WMD Found

...11 miles from Denver, in a wildlife refuge, forcing the
cancellation of
a number of public events.



i-6f3b95700cd0439d267f99d8ebdfbe83-RMA-FC-and-Ladora.jpg



This refers to a placed called the href="http://www.fws.gov/rockymountainarsenal/">Rocky
Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, near Commerce
City, Colorado.  Their website now states, simply:



Wildlife
Refuge Temporarily Closed




Public visitation to the Refuge has been temporarily suspended due to a
specific remediation project. All tours and programs have been
cancelled until further notice. Visitor safety is our number one
priority and we appreciate your patience during this closure. Please
continue to check our website for information on when visitation will
resume. We apologize for any inconvenience.



The href="http://www.santafenewmexican.com/National%20News/Four_refuge_programs_canceled_after_traces_of__quot_dew_of_death_quot__fo">Santa
Fe New Mexican
has more details.  They
report:



The refuge was closed Wednesday after a
blistering chemical weapon developed and produced during both World
Wars, called Lewsite, was found in a restricted area near the refuge.
State officials said it could be a week to months before the refuge
re-opens while the area is examined.



"Lewsite" is a common misspelling (or alternative spelling) of href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewisite" rel="tag">Lewisite
(2-chloroethenyldichloroarsine).  Incidentally, Lewisite was
featured recently at href="http://scienceblogs.com/moleculeoftheday/2007/10/lewisite_more_good_common_name.php">Molecule
of the Day
.  It also was mentioned on href="http://scienceblogs.com/deepseanews/2007/06/munitions_dumping_at_sea.php">Deep
Sea News
, in a post about munitions dumping off the
Atlantic coast, among other areas.



The Refuge had planned to hold public wildlife photography programs.
 Workers had been digging a trench when the chemical was
discovered.  They were wearing protective gear, and were using
air monitoring equipment, so there were no injuries.  It still
is not known whether there is merely soil contamination, or whether
there are buried, leaking containers of the chemical.  



During the summer, the Refuge allows catch-and-release fishing.
 If you were thinking of sneaking a fish out and having it for
dinner, maybe you should rethink that idea.



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Its funny how the fact they found this stuff and that there is other military refuse around there is what is allowing it to be a wildlife refuge instead of another condo-community. Maybe we should encourage horrible poisoning pollutants - we might actually end up with more non-delveloped wildlife space. (1 % serious there).

The Korean DMZ, the former barrier between East and West Germany (including, I seem to recall, some of the Berlin Wall?), and minefields on some of the Falklands/Malvinas islands (beaches), are three sites I can think of which were, or in some cases still are, too dangerous for humans and hence have turned/reverted into wild areas. I've no idea which, if any, are actual "parks" or "reserves" or whatevers as opposed to "stay out or die!" areas.

So we fought a war over Iraq having WMDs and finally find them in our backyard? Maybe we should have invaded Colorado instead.

You don't have to look overseas, or in war zones.
April, 2007
Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge in central-northern Oklahoma has temporarily closed its popular crystal-
digging fields to public access due to a recent discovery of vials containing unknown substances.
Several glass vials were unearthed by a boy digging for hourglass-shaped selenite crystals in a public area
on the refuge. One vial broke and caused the child�s eyes to temporarily sting. The site of discovery is a formerly used defense site (FUDS) - the former Great Salt Plains Bombing Range near Cherokee, Oklahoma.
The Army�s 22d Chemical Battalion (Technical Escort) continue their support of the recovery of vials from chemical agent identification sets (CAIS) used until the 1960s for safely training soldiers in the identification of
chemical agents. As of April 30, 2007, approximately 130 intact CAIS vials have been recovered. Each
vial contains one of four chemicals. These training sets were not designed to be lethal, but may cause a
variety of irritations. To date, a final determination of the content of each vial has not been made. Once
identified, the vials will be disposed of per applicable state and federal laws.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is collecting bids to expand and cleanup the immediate site under investigation. In addition, ground-penetrating radar is being tested to see if it would detect glass vials under the sand and salt.
DoD produced chemical Agent Identification Sets (CAIS), also known as war gas identification sets, between the 1930's and 1960's for use by the military to train military personnel (e.g., Soldiers) safely to identify, handle, and decontaminate chemical agents
Unlike most CAIS, two sets--CAIS K941, toxic gas set M-1; and CAIS K942, toxic gas set M-2/E11 contain a relatively
large quantity of chemical agent (mustard).

For an intuitive sense of this compound, it's an arsenical - a compound containing arsenic. Arsenicals tend to have a long life, since they leave organisms only slowly. There is a "natural" source of arsenic from shellfish, so many people, especially shellfish eaters will have levels of arsenic below the toxic level when tested.

The treatment for this and other arsenic poisonings is by using British anti-lewisite, or BAL for short. It's really only partially successful, and much of the damage done to the nervous system is permanent.