So many annoying factors intersect in this story

Militarism, shortsightedness, secrecy, callous indifference toward the environment, wanton destruction of ocean life . . . all wrapped up in an odious, puss-filled blister-causing, crusted gel containing corroding artillery shell!

A clam dredging operation off the coast of Atlantic City, N.J., in 2004 pulled   up an old artillery shell.

    The long-submerged, World War I-era explosive was filled with a black, tar-like   substance.

    Bomb disposal technicians from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware were brought   in to dismantle it. Three of them were injured, one hospitalized with large,   pus-filled blisters on his arm and hand.

    The shell was filled with mustard gas in solid form.

    What was long-feared by the few military officials in the know had come to   pass: Chemical weapons that the Army dumped at sea decades ago had finally ended   up on shore in the United States.

    While it has long been known that some chemical weapons went into the ocean,   records obtained by the Daily Press of Newport News, Va., show that the previously   classified weapons-dumping program was far more extensive than has ever been   suspected.

    The Army now admits in reports never before released that it secretly dumped   64 million pounds of nerve and mustard gas agent into the sea, along with 400,000   chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive   waste either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.

    A Daily Press investigation also found:

    These weapons of mass destruction virtually ring the country, concealed off   the coasts of at least 11 states: six on the East Coast, including New Jersey   and Maryland, two on the Gulf Coast, and in California, Hawaii and Alaska. Few,   if any, state officials have been informed of their existence.

    The chemical agents could pose a hazard for generations. The Army has examined   only a few of its 26 dump zones, and none in 30 years.

    The Army can't say exactly where all the weapons were dumped from World War   II to 1970. Army records are sketchy, missing or were destroyed.

    More dump sites probably exist. The Army hasn't reviewed records from the World   War I era, when ocean dumping of chemical weapons was common.

    "We do not claim to know where they all are," said William Brankowitz, a   deputy project manager in the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency and a leading   authority on the Army's chemical weapons dumping. "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."

    A drop of nerve agent can kill within a minute. When released in the ocean   it lasts up to six weeks, killing every organism it touches before breaking   down into its nonlethal chemical components.

    Mustard gas can be fatal. When exposed to seawater it forms a concentrated,   encrusted gel that lasts for at least five years, rolling around on the ocean   floor, killing or contaminating sea life.

    Sea-dumped chemical weapons may be slowly leaking from decades of saltwater   corrosion, resulting in a time-delayed release of deadly chemicals over the   next 100 years and an unforeseeable environmental impact. Steel corrodes at   different rates depending on the water depth, ocean temperature and thickness   of the shells.

    That was the conclusion of Norwegian scientists who in 2002 examined chemical   weapons dumped off Norway's coast after World War II by the U.S. and British   military.

    Overseas, more than 200 fishermen over the years have been burned by mustard   gas pulled on deck. A fisherman in Hawaii was burned in 1976 when he brought   up an Army-dumped mortar round full of mustard gas.

    Although it seems unlikely the weapons will begin to wash up on shore, last   year's discovery that a mustard gas-filled artillery shell was dumped off the   coast of New Jersey was ominous for several reasons.

    It was the first ocean-dumped chemical weapon to make its way to shore in the   United States.

    It was pulled up with clams in relatively shallow water only 20 miles off the   coast of Atlantic City. The Army had no idea chemical weapons were dumped in   the area.

    Most alarming: It was found intact in a residential driveway in Delaware.

    It had survived being dredged up and put through a crusher to create cheap   clamshell driveway fill sold throughout the Delmarva Peninsula in Delaware and   Maryland.

    Decades of Dumping

    The United States never used chemical weapons in war but amassed a huge stockpile   to be unleashed if enemy forces used them first. Their existence was a known,   ultimately successful, deterrent.

    The Army's secret ocean-dumping program spanned at least three decades, from   1944 to 1970.

    The dumped weapons were deemed to be unneeded surplus. They were hazardous   to transport, expensive to store, too dangerous to bury and difficult to destroy.

    In the early 1970s, the Army publicly admitted it had dumped some chemical   weapons off the U.S. coast. Congress banned the practice in 1972. Three years   later, the United States signed an international treaty prohibiting ocean disposal   of chemical weapons.

    Only now have Army reports come to light that show how much was dumped, what   kind of chemical weapons they were, when they were thrown overboard, and rough   nautical coordinates of where some are located.

The story goes on and on, it's pretty depressing.