The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

In January 1947, the United States Army had an excess of metallic sodium left over from World War II and determined that the alkaline waters of Lake Lenore would be a good spot to dump and neutralize the acidic element, which reacts with water with intense explosions.

Barrels containing 20,000 pounds of metallic sodium were rolled off a cliff onto the frozen lake where, according to the video description, they were shot with machine guns to expose the sodium. As the sodium reacted to the water, an estimated 162,000 cubic feet of hydrogen gas was produced, which caught fire in large explosions.

"A once-lethal war chemical becomes a peacetime pyrotechnic display," says the narrator of a short government film chronicling the event.

The War Assets Administration disposed of the sodium in this way because, according to the narrator, "no public carrier will accept it for transportation to a purchaser."

The video can be found on http://www.youtube.com by searching for "Lake Lenore sodium."

This story online will have a link.

The description included with the video adds some further details, saying that "several dozen passing motorist stopped to watch as a gentle mist of corrosive sodium hydroxide came down. The Army paid for repainting the cars. The War Assets Administration and the Washington State Department of Game had evaluated the impact of this disposal on the lake beforehand and concluded little effect on the lake and wildlife, but were concerned about the safety of the workers that would be involved."

A comment on the video from a viewer states that the nearby town of Soap Lake was unaware that this would be taking place, and upon hearing the explosions went into a bit of panic, thinking perhaps one of the nearby dams had broken.