By JUSTIN BURNETT and BEN WATANABE

The discovery of old dynamite in the basement of a Clinton home Monday resulted in a temporary closure of a portion of Cultus Bay Road.

The street between  French and Bailey roads was closed to traffic for hours following the 11 a.m. discovery. An explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) team from NAS Whidbey safely destroyed the box believed to hold more than 30 sticks of dynamite.

“It was relatively old, so old they used a robot to move it,” Island County Sheriff’s Office Detective Ed Wallace said.

Dynamite sticks sweat nitroglycerin, which over time crystallizes and becomes sensitive to shock, friction and temperature. Wallace said the Navy team soaked the box and burned it without any explosions.

According to Mike Welding, public affairs officer for Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Navy EOD teams are qualified to render safe all types of explosive hazards and occasionally assist law enforcement with dangerous explosives. In this case, they responded to a request for assistance from state and island police.

While the team did remove the old dynamite “remotely,” Welding declined to go into details, saying it’s Navy’s preference not to disclose the exact methods of the extraction. He did confirm, however, the means of disposal.

“Burning it was the safest thing to do,” Welding said.

The road was closed as a safety precaution based on the Navy team’s minimum safe distance perimeter.

Wallace said this type of incident is not new to Island County. Previous finds of old dynamite have been treated similarly, though he said this was the largest amount he’d encountered.

“It’s happened before, not to this quantity,” he said, citing the rural nature of Island County and the use of dynamite to demolish old structures or clear out property of stumps or boulders.

Wallace said dynamite is highly regulated in how it is stored and who may possess it. He recommended that anyone with old dynamite contact the sheriff’s office before trying to move it.

“If people have explosives, they need to be disposed of properly,” he said. “We can’t even do it.”

Island County law enforcement does not have its own bomb squad. Instead, the sheriff’s office has a list of agencies to ask, starting with the Washington State Patrol. Wallace said the WSP was not able to mobilize as quickly, so the sheriff’s office deferred to the Navy.

“There’s a protocol in place, and Navy came down and took care of it,” Wallace said.