"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

ABC This Week
March 30, 2003

WW I Munitions Debris May Be Left Underneath Campus Parking Lot

We completed all planned field work at the former PSB [Public Safety Building] site in July 2024 and have determined debris is buried deeper in the hillside than our lagging wall allows us to go.  In discussions with the Partners (District of Columbia & the U.S. EPA) we are exploring the idea of leaving the remaining debris in place as the effort to get more out would be very disruptive and intrusive to AU campus operations and provide minimal risk mitigation.  A final determination will be made in close coordination with the Partners and the landowner.  While a decision is made on whether to leave debris in place, the remaining debris is being mapped as accurately as possible so as to allow a long term management plan with the landowner to be established if necessary.

Diagram of PSB hillside excavation (pg. 14)

With respect to mapping the remainder of the debris, we are now processing a change to our contractor’s tasking at the site and will issue a modification authorizing a rotosonic drill investigation to determine the boundaries of the remaining debris.  If this course of action is accepted by all parties (leaving debris in place), it would represent a change from the 2017 Decision Document and we would prepare a Record of Decision Amendment that would explain the deviation from the 2017 document [pgs. 25, 57 90 - 92] and discuss why such a change is appropriate and protective.  This amendment would then be made available to the public via our website upon completion during calendar year 2026.

Dan Noble, Military Co-Chair

Spring Valley RAB

February 7, 2025

8-foot stained AUES debris layer (pg. 23)

 

Our contractor has finished all digging at the Former American University PSB and for the last several weeks has been working to restore the hillside in preparation for re-planting.  We are dismantling site infrastructure and upon completion, will no longer have a daily presence on campus.  This significant milestone is tempered by the fact that the debris layer we have been excavating is continuing past our hillside retaining wall and going deeper into the hill than we realized.  Because of the danger of soil collapse, we cannot dig past the retaining wall.  Remaining debris is under a minimum of 15 feet of clean, overburden soil, and discussions to determine a path forward are underway with the Partners and American University, including the likelihood that we may have to consider leaving the remaining debris in place and managing it as is in the future.  We will continue to communicate with our stakeholders and will update this site as decisions are made.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Spring Valley FUDS

PSB Hillside Remediation Project Status

July 18, 2024

Debris area extends under parking lot (pg. 30)

Norton Asks OMB for Help Funding Comprehensive WMD Investigation

More than 100 years after the end of World War I, WTOP has learned D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is seeking funding from the Trump administration to investigate and clean up any remaining chemical weapons buried in Fort Totten Park in Northeast.  Almost five years after an empty World War I-era chemical weapon shell was discovered by the National Park Service [NPS] during construction of a trail through the park in July 2020, it’s still not clear whether Ft. Totten Park has additional munitions buried in the Ward 5 park, located near the Ft. Totten Metro station.  In 2022, WTOP reported the Ft. Totten discovery was a prequel to the decades-long Spring Valley cleanup at the former American University Experiment Station [AUES].  Once dubbed the “mother of all toxic dumps” — the site was used by the U.S. government for research and testing of chemical agents, equipment and munitions.  Since the 2020 discovery in Ft. Totten Park, WTOP has learned the munitions were likely trucked [pgs. 13 - 14] across town from one of the most wealthy neighborhoods in Ward 3, of Northwest D.C., to the less affluent Ward 5.  In a Jan. 31, 2025 letter to new Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum and Office of Management & Budget Acting Director Matthew Vaeth, Norton wrote, “I request that the budget include funding for the NPS, working together with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers [USACE], to conduct a comprehensive investigation of Ft. Totten Park.”  As recently as June 2024, USACE continued to find full or partial World War I-era munitions on the campus of American University, in a steep hillside on Rockwood Parkway Northwest, next to the former AU Public Safety Building, which was demolished in August 2017 ...

