Chemical Weapon Munitions Dumped at Sea

Between 1918 and 1970, the U.S. alone dumped CW agents in waters worldwide on at least 74 occasions. These disposals were no small undertaking, taking one fair example from this tour, in 1945 the U.S. military dumped 1,154 55ga drums of arsenic trichloride, 375T of adamsite smoke candles, 75,852 4.2in distilled mustard shells, ~56,000 smoke canisters, and ~23,000 smoke projectiles. This represents only one of dozens of dumpings conducted off the U.S. coast. While some dumping operations were carefully undertaken, including the keeping of detailed records; other dumping operations were done haphazardly with no or minimal written accounts of the disposal locations, quantities disposed or depths. So far the staff at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (http://cns.miis.edu) have located and chronicled 127 locations where either human exposure to or disposal of chemical weapons agents and/or munitions has occurred. We are virtually certain there are more disposal sites requiring attention hence we present this material in hopes of garnering further interest into this subject. 
Through this tour, we hope to highlight the global nature of this problem by showing you example disposal sites located around the globe; in locations ranging from the Bay of Bengal to areas west of San Francisco. The interactive map is located at http://cns.miis.edu/stories/090806_cw_dumping.htm

Category:

Education

Tags:

• MIIS
• CNS
• chemical weapon
• chemical agent
• chemical munition
• chemical dump site

[EdizS100]

my land have found radioatoin

[KaohiWaianae]

Maili Beach is a near offshore dump site in Hawaii on the island of Oahu. We just had a meeting on plausible cleanup. They denied it was dangerous, and chemical contaminats. First they said their was no land aresenal for disposal. However after their cleanup they intend to place these ordinace on land. Yup, it didn't make sense to me either. So, even if we start to clean up we will contaminat the land. But first after the Army empties its contents back into the ocean which is near shore.

[zealotnut]

Good point.

The containers of the C.W.'s will inevitabley decay and destroy the plancton - thus destroying the entire biological life cycle. Mental!

Don't concern yourself over that though, focus on getting rid of one of the four major life dependent gases, carbon di-oxide. lol.

[Treblaine]

This is why we have to look at the details and will not jump so quickly to "we're all dooooomed, the seas are poisoned by chemical weapons!" but nor will I ignore it.

Old mines are a consideration but there are still many practicality issues.

I was criticising this video for not being thorough enough, it is easy to say "oooh, that doesn't seem so nice" but ultimately useless.

[sarcophyllus]

What about sarin; cyanide compounds; anthrax and such?

I think that storing these CW's in old mines as an example is more controlled than dumping it in the seas and oceans.

We may think: out of harms way but fish are eaten by humans.

What will happen in the future with these CW's? over 100 or 150 years from now?

[Treblaine]

While this is a concern there is the issue of balancing risk.

If these chemical weapons are stored on land then there is a high chance humans are nearby if there is a leak. But deep underwater if there is a leak there will be an incredible dilution factor plus likely no humans near by.

A good follow up would be to try determining the effect of mustard chemicals on fish stocks after being diluted in trillions of litres of water and if there is any significant risk at all.