Corps will Finally Investigate Burial Pit on Fordham Road

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has won long-sought permission to investigate an "anomaly" in the backyard of a Spring Valley property, which officials believe might be the site of another World War I-era burial pit ... A 1918 aerial photo of the Fordham Road property shows a scar on the ground similar to another where workers have found munitions. 

   The Army's cleanup project manager, Dan Noble, secured the verbal agreement with the property owner there after many years of unsuccessful attempts ... Due to the long delay in finally winning the approval, the Army will have prepare a separate "task order" to solicit cleanup proposals from new contractors, which means the work probably won't begin until October at the earliest.

Northwest Current

January 16, 2013 (pg. 3)

Photograph of AUES Arsine Still Indicates Large Scale Production

Three arsine shells were found on the 4825 Glenbrook Road property ... Unlike buried liquid agent, these shells — which would have eventually rusted through and breached on site — would have released a large quantity of very deadly gas that would have immediately pushed up through the soil into the atmosphere, settling in any nearby basement or low area.  Arsine is odorless and colorless.  Unlike Lewisite, it does not sting the eyes.  It is lethal over time at 1 or 2 parts per million and immediately dangerous to life and health at 250 ppm.  Now I have obtained a picture of the AUES arsine still (below).  Due to its size, I'm wondering if perhaps the current Corps plans have taken into account that there may be a larger quantity of arsine compressed gas shells or cylinders found on that site?

The apparatus on the left with the square tank on top is where the metal arsenide would be placed in the "generators" and dilute sulfuric acid (that's what's in the square tank) would be added to produce the arsine gas.  The gas would flow into a large gasometer (the round wooden tub in the middle) and the gasometer would meter out a steady rate of arsine to the drying towers (which are the four tall upright columns on the right hand side of the photo, filled with quick lime).  Once the gas was dried, it would be cooled and pressurized to convert it to a liquid and be ready for storage or loading into shells.  My guess is this took place in the wooden shack in the back of the photo. 
       
The stack of metal pipe sections in the foreground ... were perhaps the storage containers for the metal arsenide ... You would want to store it in airtight containers because any moisture coming into contact with arsenide would produce arsine gas.  Maybe those metal "pipe sections" are empty arsenide storage containers that were used to charge the arsine generators?  The generators would be charged with 800 lbs. of arsenide and a batch process would produce about 60 lbs. of liquid arsine greater than 94% pure.  Running the batch process took about three hours.  The AUES produced about 4000 lbs. of arsine, so they ran this plant about 65 times.    

WMD Specialist

January 10, 2013

Walls Come Tumbling Down Over Poison Pit on Glenbrook Road

At first, the bricks tumbled one by one, the jaws of the excavator plucking at the home's facade. Then the punch: the bucket rammed through a window, raking out insulation, wiring and cinder blocks that rained on the driveway below. With a diesel roar and a crunch of timber, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began on Thursday the long-awaited demolition of a vacant house believed to have been built atop a chemical weapons burial pit, part of the tarnished legacy of a World War I-era research station in what is now one of the capital's most affluent residential neighborhoods ... The demolition is what many hope will be the climactic chapter in a nearly 20-year cleanup of the Washington neighborhood known as Spring Valley. The project over all is expected to cost nearly $240 million, paid by the federal government, and it has in the past been marred by missteps and stubborn questions over what lies beneath.

Theo Emery

New York Times

November 29, 2012

Video of demolition (including sound) 

In the house directly opposite from the site, resident Christine Dieterich stood with Harold G. Bailey, Jr., her lawyer.  Dieterich voiced concerns during two restoration advisory board meetings about the safety and health of her family, especially her two children, during the cleanup and demolition.  She requested the Army Corps relocate her during the cleanup, but the Corps refused twice.  In the case of an accident, the Corps had provided a 742-foot safety zone surrounding the house.  However, the perimeter decreased to 194 feet, based on the probability of finding chemicals rather than munitions.  The Corps already briefed some residents living within the zone, like Dieterich, on what to do in the case of an accident.  Dieterich was instructed Nov. 28 on the voluntary "shelter in place" program, in which residents remain inside their homes during an accident.

Leigh Giangreco 

The Eagle  

December 6, 2012 (pg. 6)

The munitions date to between 1917 and 1920, when American University was home to an Army munitions experimentation team that fired munitions into then-undeveloped woods and buried materials in unmarked pits there. Those woods were subsequently subdivided into the Spring Valley community ... Even before this stage of the cleanup, workers had 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. Officials believe another burial pit remains under the home's southeast corner, and determined that removing the house is the only viable cleanup option.

Brady Holt

Northwest Current

December 5, 2012 (pg. 1)

Yellow house across Glenbrook Rd on right is 4830; to left is 4820

The razing of 4825 is the latest effort by the US Army Corps of Engineers to clean up pits of chemical waste that are a legacy of World War I weapons testing.  Facing mustard-gas bombs in the trenches of Europe, the Army summoned chemists to make poisons at the American University Experiment Station.  When the war ended and the experiments stopped, soldiers dumped bombs and chemical waste in pits. Those pits are now in the yard of the South Korean ambassador's residence, the edge of American University, and under 4825 Glenbrook.  Tearing down the house is the easy part.  In February or March, bomb technicians will dig under the house.  They expect to unearth munitions and glassware coated with toxic chemicals such as arsenic, the major compound in lewisite, a poison dubbed “the dew of death."   

