Post by Okwes on Sept 10, 2006 19:57:21 GMT -5
Cleanup halted on Tulalip land By Charlotte Hsu Seattle Times staff
reporter
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Beneath the ground near the Quil Ceda Village retail and casino area on
the Tulalip Tribes Reservation lies a potentially harmful slice of U.S.
history �" containers the military likely used to store
chemical-warfare agents decades ago. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers team
performing a cleanup last month at the former Tulalip Backup Ammunition
Storage Depot near Marysville found an empty, rusted 55-gallon drum and
soil stained by mustard-agent residue several feet below ground. When a
crew discovered two empty, damaged storage cylinders and broken
glassware about a week later, the corps halted its work until October to
upgrade its safety equipment. The four-person team digging at the site
in August reported a strange odor, and one worker complained about
stinging eyes. Medical evaluations performed on site and at a local
hospital revealed no evidence that the crew had been exposed to
chemicals, said Steven Cosgrove, corps spokesman. The U.S. government
used the Tulalip facility in World War II to store mustard gas, phosgene
and chlorine before shipping them overseas, Cosgrove said. The
government decided in 1949 that it no longer needed the depot and sold
the land to the Tulalip Tribes. In the mid-1990s, the corps discovered
an aged snapshot that indicated there may have been chemicals at the
site. "It shows a picture of a soldier sitting by a sign saying,
'Danger, poison gas, do not dig for one year,' " Cosgrove said. The
corps "tried to interview people who may have been around then, and
there weren't very many left," he said. In the post-WWII era, burying
chemicals was a typical procedure, seen then as a way to isolate
hazardous substances from human contact. After identifying
two suspicious areas, corps teams began digging in June, searching for
chemicals, Cosgrove said. In one spot, they found only debris from
logging. But in the second, they uncovered the old containers that
likely stored WWII chemicals. Contrary to previous reports, workers did
not find a bomb at the excavation site, Cosgrove said. The corps plans
to resume the cleanup in early October, placing a tent over the
excavation site to filter air in and out of the work area, Cosgrove
said. The cost of the project, originally $2 million, is expected to
double. The site is one of more than 100 nationwide that the corps
suspects housed chemical-warfare material. Thousands of others also may
need cleaning. Workers have yet to remove the items they found at the
Tulalip site, Cosgrove said. In coming months, the corps will send any
contaminated materials to a facility that will incinerate them.
reporter
seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003242626_tulalip04m.ht\
ml?syndicationfiltered=rss
<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003242626_tulalip04m.h\
tml?syndication=rss>
[http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2006/09/04/2003242628.gif]
Beneath the ground near the Quil Ceda Village retail and casino area on
the Tulalip Tribes Reservation lies a potentially harmful slice of U.S.
history �" containers the military likely used to store
chemical-warfare agents decades ago. A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers team
performing a cleanup last month at the former Tulalip Backup Ammunition
Storage Depot near Marysville found an empty, rusted 55-gallon drum and
soil stained by mustard-agent residue several feet below ground. When a
crew discovered two empty, damaged storage cylinders and broken
glassware about a week later, the corps halted its work until October to
upgrade its safety equipment. The four-person team digging at the site
in August reported a strange odor, and one worker complained about
stinging eyes. Medical evaluations performed on site and at a local
hospital revealed no evidence that the crew had been exposed to
chemicals, said Steven Cosgrove, corps spokesman. The U.S. government
used the Tulalip facility in World War II to store mustard gas, phosgene
and chlorine before shipping them overseas, Cosgrove said. The
government decided in 1949 that it no longer needed the depot and sold
the land to the Tulalip Tribes. In the mid-1990s, the corps discovered
an aged snapshot that indicated there may have been chemicals at the
site. "It shows a picture of a soldier sitting by a sign saying,
'Danger, poison gas, do not dig for one year,' " Cosgrove said. The
corps "tried to interview people who may have been around then, and
there weren't very many left," he said. In the post-WWII era, burying
chemicals was a typical procedure, seen then as a way to isolate
hazardous substances from human contact. After identifying
two suspicious areas, corps teams began digging in June, searching for
chemicals, Cosgrove said. In one spot, they found only debris from
logging. But in the second, they uncovered the old containers that
likely stored WWII chemicals. Contrary to previous reports, workers did
not find a bomb at the excavation site, Cosgrove said. The corps plans
to resume the cleanup in early October, placing a tent over the
excavation site to filter air in and out of the work area, Cosgrove
said. The cost of the project, originally $2 million, is expected to
double. The site is one of more than 100 nationwide that the corps
suspects housed chemical-warfare material. Thousands of others also may
need cleaning. Workers have yet to remove the items they found at the
Tulalip site, Cosgrove said. In coming months, the corps will send any
contaminated materials to a facility that will incinerate them.