of trailers

Army Sweeps Southwest Corner of Campus for WW I-Era "Anomalies"

2012-01-06T17:05:00.004-05:00

Anomaly next to Child Development Ctr. playground

This month the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began preparations for the American University Kreeger Hall area anomaly investigation that is scheduled for January 2012. The Anomaly Review Board (ARB), which consists of USACE and the regulatory partners, identified 18 anomalies and four anomalous areas to be investigated. USACE worked with AU to schedule the anomaly investigations during AU’s winter break to minimize potential disruptions to campus life.

Spring Valley Project Update
December 2011

Anomalies between Kreeger, Watkins & Hamilton Bldgs.

USACE requested feedback from AU regarding potential geophysical surveys and subsequent intrusive investigation in front of Kreeger Hall on the AU campus for the purpose of investigating a 1918 ground scar. This ground scar may be a shadow on the 1918 aerial photograph and received little attention early during the Spring Valley project, but someone from EPA subsequently described this ground scar as a probable 'T' [trench]. This ground scar is also located adjacent to elevated perchlorate detections at PZ-4.

Spring Valley Partnering Meeting minutes
January 25, 2011 (pg. 26)

Anomalous area under road 80 ft. west of Watkins Building

Omnibus 2012 Spending Bill Aims for DoD Funded Health Study

2011-12-22T14:35:00.011-05:00

The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced today that language encouraging the Department of Defense to support public health studies of Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) in densely populated communities, like Spring Valley in Northwest Washington, D.C., was included in the report accompanying the fiscal year 2012 omnibus spending bill recently passed by Congress.

“The report language is part of my 18-year effort to ensure the health and safety of residents living near the Spring Valley FUDS, a community that developed around the American University campus without any knowledge that their original neighborhood had been among America’s largest development and testing sites for chemical and other weapons during World War I,” Norton said.

Earlier this year, Norton offered an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill for a study of the health effects of the Spring Valley FUDS, after a constituent asked her at the July 4th Palisades parade if she could get a comprehensive public health study of Spring Valley.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Press Release (December 22, 2011)

Commission Splits Over Extent of Army Cleanup on Glenbrook Road

2011-12-17T18:32:00.011-05:00

After a contentious debate, the commission agreed last week to form a committee to report next month on the removal of dangerous World War I chemicals from the soil of 4825 Glenbrook Road and possibly 4835 Glenbrook Road as well. But commissioners are still disagreeing over what their role should be in the cleanup ...

Eventually commissioners voted to table the matter until their January meeting and to appoint Commissioner Nan Wells to draft a consensus resolution. But in a later interview, [Commission chair Thomas] Smith said he might designate a new chair, as some committee members object to Wells as the leader. He said his position as commission chair gives him the right to appoint the committee head.
Northwest Current
December 14, 2011 ( pg. 5)

Spring Valley Residents Still Harbor Health Concerns Despite Study

2011-12-12T19:16:00.003-05:00

The Bohlens have lived in the Spring Valley section of Northwest Washington for 52 years, raising three children and now settling into retirement. Over the past two decades, the Army Corps of Engineers has excavated pockets of their wealthy, tree-lined neighborhood, which was built over the Army’s World War I chemical warfare testing grounds, to analyze possible contamination. Now, Johns Hopkins University is about to embark on yet another health study in this neighborhood. The Bohlens are typical of families there who still wonder whether certain cancers and other serious health problems have been caused by the presence of buried toxic chemicals ...

Tall but fragile, Geza Teleki moves slowly around his Bethesda home, where he moved a few years ago with his wife, Heather, after raising their children in Spring Valley. Before he retired, Teleki was a conservationist, once serving as director of national parks in Sierra Leone. He was in “excellent health,” he said, before he left Africa in the 1990s and returned to Spring Valley. Teleki then worked from his basement office as a lobbyist for the World Wildlife Fund ... His feet turned black, to the confusion of his doctors. No one could understand what it was, he said. “As it turned out, the soldiers in World War I who had arsenic gas contamination — their feet turned black.”
Sylvia Carignan
Washington Post
December 12, 2011 (pg. B-1)

Environmental Group Leads Toxic Tours of Former WW I Army Base

2011-11-26T14:23:00.000-05:00

AUES Spring Valley tours provide context to better understand the issues surrounding the cleanup of this Formerly Used Defense Site. Tours focus on historical features of the American University Experiment Station, the current Army Corps of Engineers cleanup operations and residents’ health problems. Tours are led by a former Restoration Advisory Board member and Spring Valley resident. Each tour takes approximately one hour. Participants see where testing occurred during World War I and where chemical munitions are being removed today. For more information contact wksla@aol.com.

Perchlorate Levels in 16 Wells Lead to Source NE of Kreeger Bldg.

2011-11-22T12:30:00.000-05:00

Source Area #7 registered the highest perchlorate at 22 ppb

At the November Restoration Advisory Board meeting, the Army disclosed that -- in order to minimize disruption of the American University campus -- the anomalies identified during a 2½-acre geophysical survey of the Kreeger-Hamilton area last spring would be excavated over the upcoming winter break. Project Manager Todd Beckwith reported on findings from sixteen temporary wells drilled and tested for perchlorate across this identical site in July.

The highest levels detected were just northeast of and surrounding Kreeger Building: "SA 7 is where we detected 22 ppb in groundwater just a little bit upgradient of PZ 4," Beckwith announced. "SA 5, SA 3 and SA 15 also had notable concentrations of perchlorate ... it looks like we've bounded the perchlorate source area, meaning that it seems to be more confined to this area." When asked precisely what activities took place there during World War I, Project Manager Dan Noble observed: "That was the Experiment Station. There were labs and little pilot production facilities. There was a lot of activity going on right here" [SA 7].
Spring Valley RAB Meeting
November 8, 2011

Kreeger from Hamilton parking lot; Source Area 7 is under pylon

Fused 75mm Shell Found Along Hwy. in Vicinity of WW I Railroad

2011-11-16T16:27:00.042-05:00

Army Corps project manager Dan Noble announced that workers are now looking in 38 acres of the Dalecarlia Woods for buried ammunition and other material from the testing program. Noble, who co-chairs the board, reported that a 75-millimeter shell was found 10 inches beneath the surface of the highway right-of-way on the residential side of Dalecarlia Parkway.
Northwest Current
November 16, 2011 (pg. 3)

NOTE: 75mm shell located two grids(acres) farther south

NOBLE: Yesterday, on the first day of digging, in grid H-4 they came across an intact munition along the Dalecarlia Parkway. It was about 25 feet off the parkway, about ten inches down: a 75mm. It was fused. We don't usually find fused items ... With the assistance of DC (because it was along the parkway during rush hour), we asked DC Metro police to come out. The bomb squad responded and they shut down a lane of Dalecarlia for us while we got the item out ...

SLOWINSKI: Can you point out where the narrow-gauge railroad is?

NOBLE: No, I can't ...

BECKWITH: Well, AOI #2 is listed here, so I think it's in that general vicinity.

SLOWINSKI: So would it cross Dalecarlia approximately where the munition was found?

BECKWITH: The narrow-gauge rail? ... I don't know. We speculated that that rail was related to either construction of the reservoir on aqueduct property or it could been from the timber operation for removing some timber when they put in this big water main that went through here ...

SLOWINSKI: My understanding is that the narrow-gauge railroad ran primarily East - West, whereas the pipeline goes primarily North - South.

NOBLE: I have no information to add.
Spring Valley RAB Meeting
November 8, 2011 (audio recording)

After much delay because of a lack of labor, the famous "Hillside Express," or perhaps better known as the "Death's Valley Limited," narrow-gauge tramway is rapidly being completed. This railway, which will convert bleak hillsides and hopeless hollows into busy manufacturing districts, is almost open for service. Already it is being used to a great extent in a limited capacity, such as hauling stills and other heavy machinery up and down the line. The passenger coaches for hauling the men to and from work have not been put into service yet, but Pvt. Ward, the constructing genius, promises them some time in the very near future.
The Retort
October 6, 1918

Survey flags trace abandoned narrow-gauge railroad bed

In November, field teams continued investigating buried metallic anomalies in the Dalecarlia Woods geophysical investigation area. Three munition items and approximately 20 munitions debris items have been recovered since this investigation began in October 2011. The Dalecarlia Woods anomaly investigation effort is expected to be completed in early 2012.
Spring Valley Project Summary
November 2011

Photo by UASCE

Cleanup Plan Will Wipe "Notorious Address" Off the Face of the Map

2011-11-02T18:29:00.005-04:00

Congresswoman Norton (D-DC) and Carrie Johnston (USACE)

At a public meeting on Oct. 26, the Army Corps formally presented its plan to remove chemical materials deemed unsafe from the AU-owned property 4825 Glenbrook Rd., adjacent to the Kreeger building parking lot. The proposed plan, which AU endorses, is to demolish the unoccupied house on the property, excavate much of the yard and restore the lot to residential standards ... Munitions, laboratory glassware and tons of contaminated soil have already been removed from the site, but the Army Corps believes there is more to be found along the sides of the home’s foundation. Army Corps has been excavating a WWI chemical munitions burial pit beneath the property since 2007, until several jugs containing arsenic trichloride, a toxic gas, were found in March 2010, The Eagle previously reported.
Sylvia Carignan
The Eagle
November 1, 2011

“The demolition of this house and cleanup of the affected grounds will remove one of the last known contaminated properties,” [Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes] Norton (D-DC) said. “This property has become a monument to the contamination that has marred a beautiful neighborhood. I hope that when this house comes down and the property is cleaned up, it will signal that we have come close to eliminating the contamination in this neighborhood. A watch period will then begin to ensure that this time all the contamination has been eliminated.”
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Press Release (October 26, 2011)

Army Drilling Deep Wells to Test Valley Bedrock for Perchlorate

2011-10-26T16:24:00.021-04:00

Second deep well being drilled at 4820 Glenbrook Road

Two new wells bored 200 feet below Spring Valley represent the latest step in an ongoing effort by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to determine the source of groundwater contamination and where that contamination is spreading. The Army Corps has been studying Spring Valley's groundwater since 2005 and has found, just below the ground, concentrations of the chemical perchlorate that significantly exceed drinking water standards ... The planned Kreeger Hall excavation should determine that source, according to [Army Corps project manager Todd] Beckwith. A survey over the summer with advanced metal detectors found "anomalies" that could be buried Army waste causing the contamination, he said.
Brady Holt
Northwest Current
October 26, 2011 (pg. 1)

Proposed Plan Posted for Review; Public Mtg. Oct. 26th at Library

2011-10-03T11:00:00.000-04:00

ddd
The US Army Corps of Engineers ... proposes a remedy to address the cleanup created by the presence of chemical warfare materiel, agent breakdown products, munitions and explosive of concern, and hazardous and toxic waste-impacted soil found at the 4 825 Glenbrook Road site.