In a November 2023 announcement that a portion of Ft. Totten Park would remain closed and fenced, with cement barriers and “no trespassing” signs, the agencies suggested a more thorough investigation was appropriate, although funding was needed ... In her letter to the heads of Interior and OMB last week, Norton said, USACE “is currently remediating” the Spring Valley site.  “A similar investigation and cleanup are needed at Ft. Totten,” she wrote.  Even before a contractor digging a utility trench in Spring Valley in 1993 uncovered a buried military ordnance, which prompted the USACE investigation that revealed homes on Glenbrook Road were built atop chemical weapon burial pits, contaminated soil [pg. B-4] from Glenbrook Road was trucked to a landscaping project at Ft. Totten Metro station.  In November 2021, USACE said the cleanup at the Glenbrook Road site was completed, after it remediated, removed and recovered 556 munition items (23 of them filled with chemical agents), more than a ton of laboratory debris, 53 intact and sealed glass containers of chemical agents and 7,500 tons of contaminated soil.  However, chemical weapons from the former AUES site were later found in Ft. Totten.  In April 2023, WTOP reported two new metal canisters were discovered in another portion of the park: A 75 millimeter projectile, which contained only soil, and a Livens projectile which contained mostly water, but also a small amount of a commercial chemical that is not hazardous.
Neal Augenstein
WTOP News
February 3, 2025

Ft. Totten munitions found in 2020 (right) & 2023 (left)

FUDS Cleanup Centered Around American University Lasts for 32 Years

Cleanup of the former U.S. Army’s chemical weapons testing continues around American University’s campus as the United States Army Corps of Engineers [USACE] this fall began landscaping and restoration plans, and is expected to submit a final comprehensive report in November.  In June, USACE discovered four munitions underneath the former AU Public Safety Building, which was demolished in 2017. By July, the site was demobilized and cleaned up [sic].  Dan Noble, project manager with USACE, said it’s difficult to find precise details of exactly what was buried and where they could be found.  “While the military keeps a lot of records, they don’t always keep records about the stuff you would like them to,” Noble said. 

 

During the height of the first World War, American University’s campus housed weapons manufacturing and testing.  The War Department, now known as the Department of Defense, directed USACE and the Civilian Bureau of Mines to run Camp Leach, a program focused on the development of chemical weapons.  Camp Leach is sometimes referred to as the Manhattan Project of WWI. At its height, the program supported over 2,000 soldiers, scientists and civilians on AU’s campus.  Here, the U.S. Army manufactured chemical weapons such as sulfur mustard gas and arsenic bombs.  These weapons were often fired from East Campus to the Dalecarlia Reservoir, which program members nicknamed Death Valley.  When the armistice was signed in November 1918 between Germany and the Allied countries, the War Department ordered the area be demobilized.

War Secretary Baker & Gen. Bliss greet AU students in 1917 (LOC)

However, in January 1993, excavators found a plethora of munitions under houses in the Spring Valley neighborhood behind campus.  Underneath the houses were four unexploded mortar rounds with their fuses still intact.  This kicked off a cleanup effort by USACE, which ended in the removal of 141 items — 43 of which contained traces of chemical agents.  The remedial project was closed in 1995.  USACE returned to Spring Valley in 1998 to investigate potential sites of buried weapons on the residence of the Ambassador of South Korea.  Two pits were found and tests on soil samples revealed arsenic contamination.  USACE completed the clean up of the residence between 1999 and 2000. Two other burial pits were found on property owned by the University, one at 4825 and the other at 4835 Glenbrook Road, NW.  After discovery of these pits in 1998, a remediation effort ensued which finally concluded in August 2021.

Noble said the cleanup continues as some mistakes were made in the initial cleanup effort in 1993, and as more material has been found as recently as June 2024.  “The city of D.C. felt like, you know, now we think, a little bit more needs to be done ... a little bit more effort really needs to occur here,” Noble said.  However, despite its many challenges, Noble is hopeful that over a century since Camp Leach’s inception , the end of the cleanup project is in sight.  “We do believe, after all this time, we’re near the end of the process,” Noble said.  “In the next one to five years would be my time frame.”
Jackson Decker

The Eagle

December 3, 2024 

Army tents on Quad in front of Hurst Hall at AUES in 1918 (LOC)

19 WW-I Munitions Unearthed Near AU's Former Public Safety Building

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed with WTOP that 19 full or partial World War I-era munitions were found Tuesday on the campus of American University in Northwest D.C. — which served as a chemical weapons testing and disposal site during the first World War.  All of the recovered munitions were 75 mm projectiles.  Two projectiles contained an undetermined fluid, which prompted USACE to summon the Army’s Fort Belvoir’s 55th Ordnance Company and D.C.’s Fire & Emergency Services to the scene.  The two suspicious munitions were safely assessed, packaged and transported to the nearest military installation — Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Harford County, Maryland — for additional assessment ... At Aberdeen Proving grounds, X-ray technology and a Portable Isotopic Neutron Spectroscopy System — or PINS — will enable investigators to identify the suspicious liquid non-intrusively, without having to open the projectile. 

