Munitions Destruction Postponed Yet Again until after Labor Day

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

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
Press Release
June 10, 2009

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

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)

All previous EDS deployments have been on military bases

Public Hearings Cast Doubt on FUDS Cleanup Timetable

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

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

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

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