... This notice serves as notification of the availability of the 4825 Glenbrook Road Proposed Plan for review, and the commencement of the 30-day public comment period ... Written comments should be mailed to Brenda Barber at the address below and must be postmarked by Nov. 12, 2011 to be considered. Attendees at the public meeting may provide oral comments or bring written comments to the Meeting Recorder.
Public Notice:
4825 Glenbrook Road Proposed Plan
Available for Public Review (October 3, 2011)

University Will Only Consider “Alternative 5” as Acceptable

2011-09-30T15:23:00.036-04:00

Proposed High & Low Probability Excavations

Alternative 5 is the cleanup alternative that is most effective and protective of human health and the environment. It is the only alternative that removes the long-term risk posed by the 4825 Glenbrook Road site by excavating the property (Areas A, B, D, E and F), including the area beneath the house (Area E), to competent saprolite or bedrock; Alternative 5 provides the best long-term solution for minimizing future risk at the site.

… Area A will address any potential World War I related materials that may remain behind the retaining wall in the backyard of the property. If AUES related items, such as munitions and laboratory glassware, are found in Area A, the Army will continue excavating behind the retaining wall until the AUES related waste has been identified and removed.
Proposed Plan for 4825 Glenbrook Road
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
September 30, 2011

Historical Sampling at 4825 Glenbrook Road

AU does not consider any remedial alternative other than "Alternative 5, Removing the House and cleaning up to Residential standards with Unrestricted Future Use,” to be acceptable.

... AU has commented repeatedly regarding the arsenic cleanup level of 20 mg/kg and has been repeatedly ignored. While 20 mg/kg may be appropriate as an action level or screening level, it is not appropriate as remedial goal especially at a site where there are so many chemical and toxicological uncertainties in the assessment of the nature and extent of contamination. Even a rough calculation reveals that the residual lifetime cancer risk associated with residential exposure to 20 mg/kg exceeds 5:100,000.
American University Comments on
Feasibility Study: 4825 Glenbrook Road
September 26, 2011

Army Corps Would Excavate to Bedrock at Glenbrook Road Site

2011-09-18T11:26:00.000-04:00

Detailed Analysis of Remaining Alternatives

"While Alternative 5 is the most expensive, it was ranked as favorable in five out of six of the nine criteria that were ranked [above] ... The new figure [below] visually depicts Alternative 5 and highlights the areas that we would excavate. Areas A, B, D, E and F are all the areas that we would excavate to bedrock or competent saprolite under Alternative 5."
Brenda Barber, Project Manager
RAB Meeting
September 13, 2011

Remedial Actions Under Alternative 5

Corps Admits Having Transcript; Will Try to Find Home Builders

2011-09-11T08:46:00.000-04:00

In response to a question from commissioner Kent Slowinski following her presentation at the September 9th Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3-D meeting, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project manager Brenda Barber acknowledged that a ten-year-old videotape transcript, of an interview with construction workers who helped build the house at 4825 Glenbrook Road in 1992, is in the Army's possession.

SLOWINSKI (33:12): Have you talked to the construction workers who built the house, many of whom suffered exposure to chemical warfare agent? ... There's a videotaped interview where the construction workers were sitting around a site plan of the property and they pointed to areas on the property where they said they found munitions or bottles filled with chemicals. They even went on to say, "You can find more munitions behind this wall."

Spring Valley Project Manager Brenda Barber

BARBER (33:55): Yes, we have copies of the transcripts from those videotapes and our legal counsel is actually engaged in trying to find out the names of those employees so that we can do additional interviews with them.

U.S. Army Corp of Engineers presentation
ANC 3-D Meeting (audio recording)
September 7, 2011

[DC Department of Health environmental scientist] Richard Albright investigated further and found that five workers building 4825 Glenbrook Road had fled the site in May 1992 when fumes from broken lab glassware and contaminated soil caused pain in their eyes and lungs. Suffering from eye pain and burning skin, some of the workers went to a hospital emergency room. It was beginning to look as if both [AU President Benjamin] Ladner's house (at 4835) and 4825 Glenbrook had been built on top of a laboratory-waste dump.
Harry Jaffe
The Washingtonian
December 1, 2000

Proposed Army Cleanup Would Demolish Glenbrook Road House

2011-08-09T11:02:00.000-04:00

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is recommending tearing down a Spring Valley home to identify and remove World War I-era munitions and chemicals feared to be buried beneath it. Since 2000, the Army Corps has removed more than 500 munitions items, 400 pounds of laboratory glassware and more than 100 tons of soil contaminated with arsenic and other hazardous substances from 4825 Glenbrook Road, officials said.

4825 Glenbrook Road Remedial Investigation Report

... In 1918, 4825 Glenbrook Road was a dumpsite for chemical and explosive munitions and related debris; officials believe a pit was disturbed when the home was built, scattering that material throughout the property. The Army is now proposing to clean up whatever it finds beneath the home to a depth of 12 feet, spending an estimated $12.5 million to restore the site to residential standards.
Brady Holt
Northwest Current
August 10, 2011 (pg. 1)

Campus Groundwater Sampled in Ongoing Perchlorate Investigation

2011-08-06T08:15:00.005-04:00

No Entry: Source Area Investigation

The installation of sixteen temporary wells at American University in the vicinity of Kreeger Hall was completed in an effort to identify the source of elevated perchlorate levels in the groundwater in this area. The wells were installed, sampled and closed during a three-week period in July ... Also this month, data generated from the first quarterly sampling effort in May at existing groundwater monitoring wells and surface water locations, such as creeks and streams, was reviewed.

Drilling for Groundwater at Source Area #2

The field team plans to conduct the second quarterly sampling effort the first week of August to assess whether seasonal fluctuations affect contaminant levels in groundwater within the Spring Valley project area. Three new deep groundwater monitoring wells are expected to be installed later this year to determine if perchlorate has migrated into the deeper groundwater flow areas.

Spring Valley Monthly Project Update
July 2011

Preparing to Sample Source Area #1 Groundwater

Norton Seeks $1 Million to Study Spring Valley FUDS Health Effects

2011-07-16T16:42:00.000-04:00

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton [D-DC] today will offer an amendment on the House floor to the Defense Appropriations bill to provide the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with $1 million to study the health effects of the Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) located in upper Northwest Washington, DC ... Under House Rules, Members may no longer earmark funds to a specific jurisdiction or project. However, Norton's amendment would require the study or studies to be done of FUDSs in cities with more than 500,000 residents where chemical agents were tested. Spring Valley appears to be the only FUDS that meets that definition.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Press Release (July 6, 2011)

On Thursday Norton took to the House floor and offered her amendment. For the Army, $1 million represents a comma in its budget, but no one's adding funds to anything; her amendment got voted down. But after the vote, Washington's Norm Dicks, top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said he could help direct funds for the health study. "I lost the amendment," Norton says, "but I might have won the issue."
Harry Jaffe
The Examiner
July 7, 2011

Kent Slowinski & Ginny Durrin after the Palisades July 4th parade

District Government Soliciting $250,000 Follow-Up Health Study

2011-06-21T18:08:00.028-04:00

To provide a follow-up analysis of the initial health study completed by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health approximately four years ago, the study will consist of: documenting community concerns about health impacts possibly related to the Spring Valley FUDS, conducting open communication on project methods and findings in conjunction with the previous work completed, following-up on issues raised in the initial 2007 Scoping Study, and providing specific resources and education as needed to community members, groups and other interested parties.
Solicitation for Follow-up on Spring Valley Health Study
DC Office of Contracting & Procurement
June 21, 2011

Amendment No. 1
June 27, 2011

Spring Valley residents are hoping a proposed health study will be able to offer more information about the health effects of World War I-era contamination in their community. If the District and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health successfully hammer out a contract, the school’s researchers will immediately begin an update on a 2007 study that found an elevated incidence of arsenic-related cancers and other illnesses in Spring Valley, according to Mary Fox, a lead researcher in the study ... The contamination occurred during World War I, when the U.S. Army used the American University campus to test chemical weapons, which it fired into the then-undeveloped woods that later became the Spring Valley community.
Brady Holt
Northwest Current
July 13, 2011 (pg. 1)

Army Drilling 15 Wells to Pinpoint Perchlorate Source Near Kreeger

2011-06-11T17:32:00.007-04:00

Perchlorate source area characterization and deep well installation will tentatively begin in June 2011. The 15 new temporary wells on AU‟s campus will be installed between the location where the highest perchlorate levels in Spring Valley were detected, and an existing up gradient well with low perchlorate levels ... The groundwater sampling results taken from the new temporary wells and the geophysical survey results from the area around Kreeger Hall will be evaluated to identify potential perchlorate source areas.

Well #5 will be 15 feet north of highest perchlorate detections

Prior to installing temporary wells, each borehole location will be cleared to a depth of 10 feet using an air spade to ensure that utilities are not impacted by drilling activities ... Split-spoon samples (extending the length of the temporary well) will be collected and analyzed, along with one groundwater sample and one soil sample, approximately 10 to 15 feet below ground surface, from the borehole locations.

Well #9 will be 30 feet east of highest perchlorate detections

The perchlorate source area investigation is a separate effort where temporary wells will be drilled, installed, sampled, and abandoned in the same day.
Todd Beckwith, USACE
Restoration Advisory Board Meeting
May 10, 2011

Norton Asks US House to Ensure Spring Valley Cleanup Funding

2011-05-25T13:26:00.008-04:00

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will ... speak against an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012, that would cut $197 million for Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) and reallocate those funds to the disposal of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The amendment ... could affect the cleanup of munitions and toxins found at thousands of FUDS around the nation, including the site in Northwest D.C.'s Spring Valley neighborhood.

Said Norton: "Many FUDS are located far away from densely populated areas. The D.C. site is in one of the city's residential neighborhoods and almost certainly would not have been selected as a primary site for testing World War I munitions if the District had the right to govern itself and equal representation in the Congress."
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Press Release (May 25, 2011)

RAB Skeptics Try to Torpedo Spring Valley Follow-Up Health Study

2011-04-30T06:00:00.014-04:00

RAB Purpose & Member Selection Process

At the April Restoration Advisory Board meeting, skeptics derailed efforts to lobby D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray in favor of granting budget authority to the Dept. of the Environment to spend the $250,000 already appropriated for the Spring Valley follow-up health study recommended by Johns Hopkins University.

L. Monsein: In order to get a one in ten thousand risk increase in death by cancer because of arsenic, we calculated you'd have to eat a bucket of dirt every day for thirty years (14:15) ... There's just this hysterical: "We gotta study this, we gotta study this! People are dying!" People have psychological problems and other health problems and so forth. And people won't rest until it's proven that their problems are due to environmental agents in this community (15:32).

M. Pritzker: I have not heard yet any outside person who has studied it or is knowledgeable or is an expert who can conclude that anything that has occurred starting in World War I has physically harmed members of the Spring Valley community (26:56).
RAB Meeting (audio recording)
April 12, 2011

A yearlong survey of health problems in a 345-house section of Spring Valley has turned up 160 cases of chronic, often life-threatening and rare diseases — roughly one in every six homes — in the epicenter of the U.S. Army’s World War I chemical warfare testing grounds. The survey, coordinated through The Current, showed 131 individuals afflicted with 56 separate diseases of which more than half — 30 — can be linked to arsenic and other lethal agents that were developed, tested and then buried in the neighborhood during and after the war that ended in 1918.
Charlie Bermpohl
Northwest Current
November 10, 2004 (pg. B-1)

After WW II Allies Dumped 450 Tons of CW Off East Japan Coast

2011-04-22T16:59:00.022-04:00

Sato points to dump sites offshore Fukushima nuclear plant

Offshore of Choshi Bay was one of the biggest chemical dump sites in Japan. The Allied Forces dumped 450 tons of chemical weapons in depths of 100 – 200 meters between October 1945 and May 1946. According to the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, more than 600 incidents were reported to the government (shown by the red circle) ... and more than 50 people have suffered from the incidents around the Bay.

