Hunt for Missing Munitions Moves to Dalecarlia Woods this Summer

Remnants of narrow gauge railway tracked in yellow (above)

In 2002, USACE was notified of a potential AUES-related discovery in Dalecarlia Woods. Rick Woods reported that in 1984, he discovered and removed a pile of approximately 55 munition items in Dalecarlia Woods while looking for Civil War relics. He also reported that glassware was present. In 2005, a site visit was conducted to identify the location of the Rick Woods Area. Rick Woods accompanied the Spring Valley Area of Interest Task Force and identified the site where he thought the munition items were located, using remnants of a narrow gauge railway as a point of reference. This area was designated as AOI 2 (Rick Woods Area).
Restoration Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
January 13, 2009 (pg. 8)

Upcoming Geophysical Investigation Plans for Dalecarlia Woods

Anomaly removals for the 3 half-acre grids are tentatively scheduled for summer 2009, followed by complete geophysical mapping of the remaining acreage (54.5 acres) and associated anomaly investigations. The geophysical survey will include the locations of AOI 2 (Rick Woods Area) and AOI 6 (Dalecarlia Woods Impact Area) along with buffer areas surrounding the AOIs. T. Beckwith showed a map of the upcoming geophysical survey area, featuring the locations of the [Livens] Range Fan, AOI 2 (Rick Woods Area), AOI 6 (Dalecarlia Woods Impact Area), the 3 half-acre grids surveyed in 2007, and munition items found during the 1994 Zone 9 investigation. 
Restoration Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
January 13, 2009 (pg. 10)

Tons of Chemical Weapons Scattered Across Ocean Floor

Summary of DOD Sea Disposal of Chemical Warfare Material

The University of Hawai'i yesterday said it has found "hundreds" of munitions on the ocean floor about six miles south of Pearl Harbor, as it continues to use deep-diving submersibles to search for tons of chemical weapons dumped during and after World War II ... 2,558 tons of chemical agents were dumped at three deep-water sites off O'ahu, including lewisite, mustard, cyanogen chloride and cyanide. 

... A towed detection system was used in 2007 to look at 40 square miles of ocean bottom at the site south of Pearl Harbor from about 150 to 200 feet above the sea floor. Rows of "black dots" that appeared were investigated further to identify munitions that were rolled off the sides of barges.

Honolulu Advertiser ~ (March 10, 2009)

Photo courtesy of SAIC/AMTI

Army Will Neutralize 90-Year-Old WMD's in Woods Next to Reservoir

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is planning to safely destroy all of the chemical munitions recovered at the Pit 3 project area. This involves safely treating and neutralizing the chemical agent fill from the recovered World War I military chemical munitions. USACE plans to use a mobile system, known as the Explosive Destruction System to destroy the munitions on federal property at a site adjacent to our storage facility in the May 2009 timeframe.

The Corps'pondent 

March 2009  

 IHF behind Sibley Hospital (slide #20)

The chemical weapons will be destroyed "in place" at the US Army Corps of Engineeers' Interim Holding Facility (IHF) on federal land around Dalecarlia Reservoir. This land is 410 feet from Spring Valley residences, 860 feet from the Dalecarlia Reservoir and 985 feet from Sibley Hospital.

Spring Valley FUDS
RAB Meeting Minutes
February 10, 2009 (pg. 6 - 7)

DC Environmental Film Festival to Feature BOMBS IN OUR BACKYARD

BOMBS IN OUR BACKYARD (Work-in-progress)

With footage dating back to 1993, the film uncovers a large, local U.S. Army cover-up in the Washington D.C. area of Spring Valley, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of the nation’s capital, where a forgotten WW I "Manhattan Project" is being unearthed. This FUDS (or Formerly Used Defense Site) raises questions of public responsibility, health issues and public safety as officials hunt for our own weapons of mass destruction. Directed and produced by Ginny Durrin.

