Officials running the cleanup of World War I-era chemical munitions buried in Washington's Spring Valley neighborhood have recovered a new military compound at the current excavation.
Dan Noble, project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project, says they found a sealed glass test tube on June 13 that contained traces of a military vomiting agent known as DA. The chemical was sent to the Armys chemical station at Edgewood, Md.
Noble revealed the discovery at a public meeting Tuesday evening. He says DA is less toxic than other agents found at the site, such as mustard gas and arsine.
The Army Corps is in the midst of a major dig for munitions buried near American University that began in October 2007. The university campus had been used to develop and test chemical weapons during World War I.
Officials had expected to complete the excavation by now. But Noble says they continue to find munitions and laboratory glassware buried in the yard of a vacant home behind the university.
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