More than two thirds of the incidents occurred in the 1970s and in 1972 people discovered chemical weapons and agents on 66 occasions. However, no incident was reported to the government from 1993 to 2001. In fact, it is reported that fishermen in the bay area have been throwing the discovered chemical weapons back to the ocean without notifying the government. The fishermen are worried about a rumor that the fish from this region might be polluted by the weapons, which would affect their business. This would cause a larger scale of chemical material scattering.
Ryo Sato, Research Assistant
Global Green USA
Sea-Dumped Chemical Weapons: Japan (pgs. 14 - 15)

University Official Admits 18-Year Cleanup "Involves Many Unknowns"

2011-04-19T07:51:00.009-04:00

Spring Valley resident Rick Feeney lived at 4835 Glenbrook Rd. before it was the AU president’s house. In the summer of 1992, Feeney was cutting his grass when he noticed his dog yelping in the new pit construction workers had dug near his home. Liquid was coming from the dog’s eyes, and as Feeney got closer to the pit, his skin began to burn, according to a report by Washingtonian writer Harry Jaffe. Feeney told Jaffe that he felt like he had been hit with a toxic gas ...

In 1996, a landscaper was removing dirt to plant a tree at 4835 Glenbrook Rd. when smoke started pouring out of the hole he had dug. As his face began to swell, his coworkers rushed him to a hospital emergency room, according to an account in the Northwest Current [pg. B-4]. The landscaper survived, but he was one of several with long-lasting health problems caused by construction work in Spring Valley.

"American at War" Interactive Map

AU Chief of Staff David Taylor said the University’s next actions all depend on the Army Corps’ progress. “The Army Corps’ work involves many unknowns,” he said. “New information evolves as the investigation unfolds and we learn as much as we can about each circumstance.” AU may allow the unoccupied 4825 Glenbrook Rd. house to be torn down for a more thorough investigation of chemical and munitions burial pits, which may extend under the house, The Eagle reported in September.
Sylvia Carignan
The Eagle
April 18, 2011

Search for Campus Perchlorate Source Resumes Over Intersession

2011-04-04T19:48:00.015-04:00

A total of 15 soil borings and co-located groundwater samples are proposed to further characterize the perchlorate source on the AU campus. All discrete soil samples and groundwater samples will be analyzed for perchlorate. Most of these borings are currently situated between PZ-4 [at Kreeger Hall] and upgradient shallow wells [near Watkins and Hamilton] ... USACE confirmed that late spring is the preferable season for sampling first water due to rainfall flushing through the soil, in contrast to the dry summer season. The ideal time frame for AU is in late spring 2011, between completion of the spring semester and the beginning of summer classes [May 9 - 30] ...

"SA" designates locations of temporary perchlorate wells

USACE requested feedback from AU regarding potential geophysical surveys and subsequent intrusive investigation in front of Kreeger Hall on the AU campus for the purpose of investigating a 1918 ground scar. This ground scar may be a shadow on the 1918 aerial photograph and received little attention early during the Spring Valley project, but someone from EPA subsequently described this ground scar as a probable ‘T’ [trench]. This ground scar is also located adjacent to elevated perchlorate detections at PZ-4.
Spring Valley Partnering Meeting
January 25, 2011 (pgs. 5, 10 & 26)

Research Station Christened at AU in 1918 to Test Chemical Weapons

2011-03-18T07:00:00.021-04:00

Archives & Special Collections, American University Library

"If you've ever been to the Spring Valley neighborhood in Northwest D.C., you know it's a hop, skip and jump from American University. It's home to television personalities and ambassadors. But almost 100 years ago, Spring Valley was, how shall we say, a little bit different. Okay, more like a lot a bit different. The Army was running a World War I era chemical warfare research station in the area."
Metro Connection
WAMU 88.5 FM
March 18, 2011

Archives & Special Collections, American University Library

The Mary Graydon Center once housed the U.S. government’s largest chemical warfare research lab. The lab, then known as the New Chemical Research building, was part of the U.S. Army’s Chemical Warfare Service branch ... A local newspaper, the Baltimore Evening Star, visited the campus in 1918. “Gas and flame fighting is a new wrinkle in the American Army, but the ‘Hell Fire Battalion' has taken to it as the duck takes to water,” the Evening Star wrote. “It offers more possibilities of adventure and action than any other branch of the service” ...

But, according to one Army engineer, what the “Hell Fire Battalion” left behind at AU was even more deadly than the Germans’ chemical weapons.
Sylvia Carignan
The Eagle
March 14, 2011

Arsenic = 124 ppm at Site of Army Corps' Monthly Partnering Meetings

2011-03-08T19:03:00.004-05:00

Since May 2001, the US Army Corps of Engineers has hosted monthly meetings of the Spring Valley cleanup "partners" at its trailer-office on the federal property behind Sibley Hospital. This august body -- including representatives from the EPA, DC Department of the Environment, American University, the Restoration Advisory Board and local elected officials -- learned last November that the level of arsenic contamination outside the conference trailer measures 124 ppm, over six times the safety limit for the Spring Valley FUDS.

"Arsenic removal for 4 contaminated grids along the federal property fence near the guard shack is tentatively scheduled for early 2011. Of these grids, 2 exceed the 43 ppm cleanup goal with concentrations of 58 ppm and 124 ppm arsenic ... USACE requested that arsenic grids on federal property with concentrations below 43 ppm be left in place, including 2 of the grids mentioned above as well as arsenic grids within the Dalecarlia Woods.

USACE noted that the 43 ppm cleanup level is considered to be protective of human health on residential properties [instead of the 20 ppm standard], only if property access or landscaping issues interfere with soil removal. Although the presence of a fence and berm do not significantly interfere with removal of these grids, the 43 ppm cleanup level may be acceptable for grids on federal property."
Spring Valley Partnering Meeting
November 30, 2010 (pg. 14)

Student Newspaper Launches Investigative Series on AUES

2011-03-01T18:15:00.000-05:00

THE EAGLE ~ March 1, 2011 (interactive issue)

In April 1917, just days after the United States declared war on Germany, AU’s president wrote a letter to the White House. “To his Excellency, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States,” AU President Benjamin Leighton wrote. “I am authorized to extend to the United States Government the use of 92 acres of land lying within the District and composing the campus of the University … for such purpose as the Government may desire."

... While AU provided housing for thousands of soldiers, its academics suffered. University lectures, which were open to the public, were “reduced to a minimum,” The Courier wrote. “Sentinels challenge every person who enters the grounds and buildings; even the officers of the University must show their passes.” Though the University’s academic research faltered, research on chemical weapons began to thrive on the campus grounds.
Sylvia Carignan
The Eagle
February 28, 2011

FUDS Information Repository Moved to Tenley Public Library

2011-02-09T18:15:00.009-05:00

The Spring Valley information repository was relocated on Monday, Feb. 7 to the Tenley-Friendship Library at 4450 Wisconsin Avenue, NW ... The repository move was initiated at the suggestion of several community members at the January Restoration Advisory Board meeting. RAB and community members noted the Grand Reopening of the library was a well-timed opportunity to bring the repository back to a location closer and more easily accessible to the Spring Valley community ... Librarians at the Tenley-Friendship Library will be able to assist those interested in locating and viewing Spring Valley information repository documents.
The Corps'pondent
February 2011 (pg. 4)

EPA Will Regulate Perchlorate as Calif. Moves to Lower 1 ppb Limit

2011-02-02T20:36:00.008-05:00

U.S. EPA announced today that it will reverse a George W. Bush-era stance and consider setting new federal drinking water standards for the rocket fuel component perchlorate, linked to thyroid problems and other developmental impediments. The agency determined today that perchlorate presents a public health threat, saying that a proposal is on the way. An August study by the Government Accountability Office found the chemical -- which occurs naturally as well as in man-made form -- across 45 states, in water supplies that are used by between 5 million and 17 million Americans.

Speaking just after a testy exchange in which Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) accused EPA of unleashing an "onslaught of job-crushing regulations," EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said her agency's eventual rules will be "sensible and practical."
Greenwire
February 2, 2011

California OEHHA

California is proposing a tougher target for the rocket fuel chemical perchlorate in drinking water, citing studies that linked minute amounts of the chemical to impaired thyroid function in infants. The current health goal -- for water considered safe for everyone -- is 6 parts perchlorate per billion parts water. On Friday, the state proposed lowering the goal to 1 part per billion ...

Perchlorate impedes the thyroid gland's ability to absorb iodide, needed to make hormones that guide brain and nerve development and regulate metabolism. "Adults may go several days without iodide, which is an essential nutrient, but infants cannot store as much, so they need to have more consistent doses," Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment spokesman Sam Delson said.
The Press Enterprise
Riverside, CA
January 9, 2011

Plume Maps Trace Contours of AU Groundwater Contamination

2011-01-22T09:11:00.002-05:00

Kreeger Bldg. = 146 ppb (June 2007)

"Further planned groundwater study efforts include installation and sampling of the remaining 3 deep wells, quarterly sampling of selected wells for a time frame of 1 year, additional characterization of the perchlorate plume source on the AU campus using 15 temporary wells upgradient of the highest perchlorate concentrations to date, and isotopic analysis of perchlorate ... The 2007 and 2009 perchlorate contours are more complete due to more down-gradient groundwater sampling points, with the highest perchlorate concentrations of 146 ppb and 50 ppb, respectively, located at PZ-4 on the AU campus."

Kreeger Bldg. = 50 ppb (November 2009)

"Quarterly groundwater monitoring will be conducted during the next year to determine whether groundwater perchlorate concentrations change seasonally and whether any significant trends in perchlorate concentrations are associated with specific times of the year ... The temporary wells are specifically designed to pinpoint the location of a potential perchlorate source on the AU campus that requires further investigation. Sampling of these temporary wells may delineate a clear line between high and low perchlorate concentrations."
Todd Beckwith, USACE
Restoration Advisory Board Meeting
January 11, 2011

1st Peek at Dalecarlia Woods Will Dig up 700 Anomalies, 12 Trenches

2011-01-13T07:31:00.027-05:00

During World War I, a sixty-two acre section of Dalecarlia Woods next to Washington DC's reservoir was the impact area (AOI 6) for Livens projectiles fired from the American University Experiment Station one mile to the east, as well as the location of a munitions burial pit (AOI 2) alongside a narrow gauge railway line that once extended there from AU.

North perimeter fence of federal property

Amid these steep wooded hills in coming weeks, the Corps of Engineers will begin an intrusive investigation of 700 single-point metallic anomalies and twelve possible munitions disposal trenches identified during the initial, 18-acre phase of their geophysical survey on the federal property.

