SPRING VALLEY: More Artillery Shells

JUST AS I PLAN to head up to the Palisades to go take care of a sick relative tomorrow, I learn from today's Post of the continuing dangers lurking in the next neighborhood up the hill (and then down in the valley where Tim Russert and other notables live). That's right, more World War I-era artillery shells! Remember, it was in Spring Valley where mustard gas and other fun stuff was tested 90 years ago or so.

From the Post:

World War I-era ordnance and chemical warfare agents continue to be recovered in the Spring Valley community, with the discovery yesterday of a three-inch mortar round during excavation of a yard on Quebec Street NW. Four houses were evacuated and the neighborhood cordoned off until explosives experts removed the round, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said contained no chemical liquid.

The corps announced last month that two sealed containers found in a lot southwest of American University held small quantities of mustard and mustard breakdown products. Mustard was among the many chemical warfare agents the U.S. Army tested during its work in the area during the war.

Part of the community now constitutes one of the largest federal cleanup sites in the country.

Although the testing site sits upstream from the Dalecarlia Reservoir (which is part of the Washington Aqueduct system), the authorities say our drinking water is quite safe.