2008 Woodie Awards
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Restart of dig awaits approval
Community members voice concerns over safety of Pit 3 shell findings
By Patricio Chile on 1/17/08
The dig for World War I-era weapons buried under and around AU's campus stopped Dec. 5 because a munition recovered weeks earlier contained explosive material not described in the site's safety plan, project officials said at a Spring Valley community meeting Jan. 8.
The chemical shell, recovered Nov. 19, was almost 10.5 inches tall and 3 inches wide. The Material Assessment Review Board found the shell contained high levels of arsine gas and "energetics," or explosives including TNT, according to Dan Noble, the Spring Valley project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the co-chair for the Restoration Advisory Board. The explosives posed little danger because the weapon lacked a fuse.
While in storage, however, the energetics could erode the metal container, causing an arsine gas leak. The possibility of this occurring is very rare and could only happen at a federal storage site after the item has been removed from the community, Noble said in an e-mail.
Despite the lack of immediate danger, the findings required the Army Corps to alter the site's "maximum credible event" - a formal statement outlining the worst-case scenario. While the Army Corps described the original maximum credible event as "the instantaneous release of arsine from a non-explosively configured 75 mm Mark II chemical projectile," the new statement must now reflect the possibility of "explosively configured" items - shells equipped with a fuse, explosives or both, Noble said.
Formal approval of the maximum credible event is a strict procedure that requires a review by the U.S. Army Technical Center for Explosives Safety, the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board and the Spring Valley partners, a board representing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps and the D.C. Department of Health, according to Noble.
Caution is the top issue as they continue with the project, said Ed Hughes, the program manager for the Army Corps.
The chemical shell, recovered Nov. 19, was almost 10.5 inches tall and 3 inches wide. The Material Assessment Review Board found the shell contained high levels of arsine gas and "energetics," or explosives including TNT, according to Dan Noble, the Spring Valley project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the co-chair for the Restoration Advisory Board. The explosives posed little danger because the weapon lacked a fuse.
While in storage, however, the energetics could erode the metal container, causing an arsine gas leak. The possibility of this occurring is very rare and could only happen at a federal storage site after the item has been removed from the community, Noble said in an e-mail.
Despite the lack of immediate danger, the findings required the Army Corps to alter the site's "maximum credible event" - a formal statement outlining the worst-case scenario. While the Army Corps described the original maximum credible event as "the instantaneous release of arsine from a non-explosively configured 75 mm Mark II chemical projectile," the new statement must now reflect the possibility of "explosively configured" items - shells equipped with a fuse, explosives or both, Noble said.
Formal approval of the maximum credible event is a strict procedure that requires a review by the U.S. Army Technical Center for Explosives Safety, the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board and the Spring Valley partners, a board representing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps and the D.C. Department of Health, according to Noble.
Caution is the top issue as they continue with the project, said Ed Hughes, the program manager for the Army Corps.
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