North side of initial 18-acre intrusive investigation

Corps Begins Destroying WW I Munitions in Northwest DC

2011-01-07T23:20:00.013-05:00

AP Photo

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to destroy a slew of World War I-era munitions uncovered during a cleanup of a northwest Washington neighborhood beginning next week, officials said Thursday. The Army Corps will use a detonation chamber near Sibley Memorial Hospital in the pricey Spring Valley neighborhood to dispose of about 100 munitions found buried in the yard of a home near American University, said project manager Todd Beckwith. The process begins next week and will cost about $500,000.
Brett Zonger
Associated Press
January 7, 2011

The main noise that will escape the site is the sound of each individual detonation, which Beckwith likened to a car's backfire lasting a fraction of a second 10 time a day ... [Spring Valley advisory neighborhood commissioner] Nan Wells said she still would have preferred to see the munitions taken out of Spring Valley to be destroyed. "I just think an abundance of caution is appropriate, and nothing is fail-safe that has people involved."
Brady Holt
Northwest Current
January 12, 2011

Munitions Destruction Delayed Again Until January 2011

2010-12-10T18:33:00.010-05:00

Behind hospital vapor containment tent (right) awaits CDC

"We were planning to start the controlled detonation chamber operation this week and complete the effort before the holidays. Unfortunately, there was an unanticipated delay in the set up process. When the CDC team was preparing to transport the chamber from Aberdeen Proving Ground to Spring Valley, the hydraulics on the trailer broke ... The project team worked to get a second staging platform ready so the CDC system could be transferred onto it via a crane lift ... With this delay, we will not be able to start CDC operations until after the new year. The new planned start date is January 10."
Todd Beckwith 
Spring Valley Project Manager
December 10, 2010

Army May Seek Court Order to Access "POI 2" on Fordham Road

2010-11-22T13:30:00.004-05:00

"POI 2" is located behind houses on this block of Fordham Road

USACE clarified that EPA legal assistance was requested to obtain access to a Fordham Road property where a potential disposal pit [Point of Interest 2] may be present ... The Fordham Road property is located adjacent to a Test Trench similar to the Test Trench on 52nd Court where an associated AUES-related disposal pit was recovered. This suggests that a significant public health threat is potentially present ... DDOE will determine whether property access at a 3700 block of Fordham Road property can potentially be obtained under a DC court order via the hazardous waste management act.
Partnering Meeting Minutes
October 26, 2010

Quarterly Sampling Begins in Hunt for Campus Perchlorate Source

2010-11-16T16:50:00.003-05:00

The Army Corps of Engineers will conduct tests to determine if perchlorate in Spring Valley groundwater near Sibley Memorial Hospital comes from the same source as the perchlorate in the groundwater at AU’s campus ... Experts believe a former munitions pit on the South side of campus called Lot 18 is causing the high perchlorate levels in both locations ... Perchlorate, a dangerous chemical that can cause thyroid disorders, was used at AU during World War I to make chemical weapons.

The Kreeger Hall testing site has the highest concentration of perchlorate in Spring Valley ... The Army Corps will now sample groundwater from the area every three months because perchlorate levels in the groundwater change according to the seasons and the amount of precipitation, [project manager Dan] Noble said.
Mitch Ellmauer
The Eagle (November 15, 2010)

Utility Consults Army to Replace Water Mains in Spring Valley

2010-11-10T18:14:00.005-05:00

A city initiative to replace aging water mains in the neighborhood of last year’s devastating fire on Chain Bridge Road ran headfirst last week into one of the facts of life in Spring Valley: buried munitions. Representatives from the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority told the area advisory neighborhood commission last week that in addition to Chain Bridge Road, portions of Glenbrook Road, Woodway Lane and Rockwood Parkway would be dug up in order to replace the water mains.

But the Army Corps of Engineers has told residents that sections of those roads cover potential munitions caches, commissioners said. “They have said they don’t want to disturb the site,” said commissioner Tom Smith ... According to a spokesperson for the District Department of the Environment, there is a slight possibility that chemical munitions could be found under the roadways.
Northwest Current
November 10, 2010 (pg. 1)

"Bombs in Our Backyard" Excerpt Shown at Corcoran Gallery of Art

2010-10-27T22:25:00.017-04:00

Last week at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Spring Valley resident Ginny Durrin presented a rough cut of her film about the munitions that were tested and buried at American University during World War I. “I’ve been filming ever since the story of a neighborhood in distress first broke,” Durrin said. “The cleanup has taken 100 times as long as putting the chemicals in the ground there in the first place” ... Durrin said she must raise about $100,000 to complete her movie.
Northwest Current
October 27, 2010: pg. 12

Filmmaker Ginny Durrin

Through the incorporation of archival footage, local news coverage, and interviews with Spring Valley residents and army and government officials, “Bombs in Our Backyard” raises questions about government culpability and social and environmental responsibility while shedding light on a growing cause for concern: as many as 200 other Formerly Used Defense Sites exist elsewhere in America ... “Bombs in Our Backyard” is a clarion call to activists, environmentalists, and thoughtful, engaged citizens the world over.
Bombs in Our Backyard

Former Ft. Detrick Employee Says Bio Weapons Were Released in DC

2010-10-21T22:03:00.008-04:00

FREDERICK, Md. (WUSA) -- A former Ft. Detrick employee says biological weapons were released into the air and the unsuspecting public was exposed. She says it happened in Washington, DC, during the Cold War. Dottie Blank, 77, says she worked as a secretary at Ft. Detrick from 1955 to 1989 ... She says members of the military would expose people in public to biological diseases.

"They called them the suitcase samplers," she said. "They would go down to DC, or where the train is, and they would use whatever they had mixed up and they would just sort of walk through like a regular person that was getting a train and they would let that out into the atmosphere." She says the diseases were known to make people sick, but not cause death. She says they would test the air to see how far the chemical traveled ...

Blank has Leukemia. She says Ft. Detrick has been providing her bottled water for years because chemicals were found in her water at home. She says she believes her illness was caused by chemicals from Ft. Detrick.
9 NEWS NOW
October 21, 2010

EPA Braces for Pushback on Proposed Perchlorate Standard

2010-10-04T20:57:00.014-04:00

Environmental Working Group

A government official briefed by the EPA told The Associated Press on Thursday night that the agency has proposed that the chemical, perchlorate, be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act ... In 2008, under President George W. Bush, the EPA decided against regulating the chemical, saying that setting a federal standard would do little to reduce risks to public health. That decision angered environmentalists and Democratic lawmakers. The Pentagon and EPA have tussled over the issue for years, with the Pentagon potentially facing liability if the standard were to force water agencies around the country to undertake costly cleanup efforts.
Associated Press
September 30, 2010

Environmental Working Group

But EPA's initial foray toward using its Safe Drinking Water Act authority against perchlorate is only the first step in a lengthy process that begins at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), an arm of the Office of Management and Budget where federal agencies and private-sector interests weigh in on the economic impact of potential new rules ... While [University of Maryland law professor Rena Steinzor] greeted EPA's movement on perchlorate with "a big round of applause," Steinzor said she would view OIRA review of the chemical with "a sense of foreboding ... because EPA has encountered such vehement resistance from federal polluters," which could face high cleanup bills. Perchlorate contamination is estimated to be present in the drinking water of at least 35 states and the District of Columbia.
New York Times
October 4, 2010

Conventional Munitions Will be Destroyed Behind Hospital Soon

2010-09-21T20:45:00.004-04:00

Later this fall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to mobilize a Controlled Detonation Chamber (CDC) to the Spring Valley federal property to destroy the conventional munitions that were recovered during recent investigations at Spring Valley.. . The destruction process begins by wrapping a donor explosive, or rolled sheet explosive, around the munition, placing the munition in the CDC, then closing and sealing the door. Once the door is closed, the donor explosive is remotely detonated.

In addition to the inherent safety measures built into the detonation chamber, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to use sandbag barriers to ensure the safety of the workers and the surrounding community during the operation. The safety and setup plans are currently being reviewed by various organizations within the Department of Defense, as well as the Corps’ regulatory partners.
The Corps'pondent
September 2010

Munitions Investigation Next to Reservoir Nears Completion

2010-09-11T08:46:00.000-04:00

Work is progressing on the geophysical investigation that began last summer of a 62-acre section of Dalecarlia Woods, located adjacent to the Dalecarlia Parkway. A portion of the site was used by the U.S. Army during World War I as a target/impact area and for possible munitions disposal ... Earth Resources Techology has completed the geophysical survey on about 70 percent of survey area and plans to finish the geophysical data collection on the entire 62-acres by this fall ... "They are planning to begin the first 10 acres of the intrusive anomaly investigation of the woods by the fall of this year and complete the activity by the summer of 2011,” said Lan Reeser, USACE design team leader.
The Corps'pondent
September 2010

CERCLA Feasibility Study Will Delay Pit 3 Dig at Least 9 Months

2010-09-06T12:15:00.000-04:00

Workers in Emergency Containment Structure demobilize Pit 3

Progress was made this month in determining the next step in the administrative process for the Pit 3 Area property on Glenbrook Road ... A decision was made to begin a Feasibility Study. The Feasibility Study is the part of the administrative Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act process in which there is a comprehensive review of all information and data generated to date at the property.

In coming months, USACE will draft the Feasibility Study document for the Pit 3 Area property on Glenbrook Road and will analyze all options for final cleanup of the property. A Proposed Plan containing potential options and the recommended approach for conducting the cleanup of the property will then be published and made available for public review and comment.
Spring Valley Project Monthly Update
August 2010

"Nothing Unusual" about Indoor Air Monitoring at AU President's House

2010-09-01T07:14:00.007-04:00

4835 Glenbrook Road

AU also announced that it has been conducting periodic air monitoring at president [Neil Kerwin's] residence. Many of the chemicals in the soil at Pit 3 react with the air to give off gas and toxic fumes .... Some members of the community are upset because AU had not told the Army Corps of Engineers or Spring Valley residents that it was conducting air quality tests at the president’s residence, according to [Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Tom] Smith.

“I was somewhat stunned … because air monitoring is a very sensitive issue in the neighborhood. Some residents have pushed the Army to conduct air monitoring in their homes, and the Army has refused,” Smith wrote in an e-mail. [David] Taylor and [Jorge] Abud claim there was nothing unusual about air monitoring tests at the president’s house.
Mitch Ellmauer
The Eagle
September 1, 2010

Spring Valley Partners Straying Off US Army Corps Reservation

2010-08-22T22:30:00.030-04:00

Paul Chrowstowsi, Ph.D. QEP

P. Chrostowski mentioned that AU feels that in the event of an arsenic trichloride release within the ECS, substantial arsenic trichloride concentrations may remain airborne ... AU recommended specific air monitoring enhancements and an additional air monitoring system to address this concern.

Chrostowski described the AU administration’s position on future work conducted at the Pit 3 property. A comprehensive plan should be developed to address all possible AUES-related property findings, including removal of the house, ancillary excavation underneath the house footprint, and specific recommendations for the next high-probability investigation phase. Removal of the entire structure appears to be the only acceptable course of action, due to uncertainties about the amount of AUES-related items and contamination remaining on the property.

