Military Never Accounted For Chemical Munitions "Mother Lode"

The greatest risk AU students currently face is the potential existence of a large burial site of unexploded World War I-era munitions in the area, Buzz Bailey, a local attorney, said during a panel discussion ... "We have found pure lewisite, pure mustard and pure arsine gas right next to AU on Glenbrook Road," said Ken Shuster of the Environmental Protection Agency. "We know that some [chemical munitions] were buried here — but the big mother load [sic] we still have not yet found" ... "Unfortunately, when the military turned these lands over, they did not clean them up," Shuster said. "They did not even investigate them to determine what contaminants may exist."

Christopher Cottrell

The Eagle

April 24, 2008

Global Green USA Hosts Spring Valley Forum

At a panel discussion sponsored by Friends of the Earth, community activist Kent Slowinski traces the recent history of attempts to locate and remove chemical weapons buried under Spring Valley ninety years ago. Legacy Project Director, Paul Walker of Global Green USA (far right), looks on as Slowinski shows where Civil War relic hunters recovered World War I munitions next to Dalecarlia Reservoir, the District's water supply.

 Partners before "Rick Woods Pit" site visit (2/26/05) ~ USACE

The tour group then walked to the area where Rick Woods entered the Dalecarlia Woods previously, near the intersection of Rockwood Parkway and Dalecarlia Parkway. Thomas Jacobus, Washington Aqueduct, met them at this location and let them on to the property. R. Woods showed the group the area that he had found Civil War memorabilia years ago and, after going up a steep incline, located the small gauge railroad bed. There was a row of rocks there for erosion control and the bed looks like a walking trail today. Major Verell stated that it is definitely there and it was R. Woods' landmark for locating the area where he found munitions previously. The group traveled up a hill, turned east and went down a hill. R. Woods said this was definitely the area where he had found munitions. He said he was walking through the woods with a metal detector, got beeps, brushed some leaves away and started moving the dirt with a knife to locate the rounds. R. Woods reported that he began stacking the rounds against a tree and made 6-7 trips to his car, carrying 6-7 rounds on each trip.

Restoration Advisory Board
Meeting Minutes

April 12, 2005 (pgs. 3 - 9)

Digging for Real Answers

"If there was ever a moment that we felt the university was hiding something, it's now. Whether administrators are filtering or burying information out of concern for bad press or heightened hysteria, the university's silence on the munitions dig is reprehensible at best. It seems that every new report about chemicals or components reveals a new weapons site that's geographically closer to the residence halls, the Child Development Center and other heavily populated campus areas."

Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle
April 9, 2008

Containment Structure Extended

The Corps lengthened the ECS [Emergency Containment Structure] by approximately 17 feet to the east toward American Uniiversity to further investigate the area, also known as "Pit 3," for remnants of World War I-era munitions or laboratory gear ... Work at Pit 3 will restart April 28.

Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle
April 9, 2008

Army Releases Video of Pit 3 Dig

“Right here we have where we were in 2002 - 2003. This is ... the bottom of where we reached in Pit 3 — where we removed the hundreds of munitions items from the other side of the property.”
Carrie Johnston
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Hopkins Proposes Tracking Program

Spring Valley Public Health Scoping Study (May 2007)

Members of the Spring Valley Restoration Advisory Board received a proposal last week from the Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health that provides additional details about its plans for a follow-up health study ... The study's specific goals include continued communication with Spring Valley residents about the health hazards discussed in the original Johns Hopkins scoping study -- including cancers, neurological and blood disorders and skin conditions -- and developing mechanisms for ongoing monitoring of the effects of chemical weapons exposure.
Christopher Cottrell
The Eagle ~ March 19, 2008

April Vote Set on Health Study

A Spring Valley health study proposed by Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh is not getting the kind of resounding support some expected as a matter of course in a neighborhood used as a World War I chemical munitions dump. Beset by ambivalence and outright opposition to the $750,000 budget request, the citizen-comprised Spring Valley Restoration Advisory Board last week scheduled a vote in April on whether to take a position on the need for such a study, which would be conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The Northwest Current (March 19, 2008: pg. 1)