Army's Refusal to Relocate Family of Four Shocks Congresswoman

DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's letter ... expresses “shock” that the Corps would excavate a home site within yards of the home where Rogerio Zandamela and Christine Dieterich are raising their children, ages 1 and 5.  The Corps expects to unearth toxic chemicals in glassware and munitions contaminated with toxic agents such as mustard gas that were used in World War I, when the American University campus was an experiment station for poisonous chemical weapons.  Harold G. “Buzz” Bailey, an attorney who represents the family, last week petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to relocate them under the Superfund Act ... The full story of the Spring Valley chemical-weapons testing and the plight of the Dieterich family is the subject of a feature in the March issue of Washingtonian.
Harry Jaffe
Washingtonian
February 21, 2013

Since 2000, the Army Corps has removed over 500 munitions, 400 pounds of laboratory glassware and over 100 tons of soil contaminated with arsenic and other hazardous substances from 4825 Glenbrook Road and the immediate area.  Despite this and the very real possibility that hazardous substances remain, the Army Corps decided to reject the family’s request for relocation during the remainder of the Army Corps’ work at 4825 Glenbrook Road ...

   

We also know that the Army Corps’ relationship with the Spring Valley community is fragile, that the cost of relocating this family is small compared to the overall cost of this years-long project, and Army Corps risks serious negative publicity by denying this request.  Given these facts, I find it unreasonable that the Army Corps would opt to deny the relocation request.  In light of the scientific evidence available to the Army Corps and to the general public, I believe that the only prudent decision is to relocate the family.

Eleanor Holmes Norton
DC Congresswoman
February 21, 2013

   

EPA Petition Alleges "Imminent & Substantial" Danger to Health

On behalf of two young children residing at 4830 Glenbrook Road, Luisa Z., 22 months old, and Lucas Z., 5 years and 10 months old ... I am urgently seeking your personal attention to address an imminent danger to these Children in the Spring Valley community of Washington DC.  I request that you review and grant the Children's petition under RCRA Sec. 7003 that USEPA: (1) investigate and determine whether the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has violated Executive Order 13045: Protection of Children from Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks, and (2) act immediately to order the relocation of the Children while USACE excavates for chemical weapon materials (CWM) and explosives less than 15 yards from where the Children live and play ...
  

Executive Order 13045, Attachment 4, states:
"A growing body of scientific knowledge demonstrates that children may suffer disproportionately from environmental health and safety risks ... each federal agency (a) shall make it a high priority to identify and assess environmental health risk and safety risks that may disproportionately affect children; and (b) shall insure that its policies, programs, activities, and standards address disproportionate risks to children that result from environmental health risks or safety risks. "  

The above-noted deficiencies of the USACE HHRA and MEC HA constitute a clear violation of the words and intent of E.O. 13045.  I request that (a) USEPA initiate a prompt investigation of how and why the special CWM risks to the Children have not been adequately assessed by USACE, and (b) USEPA use its authorities under Section 7003 to issue an Administrative Order requiring USACE to undertake and complete a new CWM exposure hazard assessment specific to the Children.

Harold G. Bailey, Jr.

Garvey Schubert Barer

February 20, 2013

After exploring the facts concerning the appeal, members of the RAB voted to express sympathy for your situation and to encourage the USACE to meet with you and your husband for the express purpose of providing a resolution satisfactory to your concerns and fears regarding the demolition of the house at 4825 Glenbrook Road and subsequent remedial work ...

At the public RAB meeting for September, all community members who spoke were in favor of a resolution that would remove your children from the area during the remedial response.  Speakers included the local elementary school principal who was concerned about the safety of her students that would be passing the site daily traveling to and from school ...The USACE has been actively working with the community to build a relationship based on trust.  Relations with the community have dramatically improved in recent years.  This strong community relationship appears to be in jeopardy.  There is clearly strong community support for your position in this matter, and it would be in the best interest of the USACE to resolve this matter.