Veolia Environmental Services (Port Arthur)

EPA expressed the need for further discussion and analysis of waste disposal alternatives. Although AUES-related waste is currently shipped to a licensed facility in Port Arthur, Texas, the surrounding area is an environmental justice showcase community where residents and EPA have expressed concerns about waste disposal and overall pollution. Future planning should include a public meeting in Port Arthur with significant input from community members and stakeholders.

Dr. Peter deFur

Peter deFur inquired about EPA’s progress in obtaining information from the builder of the Pit 3 property. EPA explained that a letter was sent to pursue information on AUES-related discoveries during house construction. The builder’s lawyer responded in February 2010 and claimed business confidentiality based on attorney-client privileges ... DDOE replied that DC Councilmember Mary Cheh suggested issuing a subpoena.
Spring Valley Partnering Meeting Minutes
June 29, 2010 (pg, 5)

GAO Recommends Greater EPA Oversight of Military Cleanups

2010-08-16T16:10:00.019-04:00

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is urging EPA and the Defense Department to overhaul the process for cleaning up military bases in order to improve the remediation progress, including the possible creation of a new record-keeping system and revisions to an executive order to boost EPA's oversight of cleanups. GAO in a report released Aug. 16 also reiterates a recommendation it made in 2009 that Congress consider amending section 120 of the Comprehensive, Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act to authorize EPA to administratively impose penalties to enforce cleanup requirements at federal facilities.
InsideEPA.com
August 16, 2010

U.S. Government Accountability Office

The extensive use of performance-based contracts at these installations has created pressure to operate within price caps and fixed deadlines. In some cases, these pressures may have contributed to installations not exploring the full range of cleanup remedies, or relying on non-construction remedies, such as allowing contaminated groundwater to attenuate over time rather than being cleaned up.
Cleanup Progress at Key Defense Installations
Government Accountability Office
July 15, 2010

Army Revisits Elementary School to Sample Soil Again for Arsenic

2010-08-09T11:01:00.000-04:00

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month sampled soil from the campus of Horace Mann Elementary School to check for elevated levels of arsenic. Preliminary results show low concentrations of the poisonous chemical, according to Army officials ... The Corps had performed some soil sampling at the school in 2001, finding levels of arsenic far below those seen in nearby areas.

Composite screening for arsenic at Horace Mann
Elementary School (areas 1, 3 & 4 were tested in 2001)

Officials decided to perform the latest testing after several residents and parents questioned why the Corps had not sampled a larger swath of the campus across from American University, where the Army conducted a chemical weapons program during World War I ... Alma Gates [who represents Horace Mann on the Spring Valley Restoration Advisory Board] added that she understood the concerns of those who questioned why the Army Corps had not performed a more complete soil investigation at the school.
Ian Thomas
Northwest Current
July 21, 2010: pg.1

Pit 3 Excavation on Hold as Corps Considers "Next Stage" of Cleanup

2010-07-21T19:00:00.002-04:00

In June, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers received substantial comments on the Pit 3 Area's work plan for the 'high probability' test pit investigation. Upon review of the comments, we will begin a comprehensive assessment of how to complete work at the property ... We will inform the community of the assessment approach as soon as it is determined. All options for cleanup of the property will be reviewed as part of the process. During this process, which will take several months, some staging equipment will be removed from the Pit 3 Area property, fencing will be moved from the road to the sidewalk and minimal restoration will be conducted.
Spring Valley FUDS
Project Update (June 2010)

During a meeting of the Restoration Advisory Board last week, Army officials revealed that they are also considering moving on to the next stage of cleanup at 4825 Glenbrook Road, the site of a munitions burial pit. The Army shut down work at the site in March after diggers uncovered fuming glassware containing arsenic trichloride, an ingredient used to make the blistering agent lewisite ... “It’s somewhat of a judgment call,” Noble said. “The [investigation] has gone on for a long time, and it’s been fairly expensive" ... Among the decisions to be made is whether to tear down the house that currently occupies the Glenbrook Road property, which is owned by American University.
Ian Thomas
Northwest Current
July 21, 2010: pg.1

AU Will Build Dormitories on Contaminated South Campus Sites

2010-06-22T18:23:00.031-04:00

Conspicuous by their absence are Rockwod, Financial Aid & the
Public Safety buildings, as well as the Child Development Center

American University is proposing to construct three undergraduate dormitories -- totaling 304,000 square feet -- at the location of the most contaminated areas on this campus, a 90-year-old Formerly Used Defense Site.

"An overarching theme of American University's developing 2011 Campus Plan is to bring more of our undergraduate students back to live on campus. The latest draft of the plan, which was unveiled in May at a monthly meeting with community representatives, focuses on building student housing to meet AU's current and projected needs for the next decade."
2011 Campus Plan Brings More Students Back On Campus
June 21, 2010

AUES looking southwest from roof of McKinley Building (1918)

University officials resisted the idea that they hadn't been listening to community members and thoroughly evaluating their requests, and said they sometimes directly took residents' advice on where to put a building. David Taylor, the university president's chief of staff, said that while not every resident agrees with the plan, building dorms at the site of the current public safety building is one of several decisions that were adopted from community input.
Northwest Current
June 16, 2010 (pg. 1)

CCC May Have Buried WMD's Under the C & O Canal in the 1930's

2010-06-08T19:00:00.039-04:00

Steam shovel may have buried munitions under C&O Canal

The District of Columbia Department of Health, Environmental Health Administration received information from a resident of Spring Valley consisting of, among other things, a February 25, 1993, memorandum of a phone call from one Ian MacFee to the Mayor’s Office of Constituent Services alleging that the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) buried munitions in 14 pits at the AUES [American University Experiment Station]. The caller stated that he worked with the CCC in the 1930s under the command of a Lt. Wray Noel ... There were other intricate details in the telephone call that confirmed facts previously known to the District of Columbia staff (i.e., “French 75s and mustard gas” ) but which are known to only a small circle of experts. These facts recited by the caller suggested a very knowledgeable witness.

North of Fletcher's Boathouse, shovel was lowered into
then-empty canal from bike path (former railroad line)

The District of Columbia was able to obtain a photograph dated April 30, 1937, that covers 22 months of Lt. Noel’s 24-month service period ... Indeed, as EPIC [Environmental Photographic Interpretation Center] predicted the photo contains an obvious linear feature approximately a half mile long parallel to the C&O Canal suggesting mechanically worked earth ... This area had railroad access and it would have been possible to bring a steam shovel into the area as MacFee indicated. It was also federal property and close to the AUES. Further, the area upon physical examination still shows clear evidence of earth that has been excavated by mechanical means ... It is likely that the burials were made in the canal proper while the crane was there for the purpose of rebuilding the towpath.

Richard D. Albright
"The Continuing Search for Burial Sites"
Cleanup of Chemical & Explosive Munitions

Search for WW I Munitions Resumes in Dalecarlia Woods

2010-05-31T14:07:00.007-04:00

The geophysical survey field team prepares to return to work in the Dalecarlia Woods this month after a nearly two month break caused by a contractor worker injury … Dalecarlia Woods is a former World War I down range impact and possible munitions disposal area that includes about 62-acres … “Based on the former use of this area and what’s already been found on the surface, it would not be a big surprise to find a significant amount of munitions debris directly below the surface in this area,” said Lan Reeser [design team leader, USACE]. “We have procedures in place to safely address whatever munitions related finds we may encounter.”
The Corps’pondent
June 2010 (pg. 3)

Sea-Dumped Chemical Weapons Are Rusting Time Bombs

2010-05-17T21:00:00.029-04:00

Presenters: Finn Longinotto and Ryo Sato

Global Green USA's Security and Sustainability Program continued discussion on sea-dumped munitions, especially chemical weapons (CW) as part of its "Healing the Oceans" initiative. This roundtable gave a general introduction to the issue, describing the geography, quantities and potential health hazards ... The session was particularly important in defining the context within which the more in-depth roundtables to follow will delve further into the primary geographic locations – the Baltic, the Pacific including Hawaii, and the Mediterranean – and tackle legal, public health and possible mitigation issues.
Sea-Dumped Munitions: Risks & Challenges
May 10, 2010

Interactive Map

According to U.S. Department of Defense reports, the U.S military alone dumped CW [chemical warfare] agents in waters worldwide on at least 74 occasions between 1918 and 1970 ... Shells and bombs sometimes were jettisoned unfettered, but more often were loaded as cargo into ships that were sunk by opening sea cocks or holed by artillery fire or torpedoes. Sunken ships tended to settle on the ocean floor largely intact, with the result that the CW material they contained remained within a small area. Unfettered material could settle within a small area, but also might become widely dispersed by currents, tides, and other forces. As can be realized, not much consideration was given at the time to the safety and environmental implications of employing ocean-dumping disposal techniques.
Chemical Munitions Dumped at Sea
James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies
Monterey Institute of International Studies

Spring Valley Cleanup Lands on Front Page of Los Angeles Times

2010-05-10T06:18:00.015-04:00

On March 29, a broken bottle spewed smoke inside the containment tent. Tests show the fumes came from arsenic trichloride, which is poisonous by inhalation, skin contact or ingestion. Known as "arsenic butter," the compound was used to boost the lethality of mustard, a blister agent that reportedly caused more than 1 million casualties in World War I, and to produce lewisite, dubbed the "dew of death," and other chemical warfare agents.

Appendix A-11(Closed Cavity Photo Log 2010-2011)

The find was deemed so perilous that work has been halted until Army engineers can determine how to safely proceed. "The concern is they may find a lot more, and there's a real question whether the air pollution controls are adequate," said Paul Chrostowski, an environmental scientist who monitors the cleanup for the university. Kerwin, the university president, was forced to abandon his home for two years when his yard was dug up. He and his wife moved back last fall after tests showed the hazard was gone."We may have to change our analysis now," Chrostowski said. "He may have to move again."
Bob Drogin

Los Angeles Times
May 10, 2010 (pg. 1)

Student Holds Forum on Toxins Buried Under American University

2010-04-25T14:52:00.038-04:00

Michael Ginsberg, Kent Slowinski, Nan Wells, William Hirzy, Beth Resnick & Steven Hirsh

The discussion, titled The Toxins beneath American University aimed to inform the AU community and Spring Valley residents about the future of remediation efforts and potential health issues, according to Michael Ginsberg, a senior in the School of International Service ... "I held this panel at Wesley Seminary, not American University, because the administration would not permit it to take place on campus," [Ginsberg said] ... "AU is not truly interested in open dialogue on the issues at hand, but in preserving and maintaining its sanitized presentation of the facts."

