A three-inch stokes mortar round was unearthed fully intact on Quebec Street during arsenic soil removal at a home in Spring Valley, according to Shawn Walleck, spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District.
A post-blast analysis confirmed the round was empty or partially sand-filled, Walleck said. Chemicals were typically put in the rounds and launched at the enemy, so the round could not have exploded, he said.
"This one appears to be a practice round," Walleck said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were performing routine arsenic soil removal on the Quebec Street property and were not looking specifically for ordnance, he said. The Corps followed protocol and stopped work to evaluate the round. The 767th Ordnance Company evacuated four homes and worked with the Metro Police Department to package and remove the round within three hours, Walleck said.
No one was injured during the recovery and removal process, according to a Corps of Engineers press release.
Weston Solutions Inc., the contractor who conducted geophysical surveys for ordnance on Spring Valley properties, first surveyed the Quebec Street home on Nov. 3, 2004, according to Craig Georg, project manager for the Spring Valley Military Munitions Response Program. The surveys showed ordnance on the property, but the recently unearthed round may not have been identified due to interference around the house.
However, interferences underground can cause the misidentification of ordnance if it is close to the home's foundation, heating and central air conditioning unit and or telephone lines.
"They indicated to us there was a lot of interference," Georg said.
Lot 18, the section of Spring Valley that includes some AU property, did not have similar interference problems because the site was a larger area, Georg said.
"We removed and dug out everything that was identified from the report," he said.
Anomalies on the geophysical surveys are not confirmed in one spot on neighborhood properties as they were at Lot 18, Georg said. In the section of Lot 18 behind homes on Rockwood Parkway, ordnance was buried beneath a valley where equipment did not pick up much interference, Walleck said.
Georg said he believes no ordnance has been unearthed unexpectedly during arsenic soil removal on any other Spring Valley property. The possibility exists that ordnance has not been found on other properties due to interference, but ordnance that has been removed has posed no threat to those recovering it, he said.
"We're evaluating risks on each one of those properties and mitigating them accordingly," Georg said.
