Base Officials Urge Search for WWII-Era Chemicals

Edwards Air Force Base officials have recommended that several World War II-era trenches be excavated to determine if they were used for storing chemical warfare materiel.

The site currently “poses no health risk,” said Robert Wood, chief of the Environmental Restoration Division at Edwards. “But complete excavation is the only way we will ever know the trenches’ contents,” he said

The four trenches--9 feet deep, 15 feet wide and 150 feet long--are near a dormitory. Base spokesman Maj. Tom Gilroy said Friday that archival records show they may have contained the chemical agents mustard, lewisite, phosgene and chloropicrin.

Edwards, best known for its flight test center, was first used by the government in 1933 as a remote bombing range, and the sparsely populated desert area was used for a variety of military activities during World War II, including chemical weapons training, Gilroy said.

The recommendation to dig up the trenches was endorsed by the Edwards Restoration Advisory Board, which consists of military and civilian representatives.

The next step will be preparation of an engineering evaluation and cost analysis, followed by federal and state environmental review. The excavation, which would not begin for a year, would be performed by workers in protective clothing and in covered trenches to prevent contamination leaking into the air, officials said.

“We wouldn’t have considered digging the trenches up if it couldn’t be done safely,” Wood said.