AU Will Build Dormitories on Contaminated South Campus Sites

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

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 FG-118-120.  This photograph dated April 30, 1937, and 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, compatible with the aerial photograph representation ... The District also obtained another photograph showing the [steam] shovel in the canal, which had been drained. Could it be that the burials occurred in the canal while they were shoveling out flood debris and silt? ... Because EPIC has now analyzed the aerial photographs and found no pits near the canal,  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 (pgs. 158 - 168)

Search for WW I Munitions Resumes in Dalecarlia Woods

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

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

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.

April 2010 RAB PowerPoint presentation (pg. 23)

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

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

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 scheduled at the [neighboring] president's house. 
Brett Zongker
Associated 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

Fuming bottle of Arsenic trichloride found at 

Pit 3 on Glenbrook Road (USACE Ppt, pg. 23)