 

PSB site cleanup began in fall 2019 (Squyres/EAGLE)

The devices were found in a steep hillside on Rockwood Parkway NW, next to the former AU Public Safety Building, which was demolished in August 2017.  The area where the projectiles were found was in a fenced-off Army Corps worksite, near Fletcher Gate, on the southern edge of the campus.  Remediation crews have been excavating potentially-contaminated soil under and near the former public safety building.  The painstaking, safety-based work is a continuation of the decadeslong cleanup in the Spring Valley neighborhood ... In a statement to WTOP, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said, “I’m deeply concerned about the suspected munitions found on American University’s campus” ... “I have sounded the alarm when similar munitions have been found in D.C. since 1993, and I’ll continue to work with the relevant entities until I’m satisfied the threat has been contained,” she added.  In 2022, WTOP reported that a World War I-era unexploded shell discovered by the National Park Service during construction of a trail through Northeast D.C.’s Fort Totten may have been transported from the Spring Valley cleanup site, adjacent to AU.
Neal Augenstein
WTOP News
 June 7, 2024

Army Corps Launches Overdue Excavation of PSB Hillside at AU

Under contract with USACE, Weston Solutions, Inc. completed remediation under the former PSB [Public Safety Building] foundation on 21 January 2021 and backfill on 23 March 2021.  During foundation excavation, a layer of dark American University Experiment Station (AUES) debris was observed in the slope north, east and west of the PSB foundation.  USACE contracted with Weston to investigate the AUES debris extent.  Weston completed Rotosonic drilling & test pit investigations on 12 April 2021 to define the extent of the AUES debris layer on the PSB hillside with Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) support ... The Weston Team mobilized to the PSB site at AU during the Labor Day week of September 4, 2023.  The Team is currently conducting the remediation.

The PSB was formerly AU campus police headquarters (pg. 5)

... The objective of the PSB hillside remediation is to assess, remove, and dispose of the munitions and AUES-related debris layer under the hillside, with an emphasis on sealed containers and soil contaminated with chemical warfare agents (CWAs), agent breakdown products or contaminants above the Spring Valley screening criteria or Hazard Index.  To reach the AUES debris layer under the hillside, Weston will install an active retaining wall system while excavating “clean overburden soil” down to the AUES debris layer ... WESTON and the USACE will be monitoring the site to ensure safety and minimize impacts to the college community and local residents: air monitoring by the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) for CWA at the site perimeter, in the excavation zone & headspace samples of soil & debris; and air monitoring for metals and organic vapor in the excavation zone and worker’s breathing zone.
USACE

Partnering Meeting Ppt.

January 4, 2024 (pgs. 4, 10 & 11)

Chasing contamination into hillside next to PSB (pg. 2)

Environmental Group Leads Toxic Tours of Former WW I Army Base

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 1½ hours.  Participants see where testing occurred during World War I and where chemical warfare materiel is being removed today. For more information contact ahengst@verizon.net.

NPS Executes U-Turn, Vows to Search Park for More Munitions

Good afternoon, Mr. Hengst.  In response to your questions, see the following:
 
Q: When will your agency intrusively investigate the mounds of soil where munitions debris was found on the west side of [Fort Totten] park last spring?  

A: This investigation is a high priority for NPS [National Park Service] and the Army.  However, we do not have a date yet, as we are still working to identify funding for the investigation.  The area has been closed and made safe until that work is undertaken.  

Q: Can that investigation include the rest of the original staging area north of the road where the Spring Valley landfill was dumped [pg. 2] in 1992?

A: The investigation is expected to focus on the area north of Farragut Street NE where WMATA conducted staging [pgs. 13 - 14] for the Metrorail Green Line construction.  It would also look at areas along the roadway that were disturbed when Holcim (formerly Aggregate Industries) bulldozed along the roadway in early 2023.  Further investigations beyond this immediate area will be determined upon the results of this work.

Soil mounds bulldozed along roadside (pg. 30)

Q: Why doesn’t your agency return to the eastern section of the park for a closer look at land on either side of the narrow foot trail where the 75mm was unearthed in July 2020?