Gregory A. Buemel, Co-Chair

Spring Valley RAB

September 23, 2012  

New Web Site Requires Login to Access Spring Valley FUDS Archive

The USACE-Spring Valley FUDS Web site is changing. The change is part of the Corps of Engineers' nationwide-effort to establish a consistent look on all district Web sites. Starting tonight at 6 p.m., the new link for the USACE Spring Valley FUDS Project home page will be: http://www.nab.usace.army.mil/Home/SpringValley.aspx 

 

You will be able to find any new and recent documents, along with most of the project documents you are used to seeing on this new Web site.  However, the majority of the older project documents have been moved to a SharePoint site.  If you would like access to the SharePoint site, please email Andrea Takash, Baltimore District Corps of Engineers Public Affairs, to request a username and password at andrea.m.takash@usace.army.mil.  Andrea also can be reached at 410-962-2626. If you have any questions about the Web site please don't hesitate to contact Andrea directly.
Carrie Johnston & Rebecca Yahiel 
Community Outreach Team 
February 1, 2013

Corps will Finally Investigate Burial Pit on Fordham Road

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has won long-sought permission to investigate an "anomaly" in the backyard of a Spring Valley property, which officials believe might be the site of another World War I-era burial pit ... A 1918 aerial photo of the Fordham Road property shows a scar on the ground similar to another where workers have found munitions. 

   The Army's cleanup project manager, Dan Noble, secured the verbal agreement with the property owner there after many years of unsuccessful attempts ... Due to the long delay in finally winning the approval, the Army will have prepare a separate "task order" to solicit cleanup proposals from new contractors, which means the work probably won't begin until October at the earliest.

Northwest Current

January 16, 2013 (pg. 3)

Photograph of AUES Arsine Still Indicates Large Scale Production

Three arsine shells were found on the 4825 Glenbrook Road property ... Unlike buried liquid agent, these shells — which would have eventually rusted through and breached on site — would have released a large quantity of very deadly gas that would have immediately pushed up through the soil into the atmosphere, settling in any nearby basement or low area.  Arsine is odorless and colorless.  Unlike Lewisite, it does not sting the eyes.  It is lethal over time at 1 or 2 parts per million and immediately dangerous to life and health at 250 ppm.  Now I have obtained a picture of the AUES arsine still (below).  Due to its size, I'm wondering if perhaps the current Corps plans have taken into account that there may be a larger quantity of arsine compressed gas shells or cylinders found on that site?

The apparatus on the left with the square tank on top is where the metal arsenide would be placed in the "generators" and dilute sulfuric acid (that's what's in the square tank) would be added to produce the arsine gas.  The gas would flow into a large gasometer (the round wooden tub in the middle) and the gasometer would meter out a steady rate of arsine to the drying towers (which are the four tall upright columns on the right hand side of the photo, filled with quick lime).  Once the gas was dried, it would be cooled and pressurized to convert it to a liquid and be ready for storage or loading into shells.  My guess is this took place in the wooden shack in the back of the photo. 
       
The stack of metal pipe sections in the foreground ... were perhaps the storage containers for the metal arsenide ... You would want to store it in airtight containers because any moisture coming into contact with arsenide would produce arsine gas.  Maybe those metal "pipe sections" are empty arsenide storage containers that were used to charge the arsine generators?  The generators would be charged with 800 lbs. of arsenide and a batch process would produce about 60 lbs. of liquid arsine greater than 94% pure.  Running the batch process took about three hours.  The AUES produced about 4000 lbs. of arsine, so they ran this plant about 65 times.    

WMD Specialist

January 10, 2013

Walls Come Tumbling Down Over Poison Pit on Glenbrook Road

At first, the bricks tumbled one by one, the jaws of the excavator plucking at the home's facade. Then the punch: the bucket rammed through a window, raking out insulation, wiring and cinder blocks that rained on the driveway below. With a diesel roar and a crunch of timber, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began on Thursday the long-awaited demolition of a vacant house believed to have been built atop a chemical weapons burial pit, part of the tarnished legacy of a World War I-era research station in what is now one of the capital's most affluent residential neighborhoods ... The demolition is what many hope will be the climactic chapter in a nearly 20-year cleanup of the Washington neighborhood known as Spring Valley. The project over all is expected to cost nearly $240 million, paid by the federal government, and it has in the past been marred by missteps and stubborn questions over what lies beneath.

