The Press of Atlantic City did it again with an article about dumped chemical weapons at sea. It is brought up in the context of offshore drilling, and it sure is scary to think about seismic testing or drilling through these old shells. http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/184/story/289801.html
But I couldn't help thinking about the possibility of dredging these things up during a beach replenishment project. We already have Surf City with the regular-ole' dredged up bombs. But what if these shells were full of chemical weapons. It has already happened in New Jersey. Here are two articles from a few years back that should give us all pause.
www.honoluluadvertiser.com
Toxins in sea worry officials
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer
Officials in Hawai'i and Washington, D.C., are demanding information from the Department of Defense on more than 8,000 tons of chemical weapons that were dumped off O'ahu at the end of World War II and may still be there.
The weapons and bulk chemical containers include the lethal toxins hydrogen cyanide and cyanogen chloride and the blistering agents mustard and lewisite. In 1944 and 1945, the military dumped much of its chemical weapons supply into the oceans of the world, including waters as close as five miles from shore and as shallow as 1,000 feet deep off Wai'anae, Pearl Harbor and Honolulu Harbor.
An Army spokesman last week said there is no danger of the toxic chemicals washing up on O'ahu beaches, but he was unable to say how the Army came to that conclusion. The Army has not responded to Advertiser requests over the past week for additional information on the situation.
In 1976, several Hawai'i maritime workers received chemical burns to their feet when they dredged up off Honolulu Harbor leaking containers of a blistering agent, possibly the chemical munition mustard. An Environmental Protection Agency report says that in July 2004, three explosives demolition workers on the East Coast were injured by a mustard agent from an explosive shell dredged up off New Jersey.
U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said yesterday he isn't second-guessing the military's decision to dump the chemical weapons 60 years ago, in "a different era, at a time when the consequences were not understood the way they are today." But he is concerned that the Department of Defense has had updated reports on the dumping for several years and appears to have done nothing about them.
"The military has not handled this well at all. It has had these reports, all of which were kind of hiding in plain sight. They should have been proactive on this," he said. "Anybody with any sense would realize that the information would come to light eventually."
Abercrombie has written to Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey to ask for a full report on what the Army knows about the dumping near Hawai'i, what it knows about the current condition and location of the dumped munitions, and any information on the human health and environmental threats posed by the materials.
"What has to happen here, is there's got to be a risk assessment made,"
He said.
Abercrombie said the issue is on the agenda for a meeting this week of Hawai'i's congressional delegation.
Citing a 2001 Army report and other sources, the Newport News Daily Press in Virginia reported last week that the United States dumped chemical weapons and bulk chemical warfare agents into the world's oceans and off 11 states.
Since then, some East Coast members of Congress have called for hearings on the issue, and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., has filed a formal request for more information about dumping in the nearshore waters of the Atlantic.
In Hawai'i, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann has asked the Defense Department's Pacific Command for a briefing "to see how best we can address the issue,"
said the mayor's spokes-man, Bill Brennan.
And this article from a Virginia paper:
House to probe chemical dumping
Source: Daily Press (Newport News, VA) (KRT) Date: November 13, 2005
John M.R. Bull Daily Press, Newport News, Va.
Nov. 13--Federal lawmakers are demanding the Army reveal everything it knows about where it dumped chemical weapons into the world's oceans, as well as provide proof the munitions won't leak and cause an environmental catastrophe.
Hearings in the House Armed Services Committee are likely if the Army's response is inadequate, said U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J. and a committee member.
"We're not going to let this go," Andrews said. "I'm not going to be satisfied with the Army saying, in effect, 'We know the facts, and we don't think there is a problem -- trust us." "
Andrews has been pushing for more information from the Army since the Daily Press published an investigation into the Army's decades-long ocean dumping off at least 11 states, including New Jersey.
The newspaper found that the Army dumped at least 64 million pounds of chemical weapons, mostly mustard and nerve gas, from World War II until 1970 -- and more than that off 16 other countries. The weapons likely are still active and slowly corroding in the salt water.
The newspaper's investigation was circulated globally and brought demands for action from across the country and astonishment worldwide. Recent developments include:
New Zealand issued a formal query through diplomatic channels, asking the United States to provide all information that it had on chemical-weapon dump sites the United States might have created off that country.
Greenpeace said it was considering a diving expedition to one of the 26 identified Army chemical-weapon dump sites off the United States to see whether the long-submerged weapons were leaking.
A worldwide environmental group called for an international law to require the United States and other countries to inspect, monitor and clean up their chemical-weapon ocean dumps.
New Jersey's Andrews wants to know where exactly the dumps are, why they haven't been monitored and why the Army told no one in Congress or at the state level of the potential dangers lurking offshore. He wants proof that the weapons aren't leaking and won't leak, he said.
Other lawmakers are also demanding answers.
"The decision to dump these weapons was made in a different era, at a time when the consequences were not understood the way they are today," said U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii.
"Still, the Department of Defense and the U.S. government bear a responsibility for remedying the problem," he said. "... I will make it a priority to enact legislation to deal with the problem and communicate the urgency of this issue to the Pentagon."
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., issued a formal letter of inquiry to the Army and has scheduled an informal briefing with military officials for Monday afternoon. Warner is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Under fire, the Army has decided to conduct a full search of all surviving ocean-dumping records to identify any other chemical-weapon dump sites. It's also preparing a formal response to questions from Congress. And it's expected to designate which military agency will oversee the record search, as well as any other response deemed necessary.
"The U.S. Army is actively engaged with members of Congress regarding the disposal of munitions at deep-sea locations," Army spokesman John P. Boyce Jr. said. "As always, the U.S. Army will work closely with Congress and other government agencies on these ordnance-disposal issues to ensure the safety of others and the protection of our environment."
It's long been known that the Army dumped chemical weapons into the ocean. But only now has it come to light just how much was involved, what kind of weapons were thrown into the ocean and the rough nautical coordinates of some locations.
The Army says it doesn't know the locations of almost half the dump zones that it created off the United States after World War II. Records are vague or missing or were destroyed.
More chemical-weapon dump sites likely exist because the Army hasn't reviewed dumping records from the World War I era, when throwing chemical weapons into the ocean was common.
Some evidence suggests the weapons might have leaked -- or will leak in the future -- as the ordnance corroded from exposure to salt water. Steel containers and shell casings corrode at different rates, depending on the depth and temperature of the water.
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