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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
"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
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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 CurrentAugust 26, 2009
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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
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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)
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
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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
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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)
At a public roundtable Monday before the DC Council’s Committee on Government Operations and the Environment ... Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh, who chairs the committee, and several community members said they worry the Army will again depart Spring Valley before all the munitions and chemicals are found and removed. In 1995, the Army decided no more work was necessary and left the neighborhood, only to return after the DC Department of Health conducted an independent investigation and found evidence of arsenic and munitions. “There are growing concerns that the Corps will leave before the job is done, just like it did before,” said Tom Smith, a Spring Valley advisory neighborhood commissioner
Northwest Current
May 13, 2009 (pg. 1)
At the request of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Subcommittee on Federal Workforce, Postal Issues and the District of Columbia will hold a hearing on Wednesday, June 10, Rayburn House Office Building in room 2154 at 2pm, on the proposal of the Army Corps of Engineers to conclude its cleanup of chemical weapons, unexploded ordinances and other chemicals in Spring Valley, a Formerly Used Defense Site in Northwest, a neighborhood in the District ... "No information has been submitted to the public or Congress concerning how the Corps has ascertained that the entire site is clear, safe, and without residual health effects," Norton said.
Free Hit Counter
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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
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