SITES SEARCHED FOR TRACES OF CHEMICAL ARMS.Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer Environmental cleanup The process of removing solid, liquid, and hazardous wastes, except for unexploded ordnance, resulting from the joint operation of US forces to a condition that approaches the one existing prior to operation as determined by the environmental baseline survey, if one was conducted. workers using ground-penetrating radar Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is a geophysical method that uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. This non-destructive method uses electromagnetic radiation in the microwave band (UHF/VHF frequencies) of the radio spectrum, and detects the reflected signals from and metal detectors are combing Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. for sites where chemical weapons might have been tested or stored during the 1940s and 1950s, a base official said Wednesday. After a nationwide search of military archives, 11 areas - including a former railroad storage yard near where barracks bar·rack 1 tr.v. bar·racked, bar·rack·ing, bar·racks To house (soldiers, for example) in quarters. n. 1. A building or group of buildings used to house military personnel. and a base chapel now stand - have been identified as spots where poisonous gases such as phosgene phosgene (fŏs`jēn), colorless poison gas, first used during World War I by the Germans (1915). When dispersed in air, the gas has the odor of new-mowed hay. , cyanogen cyanogen (sīăn`əjən), NCCN, colorless, flammable, extremely poisonous gas with a characteristic odor somewhat like that of hydrogen cyanide. chloride and hydrogen cyanide hydrogen cyanide, HCN, colorless, volatile, and extremely poisonous chemical compound whose vapors have a bitter almond odor. It melts at −14°C; and boils at 26°C;. It is miscible in all proportions with water or ethanol and is soluble in ether. might have been used or stored. Other than three suspected chemical bombs turned up in 1992 - which were believed to be practice bombs containing no poisons - base officials say they have found no chemical weapons or signs of leaks of chemical warfare chemical warfare, employment in war of incendiaries, poison gases, and other chemical substances. Ancient armies attacking or defending fortified cities threw burning oil and fireballs. A primitive type of flamethrower was employed as early as the 5th cent. B.C. agents on the base. ``I don't want to find any,'' said Bob Wood, chief of the environmental restoration division. ``Our goal is to find active areas and fence them and never dig them up.'' The archive search was spurred by an April 1993 briefing by the U.S. Army to Congress and state governors about 68 sites throughout the nation where such weapons were tested, stored or buried. While the archives provided general locations where chemical weapons might have been stored or used at Edwards, the maps from the 1940s and 1950s were not accurate enough to pinpoint the areas. The sites will be hunted by a private company under contract to the Air Force, Earth Technology Corp. of Long Beach, which will use ground-penetrating radar and metal detection. The company will also conduct soil gas tests, in which air will be drawn out of the soil and checked for harmful chemicals. Air Force officials were unable to estimate the cost of the hunt. Three types of sites were identified by base officials as possibly having chemical weapons or agents: burial pits and trenches for ordnance, storage and transfer areas, and targets where unexploded ordnance might exist. ``The problem lies in unknowingly digging into a burial site,'' Wood said. Once a site is pinpointed, an 8-foot-tall fence will be erected around it. If soil gas is detected, monitoring wells into the aquifer will be set up. If soil gas is detected at levels harmful to people, the fence line will be pushed out to a safe distance. For sites near the perimeter, the base might buy or lease property to keep the material within base boundaries. Six of the areas are located within the base's bombing range, which is already a restricted area. |
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