Chemical Dump Lurks Under a D.C. Neighborhood

May 15, 2010 - Greg Nielson pushed a joystick, and a video camera zoomed in on three men in moon suits and gas masks as they prepared to blow up a weapon of mass destruction less than five miles from the White House.

Later, the crew slid the rusting World War I artillery shell into a small steel vault and sealed the door. They detonated a shaped explosive charge to cut the projectile open, and pumped in reagent to neutralize its contents: liquid mustard, an infamous chemical warfare agent.

The process is “as safe as sliced bread,” said Nielson, the operation leader, at a control panel in a nearby trailer. “Maybe safer.”

The destruction of five poison-filled shells and 20 other suspect items ended in early May. But the saga of America’s most unusual hazardous waste site is far from over.

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Worried about contaminants? The EPA will test your land, but you're going to get a piece of the bill for a cleanup

March 16, 2010- Imagine you live on Maxfield Street in New Bedford; or Summit or Beech; or Ruggles or Greenwood; or any of a number of streets that abut the New Bedford High School and Keith Middle School campus.

Now, imagine if the Environmental Protection Agency knocked on your door and said they wanted to test your yard for contamination from the old Parker Street dump on or near which the schools were built.

You might be inclined to let the federal agency drill a few holes. You would probably want to find out if you, or your children, or maybe your parents, have been at risk.

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Miami's Sector II: A Playground of Past Contamination

April 2, 2009- Children, thousands of them over the years, played in a sandbox and back yard of a day care center in the heart of Liberty City. It's located steps from the now demolished Scott Carver public housing project that's long been mired in financial scandal and public corruption. But what never made headlines is what's in the soil in this neighborhood known as Sector II.

Many of them are coming to terms with the fact that their daycare center, housing project and park and lake were developed around what was a 1940's dump site, a burial ground of toxic junk and solid waste.

They informed me that there was contamination on that property." Her reaction was to get the children "out of there," she explained." It could be anyone's children, and yet no one seemed to care here."

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