"According to a 1921 article in The Courier, American University's trustees gave permission to the Army to bury $800,000 of chemical warfare agents, munitions and explosives on campus and released the federal government of all liability in exchange for 8 buildings that the Army built," [Kent Slowinski observed]. "This is one of the worst cases of environmental contamination in the District of Columbia. The responsible thing to do, according to the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, is to set up a disease registry for AU students, faculty and staff, as well as Spring Valley residents, workers and tenants."
Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle
April 25, 2010

Ginsburg invited 28 potential speakers, including representatives of the university and the Army Corps of Engineers, but only five attended, none of them representing the Army or the school's administration ... As for the university, spokesperson Camille Lepre said the school administration did not jointly decide against participating. Rather, she said Ginsberg asked a number of university officials to attend and "each person made their own decision based on their own schedules."
Ian Thomas
Northwest Current
May 12, 2010 (pg. 3)

"Smoking" Arsenic Discovery Stops Excavations at Burial Pit 3

2010-04-16T16:57:00.002-04:00

Workers found a larger jar with mustard, glassware that was smoking and fuming, scrap munitions and a shell containing a tear gas agent. In late March, the Army Corps uncovered the smoking chemical arsenic trichloride for the first time in the cleanup project. It can be used to develop the blistering agent lewisite, Noble said. Digging was halted shortly after while officials review their safety procedures. American University spokeswoman Camille Lepre said there were no plans to move or cancel any campus events cheduled at the [neighboring] president's house.
Brett Zongker
Asociated Press
April 16, 2010

On Glenbrook Road two houses sit side-by-side. To the left is the stately, stone home with eight white columns and fine landscaping where American University President Cornelius Kerwin hosts picnics with students; right next door is a brick house surrounded by a 10-foot chain link fence, topped by a single strand of barbed wire. Two structures encased in plastic tarps sit atop the most potentially lethal toxic waste site in any U.S. city ... Behind Sibley Hospital, the Army is disposing bombs in the EDS, a mobile unit that's designed to take the toxicity from the chemicals. The EDS is right next to Dalecarlia Reservoir, 50 yards away from a water treatment facility, and not far from an assisted living facility.
Harry Jaffe
Washington Examiner
April 18, 2010

Munitions Disposal begins April 15; DDOE Requires Safety Plan First

2010-04-07T22:42:00.010-04:00

Preparations continued this month for the upcoming destruction of the 5 chemical munitions and 20 liquid-filled (non-chemical agent) items near the Spring Valley Project Field Offices on federal property ... The destruction of the chemical munitions is tentatively scheduled to start on April 15th and will take about 6 working days to complete, dependent on weather. Following neutralization of the chemical agent-filled munitions, the liquid-filled munition items will be processed. The EDS operation is expected to be complete in early May.
Spring Valley Monthly Project Update
March 2010

Emergency Destruction System inside containment structure

The D.C. Department of the Environment will require the city to craft a public safety plan before allowing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to proceed with the destruction of chemical munitions in Spring Valley ... Greg Nielson, the Army's group leader on the munitions destruction project, said the Army Corps had already taken safety steps "so we could take the public completely out of the picture. But if the District of Columbia wants to do more, hey, that's fine. If it makes the residents feel better, that's great."
Ian Thomas
Northwest Current
April 7, 2010 (pg. 1)

Corps Claims No Public Safety Plan Needed for WMD Disposal in DC

2010-03-31T20:38:00.027-04:00

DC City Council Joint Public Hearing (3/29/10)

"The longest running play in America is here in Washington and it is named Shear Madness, which in my view is exactly what this decision is," said Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Stu Ross. "Just pause and think for a moment about what would happen if someone got it wrong." Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Thomas Smith added, "As history has shown us, accidents happen. It would be nice to know there is a plan in place that is more detailed than somebody saying, 'Whoops.'"
NBC 4
Washington, DC
March 30, 2010

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has not developed a public safety plan for responding should an accident occur during next month’s destruction of chemical munitions in Spring Valley ... Prior to allowing work to begin, technicians will monitor weather conditions to ensure that in the event of a release the chemical plume would not pose a threat by the time it could reach the residential neighborhood, which is 380 feet from the demolition site.

“As the plume moves away from the origin point, it becomes more and more dilute, and so when it reaches [that] distance it is so dilute that there’s no way it could cause a health threat anymore,” said Dan Noble, the Army Corps Spring Valley project manager.
Ian Thomas
Northwest Current
March 31, 2010 (pg. 1)

Artillery Shells Found on Ground alongside Dalecarlia Parkway

2010-03-20T13:32:00.009-04:00

Two 90-year-old artillery shells were found in flagged area

Up until the snow storm in early February, preparations for the geophysical survey of the Dalecarlia Parkway/DC right-of-way area continued. The team continued removal of underbrush and bamboo as well as the clearance of any metallic surface debris. During the surface clearance, two munition debris items, both from 75 mm munition items were recovered. Neither posed any hazard to workers or the community.
Spring Valley Project Monthly Update
February 2010

Shells found on range fan yards west of Dalecarlia Parkway

Lend a Helping Hand to Re-brand "Operation Safe Removal"

2010-03-09T19:00:00.000-05:00

Since 1993, the Army Corps of Engineers have marched under the banner Operation Safe Removal. Considering their arduous efforts, and how much removal they’ve done, the Army must be exhausted by now. Their operation name is exhausted, too — it just doesn’t seem to fit anymore. You can help refresh that tired Army operation by creating a new name, logo, or tag line. How? By entering the Environmental Health Group's re-brand "Operation Safe Removal" contest. See details at ...
Re-Brand Operation Safe Removal
April Fool Contest

Chemical Weapons To be Neutralized Next to Reservoir within Six Weeks

2010-03-01T16:51:00.017-05:00

The RCWM (Recovered Chemical Warfare Materiel) is destroyed on site using the EDS. The EDS is a mobile treatment system designed to destroy RCWM. The EDS would be transported to the SVFUDS federal property and staged near the current storage facilities ... The EDS uses explosive cutting charges to open the munitions, followed by addition of neutralizing agents that neutralize the chemical agent. The explosive detonation and chemical neutralization process is conducted within a stainless steel containment vessel which contains the blast, vapors and fragments ... The liquid and solid wastes are containerized and shipped off-site to a permitted TSDF.
"Disposal of Recovered Chemical Warfare Materiel"
Action Memorandum, Spring Valley FUDS
February 2010

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' recent decision to destroy chemical and conventional weapons behind Sibley Hospital some time in April, raises a number of unanswered questions ... Army officials inflated the cost of moving the munitions by including $200,000 to fly the munitions by helicopter to a military facility. All that's needed is the Tech Unit pickup truck and a police escort
Kent Slowinski
Northwest Current
March 24, 2010 (pg. 10)

"Buried in History" to Compete at DC Environmental Film Festival

2010-02-27T14:36:00.000-05:00

Janet Bohlen points to where munition was found

Produced by Georgetown University students, BURIED IN HISTORY is a gripping 11-minute documentary that uncovers a hidden story in Spring Valley, one of Washington, D.C.’s most affluent neighborhoods and site of a chemical research facility during World War I. It will compete with seven other short student documentaries at the Environmental Film Festival. The program will be introduced by Chris Palmer and Sandy Cannon-Brown, Professors, American University. A panel discussion follows.

Student filmmakers Nick Troiano, Lucy Obus, Brett Davis and Mary Kate Robbett with Kent Slowinski

Army Concedes Recent Finds "Remarkably Similar" to Sgt. Maurer Pit

2010-02-25T20:46:00.009-05:00

Bottle necks recovered on Glenbrook before February snow storm

The Army Corps of Engineers recovered five more broken glass bottlenecks at its 4825 Glenbrook Rd. investigation, bringing the total to eight bottlenecks found in the last month, according to the Corps’ Spring Valley project manager Dan Noble ... At the Feb. 16 Restoration Advisory Board meeting, Noble said the bottlenecks recovered looked “remarkably similar” to the bottles depicted in a 1918 photo with Army Sergeant C. W. Maurer standing amid approximately 30 glass jugs ... The Corps showed photos of the current investigation, which revealed a white substance in the soil where workers found the broken bottlenecks. “This is consistent with what you see in that photo,” Noble said. “We see the white powder in the photo, and we see white powder here in the ground."
Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle (February 25, 2010: pg 4)

AUES debris recovered on Glenbrook before February snow storm

Perchlorate at Kreeger Registers Over Three Times EPA Standard

2010-02-21T10:09:00.021-05:00

Perchlorate measures 50 ppb at PZ-4 in front of Kreeger Bldg.

The Environmental Protection Agency has set the [interim advisory] safety standard for perchlorate levels in drinking water at 15 parts per billion ... Fourteen samples from four wells in the AU and Spring Valley area exceed the EPA perchlorate advisory level, including one sample from a well near the Kreeger Building with perchlorate levels of 146 ppb as of June 2007 — almost 10 times the EPA standard, according to the Corps. But when the Corps took a reading at that well last November, that number was down to 50.
Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle (February 21, 2010: pg. 1)

"The Army’s most recent perchlorate sampling with lower numbers come from tests conducted in November under far different conditions then all previous sampling which had been done in the spring and summer. In their conclusions, the Army neglects to consider soil density and rainwater differences in seasons, and uses, for comparison to the November data, summer sampling more than two years old."
Jeffrey Hanley, Class of 2009
The Eagle (February 21, 2010)

Perchlorate exceeds federal advisory limit at Sibley Hospital

"I participated with hydrologists from EPA, the Corps, USGS, DC and URS — the company that does the groundwater testing — and there was more than a little discussion about where that perchlorate is coming from. We've been trying to work on speculating and gathering information that we've gotten in order to go beyond speculation. It's a sore spot for us trying to figure it out. And also, as Todd pointed out, we've had this discussion of the number of cases in which we've worked on groundwater sites where you never definitively identify where the contamination is coming from. It's an ongoing problem."
Peter deFur, Ph.D.
Technical Consultant, Spring Valley RAB
February 16, 2010

Sgt. Maurer WMD Pit Discovered Next to Glenbrook Road House

2010-01-30T10:30:00.013-05:00

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has unearthed three broken glass jugs in Spring Valley that might have come from the long-sought Sgt. Maurer burial pit, according to a D.C. Deparment of the Environment official. The pit is believed to hold more than 20 containers of mustard agent or other chemical weapons materiel. The jugs were found Monday near the house a 4825 Glenbrook Road, indicating that the pit might be beneath or near the home's foundation.
Ian Thomas
Northwest Current (January 27, 2010: pg. 1)

“We have always said that attempting to name a pit the 'Sgt. Maurer pit' is a difficult task,” [Army Corps spokesman Clem Gaines] added. “It could be Pit 1, 2 or 3, or it could be a pit that over the years has been demolished by all the development in the Glenbrook Road area” ... [District Department of the Environment specialist Dr. Richard] Albright conveyed his sympathies to AU, which volunteered its campus to be used as an experimental station for the Army’s Chemical Corps during World War I. “They tried to do the patriotic thing in 1917, and now I’m sure they’re still ruing that decision."
Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle (January 31, 2010: pg. 1)

75mm Round Found Under Front Entrance of Public Safety Building

2010-01-23T03:03:00.001-05:00

Courtesy of USACE

The Army Corps of Engineers unearthed more munitions debris next to the Public Safety building during this winter break. On Jan. 4, workers found a single 75mm round buried four feet underneath a concrete slab that they had removed in front of the building’s lower entrance ... Kent Slowinsk i , a community activist and former Restoration Advisory Board member, said recent work conducted by the Army Corps indicates a likelihood that the debris field around the Public Safety building extends underneath the building, because debris from the AU Experimental Station has been found behind and in front of it ... David Taylor [President Neil Kerwin’s chief of staff] confirmed that the operation is “winding down,” but that debris collection is ongoing.
Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle ~ January 21, 2010

