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)

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

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