An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Article Display

WWI era munitions to be destroyed at JB MDL Lakehurst

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Chris Powell
  • Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst Public Affairs
Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. --  Officials with the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Activity's Recovered Chemical Materiel Directorate will soon destroy two World War I era chemical munitions that were discovered at JB MDL Lakehurst's parachute jump circle bombing target range.

A 75mm round containing mustard agent and a Livens projectile containing phosgene were found during the remedial investigation of the bombing target area late last year. The CMA technicians will use an Explosive Destruction System on-site to safely destroy the munitions in mid-July.

"These coming weeks will be the culmination of all this planning and activity and collaboration, and we'll be destroying these devices," said Col. Gregory McClure, 87th Civil Engineer Group commander.

According to Army fact sheets, the EDS uses cutting charges to explosively access chemical munitions, eliminating their explosive capacity before the chemical agent is neutralized. The system's main component - a sealed, stainless steel vessal - contains all the blast, vapor and fragments from the process. Treatment is confirmed by sampling residual liquid and air from the vessel prior to reopening the EDS.

"The Explosive Destruction System was invented for (missions like this). There's layers and layers of safety," said Derek Romitti, CMA's EDS project manager. As a second layer of safety, the EDS is placed within an environmental enclosure, which filters the air to ensure its safe before it's released to the environment.

The munitions have remained in safe storage at JB MDL since they were discovered last year, McClure said.

To date, RCMD officials have conducted more than 3,300 assessments in the United States and treated more than 2,200 items using the EDS.