Army Chasing Perchlorate Groundwater Plume Across University Campus

2010-01-01T00:01:00.010-05:00

New monitoring wells are upgradient of Kreeger Hall contamination

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continued its groundwater study in Spring Valley this fall, which included the installation of four new groundwater monitoring wells and the sampling of existing monitoring wells, as well as, surface water locations ... Of the four newly installed wells, three were placed on the American University property to help better understand the source of the perchlorate detections in the area, and to characterize the nature and extent of the perchlorate groundwater plume.
The Corps'pondent
December 2009 (pg. 3)

146 ppb perchlorate in groundwater 10 yds north of Kreeger Hall

These wells will assist with the investigation to locate the source and migration of a possible perchlorate plume located underneath the southeast portion of the AU campus. Current shallow well data indicates a potential plume of perchlorate migrating west and could discharge to East Creek ... To date, the highest perchlorate level detected in the groundwater study area is 146 ppb, which is located on the AU campus [next to Kreeger Hall] PZ 4. Several of the shallow groundwater wells have revealed elevated perchlorate levels scattered thoughout the southwestern part of the AU campus and Sibley Hospital. Three additional wells, located upgradient of the well with the highest perchlorate reading, PZ 4, are proposed to determine the extent and levels of perchlorate contamination.
Partnering Meeting Minutes
April 29 - 30, 2008 (pg. 3)

Objections Raised to Neutralizing WMDs Next to Sibley Hospital

2009-12-18T18:43:00.020-05:00

Sibley Memorial Hospital

These munitions were recovered over the past two years using redundant safety measures including a blast containment structure, a siren, warning signs and instructions for nearby residents to shelter “in place.” None of these safety measures will be in effect during the munitions destruction. The safety arc during recovery was 740 feet, but the safety arc for the destruction has been reduced to 400 feet. We’re dealing with the same munitions, chemical warfare agents and explosives. Why the 340-foot difference?

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (2009)

The Corps moved both chemical and coventional munitions safely from American University through Spring Valley to the Interim Holding Facility north of Sibley Hospital. Each munition is safely packaged in a stainless steel Multiple Round Container, which is designed to withstand an accidental explosion. Now the Army claims it's unsafe to transport these same munitions to the the Naval Research Lab.
Environmental Health Group:
"Proposed Munitions Destruction Behind Sibley Hospital"

Army "Open House" Fields Questions on Proposed Munitions Destruction

2009-12-09T16:44:00.012-05:00

Kent Slowinski, Nan Wells, Dan Noble, Lan Reeser & Michael Lent

The Army Corps of Engineers wants to dispose of bombs that could be considered weapons of mass destruction behind Sibley Memorial Hospital, on federal land close to the Dalecarlia Reservoir, which supplies drinking water to D.C. and parts of Northern Virginia ... In 1917 the Army ... blew up bombs in the fields and forests around the [American University] campus. For decades, as the fields were carved into streets with stately homes, the former use stayed a secret, and toxic chemicals stayed buried. In 1993, construction workers bulldozed up bombs. The corps has been digging up weapons pits and cleaning gardens for 16 years ...

Slowinski and ANC Commissioner Nan Wells ... want deeper investigations into the history and the land. They want a health study, which might lead to more chemicals. They are not sure they want the bombs blown up in the neighborhood. "Why not hold off on destruction until they see if they find more munitions?" Slowinski asks. "They can destroy it all -- at the Naval Research Lab."
Harry Jaffe
Washington Examiner (December 9, 2009)

30 Days to Comment on Disposal of Chemical Warfare Materiel

2009-11-30T20:22:00.036-05:00

Draft EE/CA (November 2009)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed an evaluation of alternatives [EE/CA] for the disposal of discarded military munitions recovered during investigations at the Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site ... USACE is in the process of investigating and cleaning up contamination resulting from operations during the World War I era. As a result of recent investigation efforts, a number of munitions were discovered. These include recovered chemical warfare materiel as well as conventional munitions that contain explosives ... This Notice serves as formal notification of the availability of the EE/CA for review, and the commencement of the 30-day public comment period.
Public Notice
Washington Post (November 30, 2009)

Several community activists worry about the safety hazards of exploding such dangerous chemicals near a residential neighborhood. "I think it would be much safer destroying the munitions on a military installation where you have some control of the population, instead of less than 500 feet from a residential neighborhood and less than 1,000 feet from the Dalecarlia Reservoir, which is the District's water supply," said Kent Slowinski ... Alma Gates, a member of the Restoration Advisory Board and a former Palisades advisory neighborhood commissioner, said she is confident in the Army's proposal.
Northwest Current
December 2, 2009: pg. 1

Magnetic Survey Flags Anomalies in Woods behind Sibley Hospital

2009-11-13T07:30:00.011-05:00

Red tulips bloom on Federal property in Dalecarlia Woods (9/7/09)

Geophysical surveys are currently underway on 62 acres of federal and District of Columbia property [in the Dalecarlia Woods on the property of the Washington Aqueduct between Dalecarlia Parkway and the reservoir] ... A report of all anomalies detected will be generated for each subset of Dalecarlia Woods survey grids, followed by Anomaly Review Board (ARB) assessment and intrusive investigation ... The Dalecarlia Woods geophysical survey and intrusive investigations will tentatively require an anticipated time frame of 12 to 14 months until completion.
Restoration Advisory Board, Meeting Minutes
October 13, 2009 (pg, 11)

Railroad May Have Moved Munitions to Caves Dug in Hills Next to Dalecarlia Reservoir

2009-11-01T00:01:00.009-04:00

The EPA Criminal Investigation Report states that, "It would have been efficient to load a large volume [$800,000 worth of almost anything in 1918-1920 dollars would be a large volume] onto rail cars. There was a railway on the AU campus at the time which traversed elevation changes, particularly to the northwest. The material could have been taken to the elevation drop and a tunnel dug into the side of a hill. The material placed in this 'cave' would then be further concealed by subsequent fill material placed in the low area" ...

A periodical newsletter called The Retort was published by "the Enemies of Germany" at the AUES Research Division. Edition No 1 dated October 6, 1918, states, "Narrow-Gauge Railway Constructed." Besides an interesting event when a car broke loose and almost smashed into Shack #10, which could have been catastrophic, the story contains several interesting details about the railroad. First, as with the Sgt. Maurer "Hole Called Hades," the railroad had a nickname: it was called the "Death's Valley Limited" or "Hillside Express" ... It also indicates that the railroad was completed on the campus six weeks before the war ended, and that an expansion westward was planned ...

One burial area (side of a hill near a railroad track) has been located: Area Of Interest #2, the Rick Woods Pit or the Relic Hunter's Pit ... In the month that followed October 6, 1918, the railway was extended from the AUES campus. What is now very clear is that it eventually reached the grounds of the Dalecarlia Reservoir. What is equally clear is that this expansion could only have been done for burial purposes.
Richard D. Albright
"The Continuing Search for Burial Sites"
Cleanup of Chemical and Explosive Munitions

AU President Moving In Next Door to "High Probability" Dig

2009-10-15T18:39:00.014-04:00

"Pit 3" is within 96 feet of 4835 Glenbrook Road on right

President Neil Kerwin and his wife are in the process of moving back into their 4835 Glenbrook Rd. home, AU’s Director of Community and Local Government Relations Penny Pagano said during a Spring Valley Restoration Advisory Board meeting Tuesday night. The move comes despite an ongoing “high priority” investigation for chemical munitions next door at the Army Corps of Engineers’ “Pit 3” dig ... Because the President’s house lies within the Corps’ established 96-foot safety boundary, anyone staying there will have to be familiar with the Corps’ “public protection plan.” The President’s house is the only structure within the 96-foot circle, said USACE Military Response Program Manager Dan Noble.
Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle ~ October 14, 2009

Workers prepare home in shadow of "Pit 3" containment tent

Army Will Reveal List of Recovered Munitions Next Month

2009-10-07T19:58:00.009-04:00

Col. David Anderson, Army Corps' Baltimore District

In fulfillment of promises made at a June 10 Congressional oversight hearing, "the Army has lifted a security order concealing a list of World War I-era munitions uncovered in Washington's Spring Valley neighborhood. At a community meeting Tuesday, officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the list of recovered munitions would be made public next month. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton brought officials to update residents on the cleanup of chemical munitions from an American University experiment station during World War I. Col. David Anderson, commander of the Army Corps' Baltimore district, says they are still concerned about security but want to be more transparent."
Washington Examiner ~ October 6, 2009

Washington Post Video Offers Glimpse of Geophysical Survey

2009-10-06T06:50:00.001-04:00

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been scouring the community and removing munitions and fragments on and off since the 1990s ... Now geophysicists hired by the corps are in Dalecarlia Woods studying the far end of a firing range "fan" that runs 1,550 yards northwest from Herzstein's driveway. There, in the closing months of World War I, the Army fenced in a site where it tested an array of mortars designed to fire chemical weapons, officials said ... The search was recently extended to Dalecarlia Woods, near the Dalecarlia Reservoir, which supplies water to more than a million people in the region.
Washington Post
October 6, 2009: pg B-1

Student Newspaper Knocks University's Lack of Transparency

2009-09-28T07:27:00.000-04:00

For 16 years, the university and the Army Corps have been digging for World War I-era munitions. The backstory is that this campus was a serious chemical warfare research center from 1917 to 1918 ... Every student at this university should be aware of these issues. Every AU applicant should, too. The university should open its archives and provide students with more information. Transparency must be more than a buzzword considering the severity of chemical hazards on our campus. Students should be skeptical of the notion that AU is doing all that it could be doing.
The Eagle
September 28, 2009

Sunday Walk Revisits Scene of 1918 Chemical Weapons Testing

2009-09-27T23:50:00.009-04:00

"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.
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."
Christoper Cottrell
The Eagle ~ September 28, 2009

Vapor Containment Tents Going Up Around Glenbrook Road House

2009-09-09T07:46:00.001-04:00

Investigations are currently paused at the ‘Pit 3 Area’ property as a result of the early August recovery of a flask containing a small amount of the chemical agent mustard ... As a precautionary measure, vapor containment tents will be constructed over three test pits where there may be additional intact laboratory glassware. Based on the findings of the excavations in these three test pits, the team along with our interagency partners ... will determine the approach for completing the remaining investigations and restoration on the property. Construction of these protective tents is expected to start in September.
Spring Valley Project Update
August 2009

The Corps expects further “high probability” digging at the Pit 3 location at 4825 Glenbrook Road to recommence in late October at the earliest, according to Dan Noble, the Military Response Program manager ... Switching back to high-probability procedures at Pit 3 will require additional precautionary measures ... “Our workers will be upgrading to a level B personal protective equipment, working off supplied air, complete skin protection and things like that,” he said.“So ... we have to essentially plan for a high-probability situation, get it through all the approvals we need to get it through, bring back the high-probability crews and get them trained up.”
Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle ~ September 9, 2009

