Swiss search for bombs at lake bottom

Geneva, Sept. 22: The pristine turquoise waters of Lake Geneva may appear serene, but lurking below are piles of bombs, cartridges and possibly even chemical weapons discarded decades ago.

Long believed to be safely slumbering beneath thick layers of protective sediment, the munitions at the bottom of the biggest lake in the Alps have raised fresh safety and environmental concerns.

“We believe there are bombs and shells, and probably rifle ammunition,” Jacques Martelain, the Geneva canton’s head geologist, said.

Some also fear there might also be phosgene bombs — deadly chemical weapons — sitting on the bottom of the lake, he said. For the first time ever, Swiss authorities will soon start mapping the piles of munitions in the lake to determine what kind of explosive debris is there, how much, and whether it should be removed.

Switzerland is a famously neutral country that did not fight in the two world wars, but its long-held position is one of wellarmed neutrality.

Between World War I and the mid-1960s, thousands of tonnes of munitions, from artillery to grenades and detonators, were sunk in lakes across the nation.

Following two explosions in storage depots, one of them inside a mountain, the army started to get rid of surplus post-World War II stockpiles by using underwater dumps.

Over the decades, the Swiss army is estimated to have dumped more than 8,000 tonnes of munitions in the Thun, Lucerne and Brienz lakes.

Authorities studied those stockpiles carefully and decided around a decade ago that it was safer to leave them where they were, resting at significant depths and covered with thick layers of sediment.

They estimated that there was little danger in leaving them untouched, while removing them risked shifting the sediment, releasing pollutants and causing significant damage to the aquatic ecosystem. However, experts have warned that the situation is different in Lake Geneva, where a private armaments company, HispanoSuiza, dumped excess munitions right up until the 1960s.

The company, which no longer exists, had a number of arms factories in Geneva.

BETWEEN WORLD War I and the mid-1960s, thousands of tonnes of munitions, from artillery to grenades and detonators, were sunk in lakes across the nation.