From the South Pacific to Spring Valley: Casualties from the weapons that were never deployed by William N. Connelly III World War I has often been called the “chemist’s war” due to the volume of chemical agents employed by both Allied and Axis combatants. New ties forged between the military and chemical industry in producing these weapons of mass destruction helped contribute to this label and also encouraged the rise of the military-industrial complex. Nowhere was this more evident than in the United States who led all participants in production and stockpiling of thousands of tons of these weapons. However, as chemical weapons were found to be mostly ineffective on the battlefield, this left the U.S. with massive stockpiles to contend with after the end of World War I in In spite of the general consensus that chemical weapons were useless in combat, the U.S. continued to develop and produce them until 1972 when Richard Nixon enacted a unilateral ban on the production and use of these weapons, putting and end to chemical warfare in the United States. However, there were still thousands of tons of stockpiled chemical agents that the U.S. was responsible for, many of them World War I era agents stored in barrels that were now leaking and causing considerable health issues among soldiers and civilians. Since 1997, numerous incidents regarding discovery of chemical weapons burial sites on privately owned property have been reported. Research indicates there may be dozens more as concise records were not kept of these burial locations by the U.S. Army. Of similar concern are the unknown burial locations of approximately 100,000 “sniff kits,” used for training purposes during World War I and World War II. It remains unclear how much chemical warfare materiel is still lurking under U.S. soil. Numerous sites are still undergoing investigation at locations such as Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama where workers are currently attempting to locate an estimated eighteen possible burial sites. Experts suggest that the cleanup of this site may continue well into 2048, and that this site is only one of many still undiscovered chemical weapons burial sites located in the United States. References: National Research Council. Remediation of Buried Chemical Warfare Materiel. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press Milton E. Blackwood, “Beyond the Chemical Weapons Stockpile,” Arms Control Today 28, no. 4 (Jun/Jul 1998): U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity, “Chemical Agent Identification Sets Fact Sheet” cid= (accessed March 25, 2016) © National Archives UK © U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity © WAAY-TV © USGS The U.S. had been attempting to reduce these stockpiles through burial since the end of World War II, but the ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1997 banned burial as an accepted disposal method. In accordance with the CWC, the US Chemical Corps began using incineration to eliminate the remainder of its chemical stockpiles. Unfortunately, the weapons that were previously buried started causing further issues when they were found on property formerly owned by the military that had since been sold to civilians. Barrels filled with phosgene and sulfur mustard were unearthed in the affluent Spring Valley neighborhood in Washington, D.C. in 1994, bringing much needed attention to the issue of buried chemical weapons.