AU students need more information regarding the chemical weapons buried on the university's campus after the end of World War I, said Ginny Durrin during a screening Thursday of a film she is producing on the subject.
The U.S. military used AU's campus as a chemical weapons testing site from 1917 to 1918. Recent Army Corps of Engineers excavations near the Public Safety building and on nearby Glenbrook Road have uncovered unexploded munitions and deposits of mustard gas, arsine and arsenic, The Eagle previously reported.
Durrin screened her film, "Bombs in Our Backyard," as a work-in-progress in the Weschler Theater. The School of Communication's Center for Environmental Filmmaking sponsored the film as part of the city-wide Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital. The screening was followed by a panel discussion about the film's impact and the larger issue of munitions found in the area.
Though the Army Corps claims it has already dug up the main munitions burial site, Durrin said she believes the largest burial site may still be lying undetected underneath the AU campus. The soil surrounding the Kreeger and Watkins buildings has a high concentration of perchlorate, a component commonly found in explosives. This burial site may be the source of the contamination found in Spring Valley, she said.
"All of this is hypothesis, but I think it needs to be tested," Durrin said.
While AU's administration is attempting to investigate and clean up the toxins using government grants, it has so far neglected to give students and the public enough information on the situation, she said.
"I think AU is trying to correct the past quietly and slowly," Durrin said.
Tom Smith, a commissioner for Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3D whose district includes the northern portion of AU's campus and surrounding residential areas, said during the panel discussion that the problem has been increased government secrecy as a result of 9/11. Items have been dug up in the grounds around 4835 Glenbrook Road N.W. - an AU-owned building last used as the official president's residence former President Ben Ladner - but officials will not inform the public of what has been found there, Smith said.
"There's a lack of transparency now which I think is very, very troubling," he said.
The university sent memos in December of 2008 to individuals who attended classes or worked in areas near the pit three dig, said Bethany Bridgham, the senior associate general counsel in AU's legal office. Nearby buildings included Watkins, Kreeger, Hamilton and Financial Aid. The memo provided details about AU's safety precautions and gave instructions for setting up sealed shelters in the event of a chemical leak.
The university has also set up a Web site at american.edu/usace to keep students updated on the status of the investigations. The last updates on the Web site as of press time were from July 14, when the university gave information about an arsenic soil cleanup operation in the area between Hughes and McDowell Halls.
Durrin has worked on "Bombs in Our Backyard" for the past 16 years, following the story since a construction worker first discovered a shell during a 1993 construction project in Spring Valley.
The film juxtaposed shots of large houses and green, suburban lawns with residents' stories of mysterious illnesses and frustration at not having answers. One resident said on camera that three people on her block got lung cancer, even though they did not smoke. A team of construction workers who had dug a foundation in the area recalled seeing silver particles floating in the air and experiencing itching and vomiting during work.
Mark Petruniak, a senior in the School of International Service, helped log and digitize footage for "Bombs in Our Backyard" while working for Durrin as an intern last summer.
After viewing the film's screening, he said he thought Durrin accurately portrayed the seriousness of the situation.
"I think it's something that [AU students] should be concerned about," he said. "It's certainly not safe."
Petruniak said he thinks the film should be used to raise awareness on a national level about the many other areas across the country affected by buried chemical weapons. It is unfair that there are many poor communities in the country dealing with problems similar to Spring Valley without the money and resources to do anything about it, he said.
Durrin said she hopes the film will keep society from forgetting what happened in Spring Valley. She also said she believes there is more to the story and urged AU students to question a variety of sources and try to piece the missing pieces of the puzzle.
"People should press to find out," she said.
You can reach this staff writer at mkendall@theeagleonline.com.
