Drilling Could Dredge Chemical Weapons from Ocean Floor

A Generation of Indiscriminate Dumping

The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 ton of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels. A Daily Press investigation also found: these weapons of mass destruction virtually ring the country, concealed off at least 11 states - six on the East Coast, two on the Gulf Coast, California, Hawaii and Alaska ... The Army can't say exactly where all the weapons were dumped from World War II to 1970. Army records are sketchy, missing or were destroyed.

Daily Press
Newport News, Va
October 30, 2005

Excavations Under South Extension Will Begin on October 20th

"The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been digging and investigating Pit 3, located in the 4800 block of Glenbrook Road, since Oct. 29, 2007 ... Now we are focusing our attention on an area immediately to the south of the structure, and have built an additional extension on Glenbrook Road towards Rockwood Parkway. This is an area where 19 metallic anomalies, or objects that exhibit irregular magnetic responses below the ground surface, have been identified. These items need to be investigated since they are so close to the original Pit 3 location. Work on the southern extension is expected to begin this month and take about two to four weeks to complete. USACE is very interested in the results of this dig because additional anomalies do extend further down the road."
The Corps'pondent
October 2008 (pg. 1)

Pentagon Accused of Retaliation Over Base Cleanup Requests

Formerly Used Defense Sites

Congress gives the Pentagon about $30 million annually to dispense to states with contaminated military bases, to help pay the states' costs to oversee cleanup of those sites. But in 2006, the Pentagon began telling some states they would no longer receive money for various oversight activities and would lose all of the money if they took enforcement action.
Washington Post ~ (September 19, 2008: pg. A-2)

Testing gas masks at Camp AU (1918) ~ U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Repository Records Search Like Looking for Needle in Haystack

At the Palisades Neighborhood Library, the editor searches in vain through the unlabeled drawers of the Spring Valley FUDS-cleanup public information repository for recently released Area of Interest task force [AOITF] reports. Charged with investigating 28 areas of interest within the 662-acre Spring Valley project area, the AOITF made recommendations if additional investigations were needed. In a closet-sized alcove, housed in identical white binders in no apparent order, are paper records generated over the project's 15-year history.

Spring Valley "Areas of Interest"

Hunt for Munitions at Pit 3 Moves onto Neighbor's Property

"Construction began on the South Extension [of the Emergency Containment Structure] and continues into September ... The South Extension’s construction is expected to take 6 weeks, and should be completed in mid September. The digging investigation inside the South Extension will be short; 1 - 2 weeks is anticipated. During this time the Shelter-in Place program will go into effect again for those residents and workers within 750 feet of the project area, Monday - Friday from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m."
Spring Valley FUDS
Monthly Project Update
August 2008

Forum Focuses on Long-Term Health Effects of Buried Poisons

Left to right: K. Slowinski, C. Ion, B. Resnick & Camille Saum

At the third Friends of the Earth roundtable on the 15-year cleanup of World War I-era chemical weapons in northwest Washington DC, community activist Kent Slowinski reacts to a presentation by Dr. Beth Resnick summarizing the 2007 Johns Hopkins Public Health Scoping Study. As Global Green USA co-convener Cristian Ion looks on, a cameraman records the event for a forthcoming documentary entitled Bombs in Our Backyard, which exposes Spring Valley as the nation’s most affluent toxic dump.

Arsenic Contaminated Soil Near Hughes Hall to Be Removed

"For several years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been conducting environmental investigations and cleanup activities on and around the AU campus. This work will continue in the coming weeks as the Army Corps undertakes arsenic-containing soil cleanup activities just north of Hughes Hall ... The digging is expected to start in late July and be completed before fall semester begins."
Jorge Abud, Assist. Vice President, Facilities
American University
July 14, 2008