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EDS destroys 15 chemical rounds in D.C suburbs

Army News Service

By Joe Burlas June 17, 2003

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, June 17, 2003) -- Working through weekends and one holiday over a 30-day period, the Army destroyed June 11 the last of 15 World War I-era chemical rounds found in a northwest Washington, D.C., suburban area known as Spring Valley about two years ago.

It took a mobile Explosive Destruction System about 30 hours each to destroy the 75-mm artillery rounds and neutralize the mustard agent they contained, according to officials.

"Neutralization is the preferred method of getting rid of recovered chemical munitions," said Dave Hoffman, Joint Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Program manager for Spring Valley. "We have found the public prefers neutralization over other treatment technologies. The EDS utilizes its capability to provide total containment to treat and confirm neutralization of the agent without any release to the atmosphere."

The delay between when the rounds were found and when they were destroyed was primarily due to regulatory requirement for public discussion of how to get rid of them, the extensive interagency coordination necessary to cross all the t's and getting approval from the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board to use EDS at Spring Valley, Hoffman said.

The mustard rounds were found in backyards of several influential diplomats and politicians, Hoffman said. They were likely leftovers from a chemical weapons research program American University conducted during World War I, he said.

Curtis Hollister, EDS manager for the system's operating team, said the biggest advantage of the system is total containment -- allowing no possibility of airborne emissions.

Hoffman explained how EDS works.

The EDS' 55-gallon-sized stainless steel containment vessel keeps the blast and fragments from the linear and shaped charges that split the round open and destroy the explosive filler within the system. A neutralizing agent and water heated to 100 degrees Fahrenheit then fills the vessel. The containment vessel rotates back and forth between clockwise and counterclockwise rotations for hours to ensure the entire chemical agent is saturated with the neutralizing agent.

Throughout the process, samples are taken from the containment vessel and tested to ensure the system is doing its job, Hoffman said.

Once done, the fragments and neutralized solution are no longer toxic. They are washed into and stored in two 55-gallon drums per chemical round which are then transported to a permanent waste materiel storage facility.

The Spring Valley operation was the second time EDS has been used to rid an urban area of chemical munitions. The first time was last August in Gadsden, Ala., the former site of Camp Sibert, where it was used to destroy a phosgene filled 4.2-inch mortar round. It has also been used at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Colo., to dispose of 10 GB (nerve agent) M139 bomblets in 2000.

"While we can always hope that this is the last time chemical rounds are found in an urban area, we know it won?t be," said Greg Nielson, Spring Valley site manager, Army Corps of Engineers ? Baltimore District. "The fact is that we have (more than) 100 sites in 38 states where we suspect there are more chemical munitions that will need to be destroyed."

Hoffman praised how well the many agencies involved in the Spring Valley cleanup -- inside and outside of the Department of Defense -- worked together to get the job done.

In addition to the Joint Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Program, other agencies working at the Spring Valley included representatives from the Tech Escort Unit which retained control of the munitions between where they were found to where they were stored and eventually destroyed on federal property less than a mile away and responsible for all decontamination of personnel and equipment as necessary; the Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center which provided EDS operators; and the Army Corps of Engineers - Baltimore District which was responsible for that storage and disposal property.

Other coordinating agencies included the DoD Explosive Safety Board; Army Corps of Engineers Headquarters; Environmental Protection Agency - Region III; federal and local departments of Health and Human Service; and the Washington, D.C., Police.

"The Army developed the Explosive Destruction System, or EDS, to provide a safe, on-site neutralization capability for recovered chemical warfare materiel and we are pleased that it has been used successfully at Spring Valley and other sites," said Ray Fatz, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for Environment, Safety and Occupational Health. "Wherever RCWM is found, the Army intends to destroy it as quickly and safely as possible, using proven technology like the EDS."