CHEMICAL WEAPONS FOUND — at American University in Washington, DC!

Over the next few years, however, various types of historical documentation, including the aerial photos, suggested that the Army Corps had failed to search several areas of Spring Valley for pits where canisters of mustard, lewisite, and other poisonous agents might still be buried. Erik Olson, a senior attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of the Natural Resources Defense Council, found another key piece of evidence. After reading in the newspaper about the discovery of World War I chemical munitions in Spring Valley, he recalled hearing that his maternal grandfather, Sgt. C. W. Maurer, had buried chemical weapons when he was stationed at Camp AU in 1918.

In 1996, officials at the District of Columbia Department of Health expressed concern about the army’s investigation, noting that the aerial images and Sergeant Maurer’s photograph suggested that Spring Valley contained additional burial sites. The Army Corps of Engineers rejected most of the city’s arguments, but finally admitted in September 1997 that it had looked in the wrong place for the mustard burial pit. Although the 1927 aerial photograph had shown a ground scar in the vicinity of Glenbrook Road, the Corps’ 1993–1995 investigation had found no evidence of a disposal pit in the area. On reviewing the evidence, army engineers realized that because of a mapping error, they had missed the suspected pit by about 150 feet. The newly identified site was just across the American University property line, in the backyard of South Korean Amb. Hong-Koo Lee’s residence, an expanse of green lawn and ornamental gardens. . . .

Identifying potential chemical weapon burial sites involves an extensive review of historical documents, interviews with people who may have relevant information, and soil sampling. Currently, army officials estimate that the United States has 101 known or suspected chemical weapon burial sites in 38 states, the District of Columbia, and two territories (Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands).

And that’s here. Sheesh. Thanks to reader Ryan Fitzpatrick for the pointer. Fitzpatrick adds:

The area that we’re talking about isn’t huge, AU is not a sprawling campus, and even with the residential areas that used to be part of the campus, we’re only talking about maybe 1 to 1.5 square miles. But the chemical warheads had been sitting in the ground all that time, and they’re still uncovering more of
them last I heard.

1.5 square miles, in the middle of the DC metro area, and we’re just now recovering chemical weapons from World War I that we buried? And now everyone expects that we can waltz into Iraq and inside three months comb through the entire place with God-knows-how many square miles of empty, uninhabited ground these things could be buried in? I think I’ll give the administration a little bit more time before coming to any conclusions.

Not me — I’m putting them on a strict timetable, and giving them only half as much time as it took above!

UPDATE: Reader Gerald Hanner emails:

Yeah. A smallish project on my last active duty assignment at Offutt AFB NE involved trying to find where some toxic gunk from the manufacture of bombs (during WW II) was buried in the vicinity of Hastings NE. Seems that there was a big munitions plant at Hastings durin’ the wah. When the place went out of business after WW II residue, by-products, and chemicals used in the manufacture of explosives were simply dumped into pits and covered.

Forty years later I was on a team that was supposed to figure out where the stuff was so that it could be dug up and properly disposed of. During the time I was working on the problem we failed to find where the stuff was actually buried — even though we knew the general vicinity of its location. I even tried to get an SR-71 to scan the area with its sensors (I knew that some of their stuff could “see” stuff that was not completely on the surface.). When I retired it hadn’t been done.

Obviously, someone lied about the stuff having been there!

ANOTHER UPDATE: Josh Heit points to the official website on the American University excavation. He also observes: “The McKinley Building has a plaque at its entrance describing the testing done at AU during WWI for chemical weaponry. It was grafffited with anti-war slogans this spring.”