Weapons of Mass Destruction
Mustard Gas Unearthed in Spring Valley, Washington DC
Global Green USA Calls for Increased Oversight of Chemical Weapons Cleanup
Washington DC - August 12, 2009 – The US Army Corps of Engineers announced today that a flask with mustard agent has been discovered this month in northwest Washington DC, an area called Spring Valley, where chemical agents were dumped and buried after World War I. Global Green USA, the US national affiliate of Mikhail Gorbachev’s Green Cross International, which has been closely following the 16-year-old cleanup of the Spring Valley neighborhood, commented that this latest discovery was further proof that there needs to be more work done in the area to guarantee the safety and public health of Washington residents.
Dr. Paul F. Walker, director of Global Green USA’s Security and Sustainability Program, stated: “The US Army Corps of Engineers testified recently before the District of Columbia City Council and before the House of Representatives that the Spring Valley excavation and cleanup was approaching its conclusion and that there was very low probability of additional discoveries of dangerous agents. This new find of mustard agent, next to the South Korean ambassador’s residence where construction crews first came upon chemical agents sixteen years ago, proves again that the project must continue until the Corps and regulators can guarantee to local residents that the neighborhood is safe and fully remediated.”
The Spring Valley neighborhood was home in World War I to the American University Experimental Station which was the major chemical and biological weapons research laboratory during World War I. After the war, the laboratory was shut down and all agents and materials were simply dumped and buried in the northwest area of Washington DC. The US Army Corps of Engineers recently announced that the project would be shut down in 2010 and that an on-site explosive destruction system would be used to eliminate the chemical agents and weapons which have been excavated over the past several years.
Walker emphasized that “although the local community, the DC city government and regulators, and the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) are very tired that this project has dragged on for so long, this new discovery further illustrates how important it remains that local citizens and government remain vigilant about the cleanup, and cautious about closing down the cleanup before it’s finished.”
The Spring Valley site is only one of over 200 suspected burial and dump sites for chemical weapons from the last century and two world wars. “It will be important for the US Army to accelerate its survey and assessment of these potentially dangerous dump sites in over 30 states around the country and clean them up before people get hurt or killed,” Walker added. “There has been very limited federal funding of these cleanup sites to date, and this needs to change.”
