(The following is excerpted from "Chemical Weapons Disposal and
Environmental Justice" written by Suzanne Marshall PhD. and published by
the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, November, 1996, with funding from the Educational Foundation of America.)
Aberdeen Proving Ground and Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland, located 21 miles northeast
of Baltimore, lies in one of the most populous regions of the country in the megalopolis
corridor that stretches from Washington, DC to New York City. Edgewood is located on
Gunpowder Neck, a peninsula in the Chesapeake Bay between the Bush and Gunpowder
Rivers. Of all eight continental sites, Aberdeen is the most heavily populated, with a
population of more than 44,000. About one-third of the population resides in Kent County
directly across the bay from the Edgewood and Aberdeen areas. The rest of the population
lives in Baltimore County, Harford County or Cecil County. Pockets of poverty exist in
the areas closest to the site (Bureau of the Census, 1990). Significantly, the entire region
has experienced years of military and industrial pollution that affect the lives and health of
the people (Chase, 1993).
During World War I, the site first known as the Gunpowder Reservation, produced and
filled gas shells. It became Edgewood Arsenal in May, 1918 and fell under the control of
the Ordenance Department until July when it became part of the new Chemical Warfare
Service. Large quantities of chemical agent were produced at Edgewood during World
War I. Afterwards, the agent plants ceased operations and switched to gas mask
manufacturing. The site was the location of the Chemical Warfare School and research and
development activities occurred there until World War II when it was re-designated the
Army Chemical Center. Currently, Edgewood conducts research and development, testing
and evaluation, procurement, production and mobilization planning of chemical materiel.
Recent research successes on neutralization technologies occurred there.
Due to the many years of production and testing of chemical weapons, this site is
contaminated with the various agents and is plagued with buried non-stockpile chemical
weapons. For instance, 40 non-stockpile munitions, including sarin, mustard and
phosgene were unearthed in 1994 and four of them were detonated in the open at J-Field
just a few miles from the local population and boaters on the Chesapeake Bay (Richick,
Interview, 1995)
If the incinerator is built at Aberdeen, it will be one more hazard among many already at the
site. For example, the Nike Site, which was used for testing munitions, underwent a
magnetometry sweep and over 10,000 hits of metal were detected in the 100 acres. Some
of the hits are probably metal pieces contaminated with chemical agent, but others are
unstable warheads. This site is 1500 feet from hundreds of homes, including low-income
neighborhoods and less than a mile from three schools. Additionally, two ground water
production wells and the Perryman wellfield, sources of public drinking water, are
contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), a solvent and probable human carcinogen. The
Army is currently cleaning the water at a treatment facility. As of 1994, Aberdeen Proving
Ground was the largest Superfund site at any DOD facility in the US. According to
Aberdeen Proving Ground Superfund Citizens Coalition information, open air detonation
and open burning of chemical, high explosive and incendiary munitions still continues
(Coalition, 1995).
The Army's attempts to involve citizens in clean-up or the incineration program have been
minimal. Under pressure, the Army in March 1995 announced hearings to inform 20,000
families in Harford and Baltimore counties about disposal of the buried chemical weapons.
Because Aberdeen has nerve agent stored in ton containers and not in munitions, it has
it has been chosen by the Army for research for alternative disposal technologies (Richick,
Letter, 1995). In 1994 citizens opposed to incineration agreed to accept a prototype
alternative facility, which reveals that opponents to incineration are willing to cooperate
with Army if the weapons can be disposed of safely . Because the people are already living
in an area disproportionately polluted by the military and private industry, their demands
for neutralization technology are reasonable and environmentally just.
The state of Maryland, according to the US Census Cancer Mortality by State, has a higher
rate of cancer than most of the country with a reported 193 deaths per 100,000. Only
Delaware with 195 and the District of Columbia with 230 surpass Maryland (1994). All of
them, however, are in the same small geographic region and near the Chesapeake Bay
which is heavily polluted from the military and industry. Low-income people rely on food
from the bay to supplement their diets. Thousands eat fish, crabs and snapping turtles
regularly and thus ingest toxins such as dioxin (Maryland CAC, 1994). An incinerator will
emit dioxin and compound the problem. Historically, the residents of the region have been
subjected to vast amounts of pollution and the results of this contamination are showing up
in the statistics. It is environmentally discriminatory to expose these people to additional
contaminants. Multiple and cumulative impacts of these toxics already adversely affect the
health of humans and the environment.
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