The Army Corps of Engineers will destroy about 100 World War I-era munitions behind Sibley Hospital in the next two weeks.
The munitions have come from several Spring Valley locations, and will be transported to Sibley for destruction.
None of the munitions are filled with chemicals, according to the Army Corps.
The will be about 10 detonations per day, which will sound like a car backfiring, according to the Corps’ website.
These detonations were supposed to happen in November, but there were problems with getting the right equipment to the site.
Munitions were destroyed similarly in 2003, according to Corps spokeswoman Joyce Conant.
The technology has a proven track record, she said in an e-mail.
But Allen Hengst, editor of the Weapons of Mass Destruction in D.C. blog, believes this isn’t the way to go about destroying munitions.
“No matter how unique the circumstances, the Army Corps stubbornly sticks to its one-size-fits-all policy of destroying recovered munitions ‘on site,’” he said in an e-mail.?“Now you have the spectacle of munitions being destroyed in a residential community behind a hospital.”
The Corps expects to release its study of 4825 Glenbrook Rd. NW in the late winter or early spring. The property on Glenbrook Road was the president’s house until the 1980s, when it was moved down the street, The Eagle previously reported.
The Corps found several jugs containing a toxic gas found in chemical munitions at this property last March.
sdazio@theeagleonline.com