Harry Jaffe

The Washingtonian 

November 29, 2012

Army Begins Tearing Down House on Glenbrook Road Next Week

            4825 Glenbrook Road Shelter-in-Place Zones

   
The Army Corps of Engineers announced Nov. 13 that demolition on 4825 Glenbrook Rd. will begin the week of Nov 26.  Site preparation for investigative work is set after Dec. 19 when the Corps hopes demolition is completed ... The Corps will begin work under a large tent, called a “containment structure,” in January, when they expect to find chemicals.  Army Corps ... have also instituted voluntary “shelter in place” procedures, which instruct people about where to take cover in case something goes wrong at the site.  There are eight properties which fall into the zone where residents would be advised to “shelter in place,” including Watkins Hall and President Neil Kerwin’s home at 4835 Glenbrook Rd.
Leigh Giangreco

The Eagle
November 14, 2012 (pg. 5)

  
The Glenbrook Road house, owned by American University, is believed to sit atop a pit of hazardous materials.  Experts think the pit was disturbed when the home was built in the 1990s.  Two investigations of the property during the past decade have uncovered considerable munitions, glassware and contaminated soil, said demolition project manager Brenda Barber.  More are likely to be found once the house is torn down, she said ... During World War I, the country's major experimental poison gas station was located at American University.  After the war, much of the material was buried in the woods near the university in areas that are now part of Spring Valley.
Northwest Current
October 24, 2012 (pg. 7)

Cleanup Plan for 4825 Glenbrook Road

3rd Deep Well Sampling Confirms Groundwater Arsenic Exceedances

In Spring 2012, perchlorate and arsenic were both detected above the current drinking water standards in several well depth intervals as deep as 160 feet. These detections were unexpected based on previous sampling results from the other deep wells.  Purging and re-sampling of all MP-2 intervals were completed in July 2012 to confirm that these arsenic and perchlorate detections are truly representative of groundwater chemistry in the aquifer, and to ensure that these detections were not influenced by well construction.  Analytical laboratory results confirmed the previous detections at groundwater flow depths between 35 feet and 160 feet below ground surface (bgs).
Spring Valley RAB

Meeting Minutes

September 11, 2012 (pg. 7)

Spring Valley Follow-Up Health Study Launched by Johns Hopkins

John Hopkins University Researchers are asking residents and workers to complete a survey about their health issues in an effort to evaluate the impact of World War I-era chemical contamination in the Spring Valley area.  The study is open to anyone who lives or works — or has done either in the past — in Zip codes 20015 or 20016.  Residents of those Zip codes who live outside of Spring Valley itself will be used as the study's control group. Information about the study and links to download the survey or complete online are available at jhsph.edu/springvalley; hard copies are also available at the Tenley-Friendship Public Library, 4450 Wisconsin Avenue, NW.

Community Health Assessment Survey

Bloomberg School of Public Health   

John Hopkins University

 Last month, researchers from Johns Hopkins University began conducting an extensive D.C.-funded survey into health issues in Spring Valley and surrounding neighborhoods.  The work will continue through Nov. 16.  It’s a follow-up to a 2007 study examining the health effects of World War I-era chemical contamination stemming from the U.S. Army’s use of the area for munitions testing.  The earlier work found an elevated incidence of arsenic-related cancer in Spring Valley compared to Chevy Chase, which was used as the study’s control group ...

We’re glad to see this long-awaited study in progress, but we fear that the means of distribution will limit participation.  It’s available at jhsph.edu/springvalley ... But we wish that researchers had mailed the survey to every resident of Spring Valley.  Not everyone would respond, but at least the less computer-literate — and those who simply didn’t know about the study previously — would have had easy access.  Even now, copies should be made available at more community gathering places.  The Spring Valley advisory neighborhood commission’s Nov. 7 meeting — as well as the neighborhood’s polling place the day before — would be particularly opportune.
Editorial
Northwest Current
October 17, 2012 (pg. 10)

University Students Barred from Advisory Board Membership

The Spring Valley Restoration Advisory Board recently announced that students cannot participate in board discussions on the basis that they are not permanent D.C. residents ... The Eagle would like to point out a few factors: 
 
First, although each individual student at AU only lives in D.C. for about four years, AU is not moving and the Spring Valley community will always have a student presence in the area.  The AU student body is a permanent resident and therefore deserves a say.
 
Second, D.C. is a transient city.  Every four years (or more often than that), new rotations of politicians move into the D.C. metropolitan area.  Members of the House of Representatives are potentially only here for two years.  As populations other than students come and go, it seems that the board’s members are targeting students specifically.  
  
Third, AU students do their research.  When students become involved with something, they study it ... Board members may be concerned that students won’t understand the jargon or complexity of neighborhood issues.  This may be a legitimate concern at a different university, but at AU, if students are given the opportunity to represent themselves, they take it.

Staff Editorial

The Eagle

September 20, 2012

 

[1.1.] The purpose of the Board is to provide a forum and mechanism to ensure: a) independent community awareness, b) review and assessment of proposed actions by the Corps and c) the Corps’ consideration of community concerns as they proceed with environmental testing, analysis, remediation and restoration of the Spring Valley neighborhood, pursuant to the contamination and potentially dangerous material remaining in ground as a result of activities of the American University Experimental Station, a Formerly Used Defense Site ...

 
[3.1.3.] The community members are individual residents and/or workers in the area who may be affected by environmental restoration activities in the Spring Valley FUDS, and who provide their advice, opinions and judgments as individuals ...

  
[4.2.2.] Community members selected for the Spring Valley RAB must live and/or work in the affected community, or be affected by the installation’s environmental restoration program.

Operating Procedures

Spring Valley Restoration Advisory Board

November 14, 2006