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A surplus of more than 1,600 tons of mustard agent - best known for its lethal effects in the trench warfare of World War I - had been stored at the military proving ground in Harford County for more than 60 years. The stockpile, which occasionally leaked, prompted worries among area residents and strident debates about how best to dispose of the chemical warfare material.
Yesterday, Army officials reported that they had finished emptying the last container and that the non-toxic byproduct was ready to be shipped to New Jersey.
"It's been a long time coming," said Arlen Crabb, who has served on the Aberdeen Proving Ground Superfund Citizens Coalition, monitoring the destruction of the toxic stockpile. "People have been scared of it. Accidents do happen."
Even with the elimination of the stockpile, there are lingering concerns about buried munitions at Aberdeen that may contain mustard agent as well as other chemicals leaching into ground water.
Several areas of the proving ground have been declared Superfund sites under a federal cleanup program because of the abundance of hazardous waste. Work is under way to locate and remove the chemicals.
"The community is safer now," said Katherine Squibb, director of the toxicology program at the University of Maryland. "But this doesn't mean APG is risk-free."
Residents are also worried about the possibility that more mustard agent could be shipped to the military research and testing facility. The Army says it has not decided whether to seek permission from state and federal regulators to bring in more materials for disposal.
But residents say they are glad that the huge stockpile is finally gone. They have long been worried that the mustard agent surplus could be targeted by terrorists or that the dangerous chemicals would continue to leak from steel storage containers.
"I'm just elated the last bit is gone," said Helen Richick, a life-long Joppa resident who was appointed as the first community co-chair of the Restoration Advisory Board at APG. "It's a big relief to get it out of our backyard."
In the 1920s and 1930s, mustard agent was openly burned and dumped at the site. And in the 1970s, workers allegedly disposed of mustard agent and other poisons by burning them in trenches, according to news reports.
Residents successfully lobbied against plans to incinerate the toxic surplus in favor of a process that breaks down the chemical into a treatable, less dangerous byproduct.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Army officials announced that they would speed up the $300 million project, with a unit of the global construction firm Bechtel Group designing and building the facility.
The Army began neutralizing the mustard agent in April 2003, APG officials said. But last year, work was halted when a low-level leak was detected inside one of the ventilated drain stations, where the mustard agent was collected and pumped into treatment tanks. Several low--level leaks of mustard agent were also detected last year in a storage facility where 1,800 steel containers of the chemicals were housed.
"Our whole goal was to be safe," said Lt. Col. Gerald L. Gladney, commander of the Edgewood Chemical Activity and Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.
"This is a very historic moment. We're the first site in the continental United States to completely destroy the stockpile. ... And we're the first site to successfully use this new technology," Gladney said.
Nearly 1,800 steel barrels with traces of mustard agent inside still remain at APG, officials said. They will be cleaned, cut and then recycled, said Joseph Lovrich, site project manager at the Aberdeen Chemical Agent Disposal Facility.
Over the past two years, the mustard agent was neutralized in a hot-water bath and then tested to make sure the mustard was gone, Lovrich said. The process created about 5 million gallons of a non-toxic byproduct that was released into storage tanks and then shipped by trucks to DuPont Secure Environmental Treatment plant in Deepwater, New Jersey, he said. Only the last batch of the byproduct remains at APG, Lovrich said.
Concerns remain about buried radioactive waste and buried grenades, mortars and rockets that could contain mustard, phosgene and other dangerous agents.
Cleanup of the base and searches for the buried ordnance in the ground and water continue.
Residents also recently lobbied against plans to process 4 million pounds of asbestos - cancer-causing material used in insulation - from military buildings at the Aberdeen site.
Crabb and other residents are worried about whether the Army will now try to ship other stockpiles of mustard agent to Aberdeen for disposal.
Lovrich said the equipment used at Aberdeen could not simply be cleaned and reassembled at the Army's stockpiles of mustard agent in Anniston, Ala.; Tooele, Utah; Pine Bluff, Ark.; Umatilla, Ore.; Newport, Ind.; Blue Grass, Ky.; or Pueblo, Colo.
He confirmed yesterday that the Department of Defense is studying whether shipping the other mustard agent stockpiles is feasible, but said no decision has been made.
Importing mustard agent would require federal and state approval. Currently, APG's permits with the state of Maryland require the disposal facility to be closed and all equipment to be dismantled once the mustard agent storage barrels are cleaned, Lovrich said.
John E. Nunn III, co-chairman of the Maryland Chemical Demilitarization Citizens Advisory Commission, called yesterday's news that the last batch of mustard agent has been treated "a major step forward."
"It's a good day for Maryland," he said. "But the day we want to see is the day this facility is dismantled."