A: An investigation of the area east of the CSX/Metrorail tracks, between Gallatin and Galloway Streets NE, may be considered for a later time.  We have requested, and are receiving, information from WMATA about their construction activities in this area.  We are also working with the Army on a history of the Fort Totten sites and their uses over time.  Our intent is to better understand the work conducted by WMATA, and how construction materials may have been moved around between the sites east and west of the tracks, before we look more closely into an investigation of this area.
Brian Joyner, Acting Superintendent
 National Park Service
 November 16, 2023

Dear Deputy Superintendent; 

I’m writing to inquire on the status of the Park Service’s investigation of World War I-era chemical munitions and laboratory waste buried at Fort Totten National Park.  As you know, in addition to a 75mm shell exposed by heavy rains on a foot trail in the eastern arm of the park in July 2020, two additional artillery shells were discovered in mounds of soil along a road inside the western section last April.  News media in May reported that discussions of whether a major cleanup might be required in the park were paused due to questions about the contents of a Livens Projector found in one of those mounds.  Earlier this week at Tuesday’s public meeting of the Spring Valley FUDS Restoration Advisory Board (RAB), project manager Dan Noble said that — after detecting chlorine in the liquid fill of the century-old artillery shell — the Army Corps sent the Livens to Edgewood Arsenal for further analysis.  

Berm stabilized with erosion control matting (pg. 29)

Noble reported on a site visit he conducted to inspect the soil mounds before they were stabilized and showed before-and-after photos of the area, which have been posted on the Army's website (pgs. 29 - 33).  Noble also described his serendipitous discovery of two additional items as he walked past the mounds: a metal munition fragment and glass beaker lid that were “very similar” to material investigators typically encounter at the FUDS cleanup site in Spring Valley.  Regardless of Edgewood’s findings on the specific content of the Livens shell, it’s obvious that more munitions debris and laboratory waste remains buried at Ft. Totten following the 1992 dump of toxic landfill from excavations on Glenbrook Road in Spring Valley ...
Allen Hengst
 Email to NPS
 October 13, 2023 (pgs. 3 - 4)

WASHINGTON — An area of Fort Totten Park remains closed and fenced, and cement barriers and “no trespassing” signs will remain while the National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Army further investigate the metal canisters, determined to be WW I-era munitions, found there in the spring.  Based on investigations to date, the NPS and the Army have determined it is possible Fort Totten Park contains additional munitions.  The two metal canisters, found April 18, were discovered in the park after unauthorized work conducted by an adjacent property owner pushed approximately 10 feet of soil onto NPS land.  One munition was a 75-mm projectile, approximately 3 inches in diameter and 11 inches long.  The other munition was a Livens projectile, approximately 6 inches in diameter and 19 inches long.  

The MARB was established in 1995 (US Army)

Initial assessment by Army experts indicated the 75-mm projectile did not pose a hazard and the Livens projectile contained an unknown liquid ... Both items were evaluated by the Army’s Materiel Assessment Review Board (MARB) ... Initial testing of the liquid in the Livens projectile was inconclusive, so it was taken to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Edgewood, Maryland, on Aug. 2, for additional testing.  The additional testing indicated that the Livens did not pose a hazard ... The NPS and Army are seeking funding to conduct a comprehensive investigation at Fort Totten Park.  More information regarding the use of the site during the construction of the Metrorail Greenline can be found here.
Autumn Cook
 National Park Service
 November 9, 2023

Appeals Court Panel Rules EPA Must Regulate Perchlorate

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, today unanimously ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision against regulating the toxic chemical perchlorate in drinking water was illegal.  The following is a reaction by Erik D. Olson, Senior Strategic Director for Health at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):  “The court ruled that EPA must regulate perchlorate-contaminated drinking water because the agency had found that it poses a health risk to millions of Americans.  After more than a decade of delay and litigation, EPA now must issue a drinking water standard for this widespread and dangerous contaminant.   It’s about time." 

 

Judges [David B.] Sentelle and [David S.] Tatel issued a joint opinion striking down EPA’s decision not to regulate; Judge [Florence Y.] Pan issued a separate concurring opinion, rendering a unanimous ruling against the EPA.  Judges Sentelle and Tatel found that EPA lacked the authority to reverse the agency’s previous decision to regulate this toxic rocket fuel component.  Judge Pan agreed that EPA’s action must be struck down, but because EPA was “arbitrary and capricious” [pg. 30] in making its decision, not that the agency lacked the authority to do so.  She found that EPA’s refusal to regulate based on a finding that decreasing the average IQ of vulnerable children was not an adverse effect “did not meet the statutory standard.”  She also noted that EPA decision also “was based on a biased dataset” [pg. 17] on perchlorate occurrence in tap water “that was selectively updated.”         

