Norton Inspects Detonator to Be Used to Destroy Conventional Weapons Recovered in Spring Valley
Norton Inspects Heavily Armored Detonator to Be Used to Destroy Conventional Weapons Recovered in Spring Valley
January 6, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC -- Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), who today visited the United States Army Corps of Engineers site in upper Northwest D.C., said that the Corps will begin destroying approximately 100 conventional munitions recovered in Spring Valley for two weeks, beginning Tuesday, January 11. Norton inspected the heavily armored controlled detonation chamber that will be used to destroy the munitions. A similar detonation chamber was used in 2003 in Spring Valley to destroy similar conventional munitions, which are considered safer than the chemical munitions that were destroyed there using a different machine last spring. These conventional munitions are ordinary explosives that are usually detonated in the open on military bases. This type of controlled detonation chamber has been used throughout the country for more than twenty years. There have been over one million successful detonations nationally of conventional munitions using controlled detonation chambers without incident. In touring the site, Norton asked many questions to ensure that the appropriate precautions, including noise mitigation, would be taken.
Last spring, Norton visited the Spring Valley site to see the Explosive Destruction System that the Corps used to destroy chemical munitions uncovered in the neighborhood. These inspections are part of her ongoing effort to ensure that the Corps remains in Spring Valley until all munitions that were buried in the neighborhood when that area was used as a military weapons testing facility during World War I are found. The Corps is proceeding on cleanup of the grounds of several homes, as well as federal and district lands along the Dalecarlia Parkway.