ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. (March 17, 2016) -- A U.S. Army team is providing chemical agent air monitoring and chemical warfare materiel laboratory testing services at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona.
The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center team has been deployed to the Sonoran Desert for a project supporting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville Center and YPG.
The services are for a remedial investigation/feasibility study on two test fields, the West Environmental Test Area (YPG-31) and Former Waste Disposal Area (YPG-32), which the Huntsville Center and YPG have earmarked for investigation.
"Historically, the sites were used to test the fate of chemical agents in high temperatures," said John Ditillo, ECBC project manager. "For example, they would sit a pallet of munitions in the hot sun for the summer, where it can get upwards of 120 degrees; then, test to see if the chemical agent inside the munitions changed or if the containers degraded."
The two test fields, closed off by barbed-wire fencing, are suspected to be contaminated with chemicals used in defense programs, including mustard agents, nerve agent and phosgene. Contaminated soil, containers, contaminated scrap metals, CWM munitions, protective personnel equipment, and equipment that may have been used decades ago reportedly remain on the premises.
The area has older structures that may need to be demolished and structures that have already collapsed, but neither can be removed until investigative work has been performed to assess contamination.
"The purpose of this project is not to remove the items but to investigate discreet areas and determine what's there and how much, and what the condition is," Ditillo said. "This is a first look at the problem and what we can expect."
It will be up to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to decide how to handle what the team discovers, he said.
A crew of three chemical engineering technicians and two chemists, on one-month rotations, will be staffing the project. They are outfitted with custom air monitoring vehicles, a mobile laboratory, support vehicles and a generator.
The team expects to complete the assignment by the end of May.
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The U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center is part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, which has the mission to ensure decisive overmatch for unified land operations to empower the Army, the joint warfighter and our nation. RDECOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Materiel Command.
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