Theo Emery

New York Times

November 29, 2012

Video of demolition (including sound) 

In the house directly opposite from the site, resident Christine Dieterich stood with Harold G. Bailey, Jr., her lawyer.  Dieterich voiced concerns during two restoration advisory board meetings about the safety and health of her family, especially her two children, during the cleanup and demolition.  She requested the Army Corps relocate her during the cleanup, but the Corps refused twice.  In the case of an accident, the Corps had provided a 742-foot safety zone surrounding the house.  However, the perimeter decreased to 194 feet, based on the probability of finding chemicals rather than munitions.  The Corps already briefed some residents living within the zone, like Dieterich, on what to do in the case of an accident.  Dieterich was instructed Nov. 28 on the voluntary "shelter in place" program, in which residents remain inside their homes during an accident.

Leigh Giangreco 

The Eagle  

December 6, 2012 (pg. 6)

The munitions date to between 1917 and 1920, when American University was home to an Army munitions experimentation team that fired munitions into then-undeveloped woods and buried materials in unmarked pits there. Those woods were subsequently subdivided into the Spring Valley community ... Even before this stage of the cleanup, workers had removed more than 500 munitions items, 400 pounds of laboratory glassware and more than 100 tons of soil contaminated with arsenic and other hazardous substances from 4825 Glenbrook. Officials believe another burial pit remains under the home's southeast corner, and determined that removing the house is the only viable cleanup option.

Brady Holt

Northwest Current

December 5, 2012 (pg. 1)

Yellow house across Glenbrook Rd on right is 4830; to left is 4820

The razing of 4825 is the latest effort by the US Army Corps of Engineers to clean up pits of chemical waste that are a legacy of World War I weapons testing.  Facing mustard-gas bombs in the trenches of Europe, the Army summoned chemists to make poisons at the American University Experiment Station.  When the war ended and the experiments stopped, soldiers dumped bombs and chemical waste in pits. Those pits are now in the yard of the South Korean ambassador's residence, the edge of American University, and under 4825 Glenbrook.  Tearing down the house is the easy part.  In February or March, bomb technicians will dig under the house.  They expect to unearth munitions and glassware coated with toxic chemicals such as arsenic, the major compound in lewisite, a poison dubbed “the dew of death."   

Harry Jaffe

The Washingtonian 

November 29, 2012

Army Begins Tearing Down House on Glenbrook Road Next Week

            4825 Glenbrook Road Shelter-in-Place Zones

   
The Army Corps of Engineers announced Nov. 13 that demolition on 4825 Glenbrook Rd. will begin the week of Nov 26.  Site preparation for investigative work is set after Dec. 19 when the Corps hopes demolition is completed ... The Corps will begin work under a large tent, called a “containment structure,” in January, when they expect to find chemicals.  Army Corps ... have also instituted voluntary “shelter in place” procedures, which instruct people about where to take cover in case something goes wrong at the site.  There are eight properties which fall into the zone where residents would be advised to “shelter in place,” including Watkins Hall and President Neil Kerwin’s home at 4835 Glenbrook Rd.
Leigh Giangreco

The Eagle
November 14, 2012 (pg. 5)

  
The Glenbrook Road house, owned by American University, is believed to sit atop a pit of hazardous materials.  Experts think the pit was disturbed when the home was built in the 1990s.  Two investigations of the property during the past decade have uncovered considerable munitions, glassware and contaminated soil, said demolition project manager Brenda Barber.  More are likely to be found once the house is torn down, she said ... During World War I, the country's major experimental poison gas station was located at American University.  After the war, much of the material was buried in the woods near the university in areas that are now part of Spring Valley.
Northwest Current
October 24, 2012 (pg. 7)

Cleanup Plan for 4825 Glenbrook Road