~ Margie Kelly

   NRDC

   May 9, 2023

40 states manufacture or use perchlorate (EPA)

 

NRDC Argued EPA Failure to Regulate Perchlorate Was Unlawful
In arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, today lawyers for NRDC told a three-judge panel that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision against regulating the toxic chemical perchlorate in drinking water was illegal.  The following is a reaction by Erik D. Olson, Senior Strategic Director for Health at NRDC:  “Today the court heard why EPA’s refusal to set a drinking water standard for the widespread toxic chemical perchlorate is unlawful and unsupported by science.  Doctors and health experts have long called for EPA to protect the public, especially fetuses, infants, and young children, from this brain-damaging toxic chemical.  We are hopeful that the court will rule that EPA erred and must move ahead with a perchlorate standard.”  

 

Last March, the EPA announced it would not revisit a decision to not regulate perchlorate, a toxic component of rocket fuel associated with brain damage in fetuses and infants, leaving millions of people unknowingly exposed to the chemical through their tap water.  The determination affirmed a Trump EPA decision to not regulate perchlorate in drinking water.  Perchlorate, widely used in rocket fuel and munitions ... is the first unregulated drinking water contaminant for which EPA has proposed a standard in more than 25 years under the provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996.  The Defense Department (DOD) and its contractors are major users of perchlorate and there are innumerable DOD facilities where perchlorate pollution has been found. 

 

DOD has opposed strict controls on perchlorate, in an apparent attempt to minimize its cleanup costs.   Since perchlorate is unregulated, there is no federally required monitoring of tap water or requirement to inform a community of contamination.  In 2011, the EPA formally decided that perchlorate should be regulated because it is toxic and widespread, with the drinking water of as many as 16 million people contaminated by the chemical.  When the Agency failed to develop a standard by the deadline, NRDC sued, and then secured a court-approved consent decree requiring the EPA to issue a drinking water standard for perchlorate by 2019. 
~ Margie Kelly
   NRDC
   January 27, 2023

Elected Officials Grapple with Agency Inertia Over Poisoned Park

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is working with the National Park Service [NPS] and the US Army Corps of Engineers [USACE] to determine the scope of further soil testing in Fort Totten Park.  Recall back in 2017, NPS officials informed the ANC [Advisory Neighborhood Commission] and elected officials in the city that a Metro contractor brought in soil from a toxic World War I munitions testing site in Spring Valley to rehabilitate NPS parkland on the west side of Ft. Totten Park.  That parkland had been used as a staging area for construction of Metro’s green line in the 1990s.  NPS stated that the contaminated soil had been removed from the park and that soil testing in that area did not show any cause for concern.  In July 2020, an unexploded ordnance was found on the east side of the park where a pedestrian trail was planned between Gallatin & Galloway streets.

EMS reports to Ft. Totten on April 18 (FOX5)

Residents expressed concern that NPS likely did not know the extent of where soil from Spring Valley was taken in the park.  Emails and concerns went unaddressed and residents simply received assurances that everything was okay.  In April 2023 two canisters [sic] were found on the west side of the park.  USACE is still testing those canisters [sic] and the area on the west side of the park remains closed.  The more recent discoveries of munitions in the park led Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, at the urging of residents and ANC Commissioner Zachary Ammerman (5A09), to start periodically requesting soil testing throughout the park.  Commissioner Ammerman has created a timeline of events at https://www.anc5a09.com/trackers/fort-circle-park-toxic-waste-timeline.  On April 26, ANC 5A passed a resolution supporting further testing in the park.  

DC Councilmember requests June 14 briefing

On May 10, 2023, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton sent another letter to NPS and USACE regarding soil testing ...  Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker also sent to NPS a letter regarding soil testing ... [Norton's] office sent another letter on June 1.  It appears there will be some type of investigation to determine what NPS lands were impacted by Metro’s green line construction and where soil from Spring Valley may have been delivered by Metro’s contractor.  Congresswoman Norton’s office is still working with NPS, Metro, and District officials on the scope and timeline for getting all of this done.  Her office is also working on a couple of different strategies for getting to the bottom of this issue.  

