The concept of mobile, maritime system for location, assessment of technical condition, recovery and destruction of dumped chemical munitions

After the World War II, acting under the terms of the Potsdam Agreement, the anti-Nazi coalition commenced destroying chemical and conventional munitions by dumping it in the seas (including in the Baltic Sea). As a result of these activities, tens of thousands of tons of ammunition were brought to the Baltic. The international project CHEMSEA has shown that dumped chemical munitions pose a threat to the environmental safety of the Baltic Sea, and that the need to collect and destroy munitions should be taken into account. The article describes the assumptions of a pilot system to identify chemical munitions in the Baltic Sea (including selected areas of the Polish Maritime Areas), assess its technical condition and the potential for its recovery. In addition, existing technical solutions (allowing for the use of the best available techniques – BAT) provide the opportunity to collect and neutralize sunken chemical munitions

Exposure status of sea-dumped chemical warfare agents in the Baltic Sea

About 50 000 tons of chemical weapons (CW) were dumped to the Baltic Sea after the Second World War. Munitions are located in the deep areas of the Baltic Sea, and there they act as a point source of contamination to the ecosystem. Corroded munitions release chemical warfare agents (CWAs) to nearby water and sediments. In this study we investigated known dumpsites (Bornholm, Gotland and Gdansk Deep) and dispersed chemical munitions, to evaluate the extent of contamination of nearby sediments, as well as to assess the degradation process of released CWA. It was found that CWA-related phenylarsenic chemicals (Clark I, Clark II and Adamsite) and sulfur mustard are released to the sediments and undergo environmental degradation to chemicals, of which some remain toxic. The extent of pollution of released CWAs and their corresponding degradation products reaches more than 250 m from the CW objects, and seem to follow a power curve decrease of concentration from the source. Bornholm Deep is characterised with the highest concentration of CWAs in sediments, but occasional concentration peaks are also observed in the Gdansk Deep and close to dispersed munitions. Detailed investigation of spreading pattern show that the range of pollution depends on bottom currents and topography.Peer reviewe