Digging Suspended after Surprise Mustard Discovery at Burial Pit 3

2009-08-26T21:44:00.015-04:00

Mustard flask found on August 4, 2009

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District has temporarily suspended its investigation of Pit 3, located at 4825 Glenbrook Road at the Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site in northwest Washington, D.C., as a result of the discovery of an intact, open flask ... Following established procedures, workers secured the flask and took it to the federal property adjacent to the Washington Aqueduct. The Army’s Technical Escort Unit (TEU) took the flask to Edgewood Arsenal, in Maryland, for analysis on Aug. 5. On Aug.10, the Corps received confirmation that the material in the flask tested positive for the chemical agent mustard.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
August 12, 2009

Aqueduct Gen. Mgr.Thomas Jacobus: "The water is safe"

"Mustard gas in open containers is just as toxic now as it was 90 years ago," says Kent Slowinski, a Spring Valley resident, activist and thorn in the Army's side. "How can the corps say there's no risk?" That's the question D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton posed to corps project manager Daniel Noble on Thursday afternoon. When she heard about the mustard gas, she hauled Noble into her office. Norton has been relentless in keeping the corps on the case and prying information from the Army. "We want them to keep digging," she told me after the meeting. "They are not leaving until we say so."
Harry Jaffe
Washington Examiner
August 14,2009

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is right to note that the Corps twice before has declared the cleanup complete, only to resume work after the discovery of more buried weapons. Officials must do everything they can to make sure this does not happen yet again, and it is essential that they fully investigate the cause of extensive groundwater contamination in the area ... Since munitions were first uncovered in 1993 by unsuspecting construction workers in Spring Valley West, the Army has spent $173 million on cleanup efforts. We're glad Del. Norton is working to ensure that this enormous project is done right
Davis Kennedy
Northwest Current
August 26, 2009

Army Corps Must Issue EE/CA on Weapons Destruction by Year's End

2009-08-06T08:15:00.000-04:00

USACE received direction to produce an Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis (EE/CA) report that will identify and evaluate disposal options for both chemical munitions and conventional munitions. After the draft EE/CA has been reviewed by the Army, the EPA, and the DDOE, the EE/CA will be made available for public review during a formal 30-day comment period. During the comment period, we will hold an Open House where the Army will be available to answer questions about the disposal options. Members of the community will also be able to submit comments during the Open House. The EE/CAs for chemical and conventional munitions destruction are expected to be available for public review by the end of this calendar year.
Spring Valley Project Update
July 2009

Security Breached in Perimeter Fence Guarding "Federal Property"

2009-08-05T19:15:00.001-04:00

Just behind Sibley Hospital and east of Dalecarlia Reservoir, a 24-hour guard stands at the front entrance to an anonymous looking place known as the "Federal property." On the other side of the fence are: 1) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters for the Spring Valley FUDS cleanup (pictured above); 2) the IHF or Interim Holding Facility (about 150 yards north) where recovered chemical munitions are being stored, pending their eventual destruction; and 3) a hilly, 65-acre section of woods where the 16-year hunt for buried WMD's will arguably come to an end next year.

Along the northern boundary of this wooded survey area, the perimeter fence runs parallel to the Spring Valley homes on Warren Place, about thirty yards west of Dalecarlia Parkway. During a recent inspection several large openings in the fence were discovered, including the twenty-foot gap (pictured below) caused by a fallen tree trunk.

Munitions Destruction Postponed Yet Again until after Labor Day

2009-07-30T23:01:00.015-04:00

Originally scheduled to take place in May, then delayed through July, the neutralization of chemical weapons of mass destruction in Spring Valley has now been postponed "until after Labor Day due to the increased attention the project has recently received ... The Army Corps of Engineers has not provided much information regarding the recovered munitions, citing homeland security issues and possible terrorist activity. The Army Corps has refused to say what chemicals the munitions contain, what chemicals will have to be shipped into the District to neutralize the chemical warfare agents or what hazardous waste material will have to be trucked out of the neighborhood."
Kent Slowinski
The Order of the Earth
(August 2009: pg. 6)

Army Must Divulge Secret Inventory of Recovered Chemical Warfare Ordnance

2009-06-21T23:51:00.025-04:00

Asst. Defense Secretary Addison Davis at Oversight Hearing

The [House Subcommittee] members also criticized the corps for refusing to make public a list of the weapons, chemicals and other items it had uncovered at the site. George Hawkins, director of D.C. Department of Environment, said he had been denied access to the list for refusing to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Norton asked the panel for reasons why WWI-era weapons at the site needed to remain classified and demanded a list be provided to the members of the subcommittee ... Addison Davis, the assistant secretary for Army environment, safety and occupational health, said he would provide that list to members and that he would look into whether they could be made public.
Environment & Energy Daily
June 11, 2009

Del. Norton: "What is the secret?" [Panel Two 48:35]

"The history of Spring Valley is long and convoluted, but at its core is the Army's decision during World War I to use this area in Northwest, D.C. for the first dangerous tests and experiments with its new and developing chemical weapons program. The decision to locate a major chemical testing facility and then to bury the debris, unexploded ordnance and chemicals on the site was no accident. The District had no local government and its citizens could elect no one to speak for them in the city where they lived, and no one to represent them in the Congress, which collected their taxes. The federal government itself ruled the city using federally appointed commissioners. Thus, the Army was free to do here what it could not do in Maryland or Virginia or any other state close to a residential area."

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton

June 10, 2009

Explosively Configured 75 mm Arsine Round to be Destroyed Behind Sibley Hospital

2009-06-10T21:04:00.019-04:00

At least one of the recently recovered munitions is an explosively configured arsine-filled 75 mm round. Arsine is the most toxic chemical warfare agent found to date in Spring Valley. There is no antidote for arsine exposure ... Arsine-filled rounds have never been destroyed in a residential neighborhood. Perhaps for good reason ... More than a dozen residents live within 500 feet of the proposed chemical munitions destruction site. Less than 1,000 feet away is the District's drinking water supply, as well as Sibley Hospital.
Kent Slowinski
Northwest Current ~ (June 10, 2009: pg. 11)

Previous EDS deployments have all been on military bases

Public Hearings Cast Doubt on FUDS Cleanup Timetable

2009-05-13T18:40:00.024-04:00

At a public roundtable Monday before the DC Council’s Committee on Government Operations and the Environment ... Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh, who chairs the committee, and several community members said they worry the Army will again depart Spring Valley before all the munitions and chemicals are found and removed. In 1995, the Army decided no more work was necessary and left the neighborhood, only to return after the DC Department of Health conducted an independent investigation and found evidence of arsenic and munitions. “There are growing concerns that the Corps will leave before the job is done, just like it did before,” said Tom Smith, a Spring Valley advisory neighborhood commissioner.
Northwest Current ~ (May 13, 2009: pg. 1)

Spring Valley cleanup project managers face grilling

At the request of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Issues and the District of Columbia will hold a hearing on Wednesday, June 10, Rayburn House Office Building in room 2154 at 2pm, on the proposal of the Army Corps of Engineers to conclude its cleanup of chemical weapons, unexploded ordinances and other chemicals in Spring Valley, a Formerly Used Defense Site in Northwest, a neighborhood in the District ... "No information has been submitted to the public or Congress concerning how the Corps has ascertained that the entire site is clear, safe, and without residual health effects," Norton said.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Press Release ~ (June 3, 2009)

Munition Destruction System Will Use Toxic Chemicals to Neutralize Warfare Agents

2009-05-01T16:49:00.009-04:00

Explosive Destruction System (EDS)

Sometime in May 2009, the Army Corps of Engineers plans to destroy World War I chemical munitions in Spring Valley, a nice neighborhood and Formerly Used Defense Site in Northwest Washington, DC ... The Army Corps plans to use the Explosive Destruction System or EDS to destroy recovered chemical munitions. The EDS requires large quantities of toxic chemicals to be trucked into the neighborhood to neutralize the chemical warfare agents. Some of the chemicals are as toxic as the chemical warfare agents they neutralize. The EDS also generates a hazardous waste stream (250 - 400 gallons per munition) which must be trucked to a hazardous waste incinerator.

Kent Slowinski
Former member Spring Valley Restoration Advisory Board

Economics Department Moves to Kreeger Building in March 2010

2009-04-16T22:51:00.018-04:00

The economics department will move to the Kreeger Building, which has remained vacant since the arts and performing arts departments moved to the Katzen Arts Center in 2005. Kreeger is located on the south side of campus, near the Watkins and Hamilton buildings and Jacobs Field ... Kreeger's renovation, which will gut the building, will begin in July and end sometime between December and February 2010.
The Eagle ~ April 16, 2009

Area behind Kreeger and Hamilton Buildings

In the last 30 days soil on AU property tested for 106,000 parts per million of arsenic, which means approximately 10 percent of the soil is arsenic, but the finding should not pose a threat to the community, said Gary Schilling, Spring Valley project manager for the Baltimore District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The high arsenic levels were found two-and-a-half feet below the surface of the area in question, which is located between the Hamilton and Kreeger buildings, adjacent to the parking lot.
The Eagle ~ October 12, 2006

Between Jan. 8 and 11, engineers removed 55-gallon barrels of soil within a 55-meter radius of the excavation pit behind the Hamilton and Kreeger buildings. In total, 160 barrels were collected. The barrels have been taken to federal property behind Sibley Hospital where characterization tests will be taken to determine how to dispose of the soil.
The Eagle ~ January 22, 2001

Coalition Seeks White House Support for Law Holding Military Accountable for Pollution

2009-03-28T08:22:00.012-04:00

Letter with Signatures

More than 80 affected communities and organizations from across the U.S. have joined together to support federal legislation that will require the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to comply with laws designed to protect human health and the environment ... Also known as the "Military Environmental Responsibility Act," the bill seeks to eliminate military waivers to key environmental laws ... The Department of Defense is responsible for more than 31,000 cleanup sites on more than 4,600 active and former defense properties. About one in 10 Americans - nearly 29 million - live within 10 miles of a military site that is listed as a national priority for hazardous waste cleanup under the federal Superfund program.
Common Dreams.org (March 23, 2009)

Track H.R. 672

University Stonewalls Army Corps Request for World War I Archives

2009-03-23T07:35:00.017-04:00

The Documentary Film

At a standing room only, work-in-progress screening of her forthcoming documentary, Academy-award nominated filmmaker Ginny Durrin chronicled sixteen years of uncertainty following discovery of buried chemical munitions in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Washington, DC. During a panel discussion after seeing Bombs In Our Backyard, US Army Corps historian Mark Baker charged that the University was still blocking access to its own "confidential" archives --- records that could shed light on the existence and whereabouts of additional weapon disposal pits.

Charlie Bermpohl and Mark Baker (3/19/09)

"The university sent memos in December of 2008 to individuals who attended classes or worked in areas near the pit three dig, said Bethany Bridgham, the senior associate general counsel in AU's legal office. Nearby buildings included Watkins, Kreeger, Hamilton and Financial Aid. The memo provided details about AU's safety precautions and gave instructions for setting up sealed shelters in the event of a chemical leak. The university has also set up a Web site at american.edu/usace to keep students updated on the status of the investigations. The last updates on the Web site as of press time were from July 14, when the university gave information about an arsenic soil cleanup operation in the area between Hughes and McDowell Halls."
Film Explores WWI Weapons Under AU
The Eagle (March 23, 2009: pg. 1)