Next Stop ... Riggs Park

June 6, 2023

Army Seeks to ID Unknown Liquid in WWI Munition at Fort Totten

The U.S. Army is still trying to identify an unknown liquid found inside one of two World War I-era weapons that were discovered three weeks ago, in Ft. Totten Park, in Northeast D.C., and whether there’s a connection to the chemical weapons found during the decadeslong cleanup of a former chemical weapons site near the American University campus.  U.S. Army Corps of Engineers [USACE] spokeswoman Cynthia Mitchell told WTOP a 75 mm shell discovered in mound of soil by a National Park Service [NPS] employee was empty, after analysis at Marine Corps Base Quantico.  However, “the 6-inch Livens projectile has a liquid fill that will require further analysis,” Mitchell said.  A Livens Projector was a simple mortar-like weapon that could throw large drums filled with toxic or flammable chemicals.  The weapons were used during World War I, specifically between 1916 through 1918.  Livens projectors were encountered often during the Ward 3 Spring Valley cleanup, at the former American University Experiment Station [AUES] used by the U.S. government for research and testing of chemical agents, equipment and munitions — once dubbed the “mother of all toxic dumps” ... Mitchell said the Army is “still analyzing its options for obtaining additional characterization data on the liquid fill within the Livens.  That action is complicated by the experimental nature of the work conducted in the 1920s by American University.”  

Soldiers load battery of Livens gas projectors (Wikimedia)

The temporary lack of clarity of whether the liquid poses a potential health or safety risk is pausing discussions of whether a major cleanup might be required in the park, located in a Ward 5 neighborhood, near the Ft. Totten Metro.  However, USACE has taken preliminary steps to facilitate additional cleanup, by installing erosion control matting.  “This matting provides stabilization of the site, protecting the berms against erosion and rainfall.”  “Fencing will also be installed this week and will remain in place during ongoing assessments which will help determine a path forward at Ft. Totten Park,” according to a USACE statement ... The possible link to Ft. Totten may have occurred years before the start of the Spring Valley cleanup.  Even before a contractor digging a utility trench in Spring Valley in 1993 uncovered a buried military ordnance, which prompted the USACE investigation that revealed homes on Glenbrook Road were built atop chemical weapon burial pits, contaminated soil from Glenbrook Road was trucked to a landscaping project at Ft. Totten Metro station.  Dan Noble, of USACE, and project manager for the ongoing Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site project told WTOP in a 2022 interview.

 

“What we know is that over at Ft. Totten, where the D.C. Metro project was underway, they had a need for soil, and on Glenbrook Road, where they were building the houses, they had excess soil,” Noble said.  “We know that an arrangement was made to transfer some soil, from Glenbrook Road, over to Ft. Totten.”  In 1992, the heavy equipment operator spreading Glenbrook Road soil at the Ft. Totten Metro site felt sickened from the fumes of the soil, and NPS ordered it be removed, Noble told the Spring Valley Restoration Advisory Board [pgs. 13 - 14].  The board holds regular meetings to advise community members on the cleanup ... D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and ANC commissioners Zachary Ammerman and Gordon-Andrew Fletcher have been calling on the NPS to more fully search the Ward 5 park, to investigate a possible link to the Spring Valley cleanup of chemical weapons.  On Wednesday, Norton issued a follow-up letter to the NPS and USACE, seeking a thorough search throughout the park for other weapons, and soil and groundwater contamination.  “Given the fact that multiple munitions have been found over the years in different areas of Ft. Totten Park, I, once again, ask that you investigate ordnances and soil and groundwater contamination throughout the park,” wrote Norton.

Neal Augenstein

WTOP News

May 12, 2023

Two AUES Munitions Discovered on Western Edge of Civil War Fort

WTOP has learned two metal canisters [sic] discovered Tuesday in Fort Totten Park, in Northeast D.C., were World War I-era weapons, with physical similarities to chemical weapons found during a decades-long cleanup of a former chemical weapons site near the American University campus ... “We expect preliminary/unofficial results on content this week, and final confirmation next week,” [U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) spokesperson Cynthia] Mitchell wrote in an email.  This is not the first time a World War I-era weapon has been discovered in Ft. Totten — one of seven Northeast D.C. forts used by the Union Army to defend the nation’s capital during the Civil War.  In 2020, the National Park Service [NPS] discovered a World War I-era metal canister [sic] on the ground in a different area of Ft. Totten Park ... WTOP reported last year that the empty shell found in 2020 had been modified for use as a chemical weapon.  Mitchell said the canisters [sic] discovered Tuesday were very similar to chemical weapons found in Ward 3’s Spring Valley cleanup at the former American University Experiment Station [AUES] used by the U.S. government for research and testing of chemical agents, equipment and munitions — once dubbed the “mother of all toxic dumps.” 

