Army Corps finds new WWI chemical site in DC yard

Source: The Boston Globe

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has uncovered what could be a fourth major disposal area for World War I-era munitions and chemical weapons in the nation's capital. Digging was suspended April 8 as a precaution at the site in the pricey Spring Valley neighborhood near American University after workers pulled smoking glassware from the pit, project manager Dan Noble said Thursday.
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Workers also discovered a jar about three-quarters full of a dark liquid that turned out to be the chemical agent mustard. It was used during World War I as a weapon that caused blisters, breathing problems and vomiting.
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During World War I, the Army used the university as an experiment station to develop and test chemical weapons. Previously, there were three known sites where weapons and chemicals were buried.
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This is the fourth major dig for munitions and toxic agents over the past 16 years since the burial pits were discovered in the neighborhood of multimillion-dollar homes. The current excavation began in 2007 at the house, which is owned by the federal government and located next to the South Korean ambassador's residence.
The cleanup project is one of the only places in a major city classified by the Army Corps as a "Formerly Used Defense Site."

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/04/16/army_crew_finds_new_wwi_chemical_in_dc_yard/

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Over ninety years after its end, and the War to End All Wars is still causing us grief. Certainly it isn't like the fields of Northern France or Belgium, but there are still active remnants from the Civil War that are a danger in parts of this country.

Discovering your yard is a toxic waste dump? Not a good day.

I wonder who gets to pay for the cleanup.

can't expect the millionaires living in that neighborhood to do it (there is a small piece of me that finds this story hilarious)

This one ought to be square on Uncle Sam and Dow Chemical.

Dow won't pay anything, but Uncle Sam will. This means we all will- but thanks to Bush's tax cuts, those rich people won't be paying their fair share.

Little stressed out, I guess.

I mainly amuse myself :hi:

and was cleaning exploded - I am certain the mustard chemical agent is still highly corrosive since it was stored in glass all these years. It is a terrible, brutal compound, causing burns in lungs and eyes, blindness, and impaired breathing for life.
The Germans and the allies both used it in WWI, IIRC, but not often - it tended to shift with the wind, and blew back toward its origin point, causing casualties to its own side...

mark

Germany's WWII stock of chemical weapons (much of which was mustard) was dumped into the Baltic after the war. Fishermen in the Baltic Sea still suffer burns from mustard shells and dispensers they dredge up with their nets -- shells containing mustard that has been soaking in salt water for 60+ years.

As for WWI I think you're referring to phosgene and chlorine gasses, which were both rather light and more fog-like, and thus tended to be at the mercy of the wind. Mustard was such an innovation because it was thicker and tended to cling to the ground where the artillery shell deposited it, often flowing down into trenches and filling foxholes. It was therefore much less affected by wind and was used by all combatants at least on the Western Front from 1917 on.

in lower ground, shell holes, ditches, etc, and it can remain effective once released for weeks. It has no odor, and can be transmitted to other people by clothing, etc.

It is very painful, and can even cause cancer later in life to those exposed.

mark

:scared:

removing and disposing of it.

Who is going to invade us, "liberate" us, and save the rest of the world from us? :shrug::sarcasm:

Very clever, Saddam! Hiding your WMDs in Washington with your time-travelling machine!