"Shovel-Ready" FUDS Cleanups Seen as Economic Stimulus

QUESTION (9:08): What can the Obama administration do to clean up contamination at Formerly Used Defense Sites, such as Spring Valley, where the cleanup of chemical munitions and weapons of mass destruction is now in its 16th year? At current funding levels of $250 million for more than 9,000 FUDS nationwide, it will take 80 - 160 years to clean up known contamination.

NORTON (15:16): It does seem to me that is quintessentially how this [stimulus] money would be used. If you put money into cleaning up sites like this ... you do what you’re going to have to do anyway and you do it by putting people to work. You put them to work in the short term, since that’s just the kind of work that is already out there "to be done" with not enough people doing it.
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
WAMU-BBC live simulcast from
American University (1/10/2009)

Army Corps Ally Planted on Cleanup Restoration Advisory Board

Alma Gates, an outgoing Spring Valley-Palisades advisory neighborhood commissioner, took a seat on the advisory board on Nov. 13 after the Army Engineers recommended her. The board serves as a civilian observer of the Army's multiyear cleanup of the chemical munitions buried in the ground during and after World War I, when the area was a military ordnance test site ... [Army Corps Spring Valley project manager Dan] Noble, in an email to [advisory neighborhood commissioner Tom] Smith on Nov. 14, said he was "delighted that Principal Whisenant accepted our recommendation of Alma Gates," whom he called a "steady presence."
Charlie Bermpohl
Northwest Current ~ (December 3, 2008: pg 5)

Perchlorate Problem Proves Persistent near DC Reservoir

More testing for groundwater problems in Northwest Washington neighborhoods where the U.S. Army researched chemical weapons during World War I has found new locations of perchlorate contamination, at some of the highest levels detected to date, according to officials. Undetermined is whether the contamination could end up in the Dalecarlia Reservoir or the Washington Aqueduct, both of which supply drinking water to more than 1 million people in the metropolitan area ... Perchlorate, a compound that was used nine decades ago in tests with mustard agent and screening smokes, can disrupt thyroid function and can contribute to developmental delays and infertility.

Given that two of the wells are just west of major disposal pits, the December findings were not surprising. They showed levels of 60 and 70 parts per billion, which exceed the previous high of 58 parts per billion detected in 2003 on the grounds of Sibley Memorial Hospital and are more than double a federal recommendation for perchlorate cleanup. Much more unexpected, however, was the 48 parts per billion reading from the third well, about 1,000 feet south of Dalecarlia at Loughboro Road and MacArthur Boulevard.

Washington Post
February 18, 2006: pg. B-2

Perchlorate Detections in Groundwater near Pit 3 & Lot 18

As the clock runs out on the Bush administration, officials at the Environmental Protection Agency are trying to hand industry yet another victory by refusing to set safety standards for the toxic rocket fuel ingredient perchlorate ... Based on Centers for Disease Control data, the Environmental Working Group estimated that as many as 44 million women who are pregnant, thyroid deficient or have low iodine levels are at heightened risk of exposure to the chemical.

Other CDC studies have found perchlorate in the urine of every person tested and have discovered that children between 6 and 11 had perchlorate levels 1.6 times higher than adults. These CDC reports have aroused great concern because tests show that the chemical disrupts production of thyroid hormones at these levels, and adequate thyroid hormones are crucial to normal brain development and growth in infants and children.

EWG News Release

November 11, 2008

Perchlorate in Groundwater near Dalecarlia Reservoir

In a letter last week, the heads of EPA's Science Advisory Board and its drinking water committee urged EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson to extend the public comment period on its preliminary determination to not regulate perchlorate. That decision is set to become final next month. Perchlorate, which is present in the water systems of 35 states, accumulates in the body from consuming water, milk, lettuce and other common products and has been linked in scientific studies to thyroid problems in pregnant women, newborns and infants ... "It seemed premature to go ahead and make a decision on perchlorate when they didn't have all the science in," [Advisory Board Chairwoman Deborah] Swackhamer said ... A 2006 CDC study of 1,000 women found that one third had experienced significant changes in thyroid hormone levels at an exposure rate of 7 parts per billion.
Washington Post
November 14, 2008: pg. A-8