New AUES rounds were found on west side of Ft. Totten

“Munition one is ‘Livens-like’ — it doesn’t fit the exact measurements of the Livens projectors we’ve encountered during the Spring Valley cleanup, but it is very similar,” said Mitchell.  A Livens Projector was a simple mortar-like weapon that could throw large drums filled with toxic or flammable chemicals ... “Munition two is a 75 mm ordinance with a hex plug burster adapter, and is very typical of past finds at Spring Valley,” said Mitchell.  In a February 2022 interview, Spring Valley cleanup project manager Dan Noble told WTOP the shell found in 2020 had been modified for use as a chemical weapon.  “When we looked at the X-rays, it was a 75-millimeter ordnance item that we encounter quite a bit at Spring Valley.  It had a hex plug burster adapter screwed into the nose, ... [which] would convert what was developed as a conventional munition into a chemical munition,” Noble said.  D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and ANC commissioners Zachary Ammerman and Gordon-Andrew Fletcher have been calling on the NPS to more fully search the Ward 5 park, to investigate a possible link to the Spring Valley cleanup of chemical weapons.
Neal Augenstein

WTOP News

April 20, 2023
  
People who live around Ft. Totten Park said they weren’t surprised when someone found more mystery items buried beneath the soil there Tuesday afternoon.  The National Park Service [NPS] closed part of the park after one of its employees found two metal canisters [sic] in a mound of soil.  NPS subsequently urged locals to stay away from cordoned off part of the park east of Fort Totten Drive, south of Gallatin Street, & north of Brookland Avenue NE.  Metro trains even bypassed the nearby Ft. Totten station, for more than an hour, as federal authorities conducted their investigation.  NPS said the canisters [sic], which appeared to be pushed into the park from the road, will be analyzed by the U.S. Army at Marine Corps Base Quantico ...

This latest discovery comes after NPS found an empty, unfused World War I-era metal canister [sic] in Ft. Totten Park in July 2020.  Its discovery prompted locals to push NPS to further examine the park for similar canisters [sic] and possible WWI-era munitions ... Local Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Zach Ammerman contacted Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton about the issue.  She, in turn, wrote a letter to NPS Director Charles Sams to investigate ordnances and soil and groundwater contamination throughout Ft. Totten Park.  She specifically noted she was disappointed NPS only looked at parts of the park around Fort Totten Trail after she requested a “thorough investigation” following a meeting in 2020 with the service, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.  “I believe it is imperative that NPS conduct an investigation throughout Ft. Totten Park,” she said.  “This park is located in a residential neighborhood and is regularly used” ...

Spring Valley WMDs were unearthed at Ft. Totten

Ammerman believes the discoveries in Fort Totten Park are tied to weapons waste material, once found in DC’s Spring Valley neighborhood in Upper Northwest D.C., in 1993.  “I think we just need to do testing of the entire [Ft. Totten Park] and quit pretending like there’s not an issue when there clearly is,” he said.  According to the US Corps of Army Engineers, Baltimore District [USACE], during World War I, the US government used the American University Experiment Station [AUES], in Spring Valley, to research and test chemical agents, equipment, and munitions.  A remediation project at that site, located along the 4800 block of Glenbrook Road, concluded in August 2021 with the ultimate discovery of more than 550 munition items.  Officials said 23 of them had been filled with chemical agents.

The NPS said the source of the empty canister [sic] found in Ft. Totten Park has still not been determined.  However, during a meeting in January 2021, Dan Noble, the USACE’s Spring Valley Project Manager, said [pg. 7] it was possible the Ft. Totten canister [sic] did originate in Upper Northwest: “[D. Noble] explained that USACE inspected and obtained x-rays of the shell,” a meeting transcript reads.  “The shell was found to be a 75mm with a hex plug.  This type of munition was often found in Spring Valley” ... Ammerman said he wished the issues at Ft. Totten were treated with the same urgency as they were in Spring Valley.  “Why can’t we get – I think I know why – just an iota of attention that was given to the other side of D.C. where the richest people in D.C. live, here?” he said ... WUSA-9 reached out to NPS to see if it has any plans to examine the entirety of Ft. Totten Park for munitions, ordinances, or any other types of waste.  It said it is working to determine the next steps to evaluate the area and no other additional information on the park is available at this time.
John Henry

