Chemical Weapons Dumped In The Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea *Although leaked chemical warfare (CW) gases rapidly hydrolyse in sea water, potential risks of serious contamination will exist for many decades for sailors, fishermen and coastal visitors of the Baltic Sea, in particular concerning contact with lumps of mustard gas. *Since 72% of the CW agents is contained in aircraft bombs, which are already in various stages of corrosion and 63% of all CW agents is S-mustard gas, the loss by lumps of mustard, spread over the seabed in the neighbourhood of dump sites, represents the greatest danger. *There remain sites at risk outside the Allied Forces dump sites, since during the disposal procedures before 1948, ammunition was thrown overboard between the discharge ports of Wolfgast and Peenemunde and the dump sites east of Bornholm and south of Gotland. *Blue prints of emergency plans should be available in order to confine, bury or destroy ammunition at risk. Skagerak *Most dumped CW ammunition is contained in deliberately sunken vessels. *Implosion of the chemical weapon's cargo in these vessels, due to its own weight, may increase loss of CW agents, in particular from corroded aircraft bombs. *Several wrecked ships have been located outside the dump site as indicated on the nautical charts. *Steps should be taken to sarcophage the wrecked ships in order to avoid an eventual contamination of the eastern North Sea and coastal waters of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. General *Although the Helsinki Commission, through its ad hoc Working Group HELCOM CHEMU has correctly evaluated the present risks of the dumped CW ammunition, it is obvious that the authorities of the Baltic States and Norway should be prepared to act jointly in emergency situations.

This book describes the creation of a monitoring network, which can provide information about the exact locations and the environmental threats posed by chemical weapons (CW) dumpsites in the Baltic Sea region, using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs), and utilising the existing research vessels of NATO partner institutions as launching platforms. The dumping operations occurred shortly after World War II and included captured German munitions. Operations with munitions from the Soviet occupation zone were performed by the Soviet Navy, operations with munitions from British and American occupation zones were performed in areas outside of the Baltic Sea (Skagerrak Strait); the fate of munitions from the French occupation zone was never reported. Due to difficult legal status of these munitions, and high costs of remediation and retrieval, removal of these weapons from the bottom of the Baltic Sea seems unlikely in the foreseeable future. These dumped chemical weapons pose an actual environmental and security hazard in the Baltic Sea Region. Nowadays, with more and more industrial activities being performed in the Baltic Sea Area, the threat level is rising. The AUV survey is based on the IVER2 platform by OceanServer, equipped with Klein 3500 side-scan sonar. The identification phase utilises several ROVs, equipped with targeting sonars, acoustic cameras capable of penetrating turbid bottom waters up to 20m, and visual HD cameras. A novel sediment sampling system, based on a camera and sonar equipped cassette sampler, has been developed to obtain surface sediments. The test phase described consists of a survey phase, which will locate the actual objects concerned, and a monitoring phase, which will concentrate on the collection of environmental data close to the objects concerned.

This volume summarises the materials presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Sea-Dumped Chemical Munitions, held in Kaliningrad (Moscow Region), Russia, in January 1995. The conference was sponsored by the NATO Division of Scientific and Environmental Affairs in the framework of its outreach programme to develop co-operation between NATO member countries and the Cooperation Partner countries in the area of disarmament technologies. The problem of the ecological threat posed by chemical weapons (CW) dumped in the seas after the Second World War deserves considerable international attention: the amount of these weapons, many of them having been captured from the German Army, is assessed at more than three times as much as the total chemical arsenals reported by the United States and Russia. They were disposed of in the shallow depths of North European seas - areas of active fishing - in close proximity to densely populated coastlines, with no consideration of the long-term consequences. The highly toxic material have time and again showed up, for instance when retrieved occasionally in the fishing nets, attracting local media coverage only. Nevertheless, this issue has not yet been given adequate and comprehensive scientific analysis, the sea-disposed munitions are not covered by either the Chemical Weapons Convention or other arms control treaties. In fact, the problem has been neglected for a long time on the international level. Only recently were official data made available by the countries which admitted conducting dumping operations.

Potential environmental and human health effects resulting from the dumping of World War I and World War II-era conventional and chemical weapons in the Baltic Sea are of continuing concern. It is not possible to identify, and safely recover or otherwise 'remediate' all of the munitions that have been dumped. Some munitions will continue to be uncovered inadvertently. Therefore, procedures for the identification and reporting of recovered munitions should be maintained and, where possible, strengthened. Estimating an overall cost for the recovery and remediation of all dumped munitions is problematic. A standard operating procedure for the disposal of such weapons is to detonate individual munitions that are judged to pose a clear and present threat. Techniques for locating and handling munitions at varying depths and databases of geographic, environmental and other information continue to be developed. The paper recommends that any policy approach to the recovery and remediation of dumped munitions should be reasoned and balanced. Any decision to recover or remediate dumped munitions should be informed by technical and scientific requirements, and any policy process should be guided by these principles. Further efforts should be carried out to achieve common understanding on risk (quantitative and qualitative) and the implementation of appropriate risk management strategies.

Following the two world wars of the twentieth century, governments decided to dispose of unwanted chemical weapons in the world's oceans. The deleterious consequences of this decision for the earth's precious marine environment are now becoming clear. As the issue of sea-dumped chemical weapons cannot be contained by borders, we will all have to deal with the adverse effects on our fragile planetary ecosystem. While states have made some efforts to address the situation, unresolved international legal issues remain. International Law and Sea-Dumped Chemical Weapons contains a systematic conceptual analysis of the international legal frameworks governing the remediation of sea-dumped chemical weapons. Where deficiencies are found in the law, legal solutions are offered. In addition, practical approaches to the problem are explored. Furthermore, the book argues that solutions to this environmental hazard rely on a holistic awareness-and acceptance-of how humanity's past actions have damaged our ecosystem. Aiming to bring about the necessary will to overcome this challenge, this volume identifies and analyses the problem, offers guidance, and provides hope to the current and succeeding generations so that we can solve the problem of sea-dumped chemical weapons and restore balance to our ecosystem.

Although leaked chemical warfare (CW) gases rapidly hydrolyse in sea water, potential risks of serious contamination will exist for many decades for sailors, fishermen and coastal visitors of the Baltic Sea and Skagerak, in particular concerning contact with lumps of mustard gas. Blue prints of emergency plans should be available in order to confine, bury or destroy ammunition at risk. For that reason bottom current maps should be available to predict the transport of lumps over the sea bottom. Test should be made in hydraulic laboratories about the correlation water current and lump transport. Modelling may predict the hotspots in the future. This is an updated document.

In October 1993, eighteen experts from ten countries met in Munster, Germany to discuss various aspects of the problem of old chemical munitions and toxic armaments wastes. This comprehensive study discusses the characteristics of chemical warfare agents and toxic armament wastes, past chemical weapons production activities, chemical weapons disposal and destruction, sea dumping of chemical weapons, and legal issues related to old chemical munitions and toxic armament wastes.