Vapor Containment Tents Going Up Around Glenbrook Road House

Investigations are currently paused at the ‘Pit 3 Area’ property as a result of the early August recovery of a flask containing a small amount of the chemical agent mustard ... As a precautionary measure, vapor containment tents will be constructed over three test pits where there may be additional intact laboratory glassware. Based on the findings of the excavations in these three test pits, the team along with our interagency partners ... will determine the approach for completing the remaining investigations and restoration on the property. Construction of these protective tents is expected to start in September.
Spring Valley Project Update
August 2009

The Corps expects further “high probability” digging at the Pit 3 location at 4825 Glenbrook Road to recommence in late October at the earliest, according to Dan Noble, the Military Response Program manager ... Switching back to high-probability procedures at Pit 3 will require additional precautionary measures ... “Our workers will be upgrading to a level B personal protective equipment, working off supplied air, complete skin protection and things like that,” he said.“So ... we have to essentially plan for a high-probability situation, get it through all the approvals we need to get it through, bring back the high-probability crews and get them trained up.”
Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle ~ September 9, 2009

Digging Suspended after Surprise Mustard Discovery at Burial Pit 3

Mustard flask found on August 4, 2009

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District has temporarily suspended its investigation of Pit 3, located at 4825 Glenbrook Road at the Spring Valley Formerly Used Defense Site in northwest Washington, D.C., as a result of the discovery of an intact, open flask ... Following established procedures, workers secured the flask and took it to the federal property adjacent to the Washington Aqueduct. The Army’s Technical Escort Unit (TEU) took the flask to Edgewood Arsenal, in Maryland, for analysis on Aug. 5. On Aug.10, the Corps received confirmation that the material in the flask tested positive for the chemical agent mustard.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
August 12, 2009

Aqueduct Gen. Mgr.Thomas Jacobus: "The water is safe"

"Mustard gas in open containers is just as toxic now as it was 90 years ago," says Kent Slowinski, a Spring Valley resident, activist and thorn in the Army's side. "How can the corps say there's no risk?" That's the question D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton posed to corps project manager Daniel Noble on Thursday afternoon. When she heard about the mustard gas, she hauled Noble into her office. Norton has been relentless in keeping the corps on the case and prying information from the Army. "We want them to keep digging," she told me after the meeting. "They are not leaving until we say so."
Harry Jaffe
Washington Examiner
August 14,2009

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton is right to note that the Corps twice before has declared the cleanup complete, only to resume work after the discovery of more buried weapons. Officials must do everything they can to make sure this does not happen yet again, and it is essential that they fully investigate the cause of extensive groundwater contamination in the area ... Since munitions were first uncovered in 1993 by unsuspecting construction workers in Spring Valley West, the Army has spent $173 million on cleanup efforts. We're glad Del. Norton is working to ensure that this enormous project is done right
Davis Kennedy
Northwest Current
August 26, 2009

Army Corps Must Issue EE/CA on Weapons Destruction by Year's End

USACE received direction to produce an Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis (EE/CA) report that will identify and evaluate disposal options for both chemical munitions and conventional munitions. After the draft EE/CA has been reviewed by the Army, the EPA, and the DDOE, the EE/CA will be made available for public review during a formal 30-day comment period. During the comment period, we will hold an Open House where the Army will be available to answer questions about the disposal options. Members of the community will also be able to submit comments during the Open House. The EE/CAs for chemical and conventional munitions destruction are expected to be available for public review by the end of this calendar year.
Spring Valley Project Update
July 2009

Security Breached in Perimeter Fence Guarding "Federal Property"

Just behind Sibley Hospital and east of Dalecarlia Reservoir, a 24-hour guard stands at the front entrance to an anonymous looking place known as the "Federal Property."  On the other side of the fence are: 1) U.S. Army Corps of Engineers headquarters for the Spring Valley FUDS cleanup (pictured above); 2) the IHF or Interim Holding Facility (about 150 yards north) where recovered chemical munitions are being stored, pending their eventual destruction; and 3) a hilly, 65-acre section of woods where the 16-year hunt for buried WMD's will arguably come to an end next year. Along the northern boundary of this wooded survey area, the perimeter fence runs parallel to the Spring Valley homes on Warren Place, about thirty yards west of Dalecarlia Parkway. During a recent inspection several large openings in the fence were discovered, including the twenty-foot gap (pictured below) caused by a fallen tree trunk.

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