WUSA-9

April 19, 2023

NPS Stonewalls Congresswoman on "thorough" Testing at Fort Totten

I finally deduced how the NPS [National Park Service] can continue to play dumb about the WW I-era munition discovered in eastern Ft. Totten Park in July 2020.  The key is the Feb. 27 update [below] where they say: “WMATA can best speak to the material that was placed and removed from the site.”  That’s because in 1992, when the Park Service ordered the contaminated fill material from Glenbrook Road to be removed from the original western Ft. Totten dump site, it was WMATA contractors — not the NPS! — who actually hauled it to the narrow eastern arm of the park between Galloway & Gallatin streets.  That’s why, in another section of their update, the Park Service says: 

“The source of the munition [discovered in 2020] is unknown. Fort Totten was used by the Army only during the Civil War, and there is no record of military activity around Fort Totten that would explain why a WWI munition would be found at a site.”

I.e., if WMATA will just admit for the record that their contractors moved 60 cubic yards of toxic fill from west to east Ft. Totten in 1992, then the Park Service can finally justify conducting the broader search for munitions debris and laboratory waste (that we all want) on both sides of the original foot path. 

~ Allen Hengst

On Apr 10, 2023, at 2:19 PM, Truding, Bradley <bradley.truding@mail.house.gov> wrote:

NPS hasn’t yet responded.  We check in with NPS periodically on the status of the response.  It is not uncommon for NPS and other federal entities to take many months to respond to inquiries from members of Congress. 

~ Bradley Truding

   Office of Congresswoman Norton

   April 10, 2023

 

On Apr 10, 2023, at 2:12 PM, ALLEN HENGST <ahengst@verizon.net> wrote:

 

It’s now been over two months since Congresswoman Norton sent a letter to NPS Director Charles Sams about conducting a more “thorough” investigation of Ft. Totten Park.  As you may recall, she requested a response from them by February 28, 2023.  Can you please let me know if the Park Service ever answered the Congresswoman?  If so, can I please see a copy of the Director’s written response?

 

Thank you,

Allen

 Email to Norton's office (4/11/23)

In the 1980s, the NPS authorized the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA) to use two areas of Fort Totten Park for the construction of the Ft. Totten Metro Station and the Green Line. The area where the NPS is constructing the new Fort Totten trail (to the east of the Ft. Totten Metrorail Station, between Gallatin and Galloway Streets NE) was reportedly used for construction of the Green Line tunnel ... WMATA reports that no fill material from off-site was brought to the site.  WMATA was also authorized to use a separate portion of Fort Totten Park to the west of the Ft. Totten Metrorail Station to stage construction equipment.  A 0.75-acre portion of the park was cleared and compacted for the staging area ...  

In 1992, WMATA excavated the staging area and placed 60 cubic yards of uncompacted fill material in the park.  During the placement of the fill, workers complained of eye and respiratory irritation.  The fill also contained large amounts of various [munitions] debris.  The NPS required that WMATA remove the fill and replace it with clean fill [pg. 3].  In 2014, it was confirmed that the source of the original fill was 4825 [and 4835] Glenbrook Road NW [pgs. 13 - 14] within the Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site , a property ... impacted by the release of hazardous substances.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently remediating the site.  Following the removal of contaminated soil from the staging area in 1992, there were reports suggesting the potential that a portion of the contaminated fill remained on the wooded slope.  In 2019, the NPS and WMATA performed additional soil testing to determine whether there was residual contamination ... WMATA can best speak to the material that was placed and removed from the site ... 

Excerpt from Ft. Totten "Toxic Waste Timeline"

In 2020, a contractor working for the NPS discovered a WWI-era empty metal canister [75mm artillery shell] on the surface of the ground while working on the Ft. Totten Trail.  At the time, the NPS thought that the canister could be an unexploded ordnance, and the canister was immediately removed from the site and inspected by the Department of Defense (DOD). The information provided by DOD indicates the munition was an unfused, unused, empty canister [modified with a hexagonal plug to accommodate poison gas], and it was safely disposed of.  The source of the munition [pg. 5] is unknown [sic]. Ft. Totten was used by the Army only during the Civil War, and there is no record [sic] of military activity around Ft. Totten that would explain why a WW-I munition would be found at a site ...

Work [on the trail] was paused again in early 2022, after the NPS uncovered a portion of Metrorail infrastructure during trail construction.  The NPS then conducted a thorough review, consulted with engineers and engaged with WMATA and determined that we will need to redesign the trail with a new alignment.  It is our intent to complete the trail design in 2023. 

National Park Service

Update on Ft. Totten

February 27, 2023