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When wartime refugees, veterans and people who had been bombed out of
their homes moved to the Bille-Siedlung area of Hamburg they had no idea
they would be living over a cocktail of some of the world’s most lethal
chemicals. In the 1980s, local people discovered that their houses had been
built on land contaminated with waste oils. Further investigations identified
arsenic, heavy metals, dioxin and methane. The city of Hamburg is still
assessing the extent of the contamination.

During the investigation, geophysicists from the University of Hamburg
discovered large magnetic anomalies at a depth of about 8 metres. Local
residents suspect that these mark the spot where barges were sunk and then
buried in a loop in the River Elbe in the 1930s. They believe these barges
might have been loaded with mustard gas and phosgene left over from the
First World War.

The geophysicists are trying to pinpoint hotspots of contamination before
any work is done to clean up the site. ‘We’re using magnetic mapping, radar,
and electrical conductivity surveys to locate the most heavily contaminated
areas and get an idea of what type of contaminant is present,’ said Jannis
Makris, from the university. So far, the project has taken four months and
cost the city of Hamburg DM 160,000 (55,000 Pounds).

Bomb disposal experts will begin digging at the site this month. ‘If
the anomalies are chemical weapons, the possibility that they will come
to the surface is slim, because they are heavier than air,’ said Peter Vosz,
an explosives expert who works for the city council. ‘But if they’ve been
buried with explosive munitions, more precautions will have to be taken.’

Heinz Niemann, a spokesman for the residents’ action group, welcomed
the expertise of the bomb disposal crew, but criticised the city’s tardiness
in dealing with the problem. ‘We requested that the city investigate the
rumours about the barges years ago,’ Niemann said. ‘No records were made
at the time the barges were sunk, but we submitted accounts from people
who had witnessed them being loaded, sunk, or had seen the filling of the
³¦³ó²¹²Ô²Ô±ð±ô.’

There are also reports of an explosion at the site in the spring of
1939, which killed livestock, discoloured the leaves on the trees and caused
breathing problems among local people.

Despite these accounts, when residents first asked for an investigation
in 1984, the authorities ignored their requests. Then, when other contaminants
were discovered, they began to do test borings without taking the proper
precautions, Niemann said.

The site has a complex history. After the loop of the river was filled
in, the army set up an anti-aircraft battery. The battery stored munitions
there and was heavily bombarded during the air raids. After the war, Hamburg’s
industries used the bomb craters as chemical dumps. The city also disposed
of its air-raid rubble, chemical wastes and dredgings from the channels
of the Elbe there. But by 1948, the city decided that the area was fit for
human habitation.

Vosz would not speculate about what might be causing the magnetic anomalies.
‘We only know that they’re ferromagnetic. They could be anything – barges,
heaps of scrap,’ he said. ‘It’s probably not poison gas. Even in those days,
it wouldn’t have been logical to dispose of chemical weapons that irresponsibly.’