"The area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
Donald Rumsfeld

ABC This Week
March 30, 2003

19 WW-I Munitions Unearthed Near AU's Former Public Safety Building

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed with WTOP that 19 full or partial World War I-era munitions were found Tuesday on the campus of American University in Northwest D.C. — which served as a chemical weapons testing and disposal site during the first World War.  All of the recovered munitions were 75 mm projectiles.  Two projectiles contained an undetermined fluid, which prompted USACE to summon the Army’s Fort Belvoir’s 55th Ordnance Company and D.C.’s Fire & Emergency Services to the scene.  The two suspicious munitions were safely assessed, packaged and transported to the nearest military installation — Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Harford County, Maryland — for additional assessment ... At Aberdeen Proving grounds, X-ray technology and a Portable Isotopic Neutron Spectroscopy System — or PINS — will enable investigators to identify the suspicious liquid non-intrusively, without having to open the projectile. 

 

PSB site cleanup began in fall 2019 (Squyres/EAGLE)

The devices were found in a steep hillside on Rockwood Parkway NW, next to the former AU Public Safety Building, which was demolished in August 2017.  The area where the projectiles were found was in a fenced-off Army Corps worksite, near Fletcher Gate, on the southern edge of the campus.  Remediation crews have been excavating potentially-contaminated soil under and near the former public safety building.  The painstaking, safety-based work is a continuation of the decadeslong cleanup in the Spring Valley neighborhood ... In a statement to WTOP, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said, “I’m deeply concerned about the suspected munitions found on American University’s campus” ... “I have sounded the alarm when similar munitions have been found in D.C. since 1993, and I’ll continue to work with the relevant entities until I’m satisfied the threat has been contained,” she added.  In 2022, WTOP reported that a World War I-era unexploded shell discovered by the National Park Service during construction of a trail through Northeast D.C.’s Fort Totten may have been transported from the Spring Valley cleanup site, adjacent to AU.
Neal Augenstein
WTOP News
 June 7, 2024

Army Corps Launches Overdue Excavation of PSB Hillside at AU

Under contract with USACE, Weston Solutions, Inc. completed remediation under the former PSB [Public Safety Building] foundation on 21 January 2021 and backfill on 23 March 2021.  During foundation excavation, a layer of dark American University Experiment Station (AUES) debris was observed in the slope north, east and west of the PSB foundation.  USACE contracted with Weston to investigate the AUES debris extent.  Weston completed Rotosonic drilling & test pit investigations on 12 April 2021 to define the extent of the AUES debris layer on the PSB hillside with Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) support ... The Weston Team mobilized to the PSB site at AU during the Labor Day week of September 4, 2023.  The Team is currently conducting the remediation.

The PSB was formerly AU campus police headquarters (pg. 5)

... The objective of the PSB hillside remediation is to assess, remove, and dispose of the munitions and AUES-related debris layer under the hillside, with an emphasis on sealed containers and soil contaminated with chemical warfare agents (CWAs), agent breakdown products or contaminants above the Spring Valley screening criteria or Hazard Index.  To reach the AUES debris layer under the hillside, Weston will install an active retaining wall system while excavating “clean overburden soil” down to the AUES debris layer ... WESTON and the USACE will be monitoring the site to ensure safety and minimize impacts to the college community and local residents: air monitoring by the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) for CWA at the site perimeter, in the excavation zone & headspace samples of soil & debris; and air monitoring for metals and organic vapor in the excavation zone and worker’s breathing zone.
USACE

Partnering Meeting Ppt.

January 4, 2024 (pgs. 4, 10 & 11)

Chasing contamination into hillside next to PSB (pg. 2)