Report: U.S. dumped nerve gas in Atlantic

Salt Lake City Sun Tuesday 1st November, 2005

The U.S. Army dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard gas and weapons into the Atlantic Ocean, a Virginia newspaper reported Tuesday.

The investigation by the Hampton Roads Daily Press said along with the WW I-era gases, some 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets were either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.

More troubling, is that scientists say the weapons may still be deadly, along with more than 500 tons of radioactive waste from World War II. Until 1970, Congress and international treaties banned sea-dumping.

We do not claim to know where they all are, said William Brankowitz, a deputy project manager in the Army Chemical Materials Agency. We don't want to be cavalier at all and say this stuff was exposed to water and is OK. It can last for a very, very long time.

It is known chemical weapons were dumped in at least 26 locations off the coast of 11 states -- six East Coast states, two on the Gulf Coast, California, Hawaii and Alaska. Few, if any, state officials have been informed of their existence, the report said.