I just found this online.
http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=22294
Apparently, a small quantity of Lewisite, a WW1 type blister agent was found near Washington.
But, details about the circumstances are scanty.
Anybody with better info?
From my book, copyright me:
SAFE REMOVAL (U.S. 93) The removal of World War I-era chemical munitions from a residential area in Washington, D.C., conducted in 1993 and 1994. Over one hundred shells, some of which contained mustard gas and Lewisite, were recovered and flown to Pine Bluff, Arkansas for disposal. The weapons were buried on the campus of American University, which was a training center during the war. They were uncovered during construction activity in the residential neighborhood that had later been built on the site.
That’s where those missing WMD in Iraq went!
I love Spring Valley. A bunch of high-fallutin yupsters find out their wonderful McMansions are sitting on a bunch of WWI munitions/chemical weapons. Just what people with no sense of history get. Of course, it’s too bad for the kids who’s playground had a bunch of arsenic in it.
Seems like the developers for that area were/are a.) guilty of negligence or b.) guilty of willful endangerment, or something.
:o Actually, arsenic in the playground may have been from something else. Pressure-treated lumber, maybe?
The Army Corps of Engineers is actually more at fault than any developers are. Those homes have been there for more than 50 years. The USACE is involved in a serious potential lawsuit with the landowers who have been finding trace amounts of lewisite and arsenic for years as well as questioning several “clusters” of cancer deaths and mysterious tumors on people and pets. This was well after the USACE admitted to burying unexploded ordinance (UXO) and hazardous chemicals during testing at American University in the first half of last century. The investigation by the USACE has been ongoing for a little under 5 years now. I was previously involved in a company that helped set up the Restoration Advisory board for this project, and in the beginning it was a few rarely publicized community meetings where 5 people showed up, and by the time our company finished our part in it there were 500 people showing up and crowding auditoriums as more land samples showed high levels of toxic substances and UXO.
Here are a few links that might show some more insight:
Spring Valley Project Website