Depleted uranium fragments are scattered on the firing range among 1.5 million rounds of unexploded shells, which makes cleanup dangerous and expensive. I think theres a case to be made that just leaving it in place really maintains an unacceptable risk of contamination spreading from the site, he said. Roughly 10 miles (16 kilometers) from downtown Denver, the arsenal was once an environmental nightmare where chemical weapons and commercial pesticides were made. In summary, there is no current evidence of health effects. 1973The Vietnam Conflict ends, and demilitarization becomes the primary focus of the RMA. Fish and Wildlife Service inventoried more than 330 species of wildlife that inhabit the Arsenal including deer, coyotes, white pelicans and owls. Critics say Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Colorado illustrates the shortcomings of a cleanup designed to be good enough for a refuge but not for human habitation. One monitoring project has demonstrated incremental improvements over time, and specifically measured 640 parts per billion (ppb) in 1987 and 55 ppb in 1989, while a different off-post monitoring well measured 138 ppb in 1985, 105 ppb in 1987, 14 ppb in 1988, and 6.7 ppb in 1989. Slighter rumblings (below magnitude 3.0) occurred throughout the remainder of 1966, and through the first week of April 1967. The Colorado departments Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division filed the lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver to force the Army to comply with standards set by the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA). Trace amounts of the chemical 1,4-dioxane has been found in some samples of drinking water. The U.S. Army later reactivated Arsenal facilities for Cold-War weapons production and demilitarization. Another strong shock rumbled through the Denver area on November 14, 1966, causing some damage at Commerce City and Eastlake. 2010All surface environmental cleanup work concludes. Here's the history of the Arsenal quakes from the USGS site: It was 32 minutes after 4 a.m. on April 24 when the first shock of the Denver series was recorded at the Cecil H. Green Geophysical Observatory at Bergen Park, Colorado. The arsenal's animals are intended to refresh bloodlines of the national park's herd, Rocky Mountain Arsenal Refuge Manager David Lucas told CBS4. In addition, there were actions completed by Future Farmers of America (FFA) between 1991 and 1993 that cost approximately $151.2 million. Denver's independent source of (1 of 9), SITE HISTORY - Rocky Mountain Arsenal was listed on the NPL in 1987. Rocky Mountain Arsenal. The magnitude 5.2 event caused widespread minor damage in the suburban areas of northeast Denver. However, when the Basin F liquids were actually introduced, the process required more time than anticipated to complete because of the impermeability of the rock. The U.S. Army and Shell conducted the $2.1 billion environmental cleanup of the site in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and Tri-County Health Department. Today, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, once some of the most contaminated land in the country, is a cleaned-up nature center. The Arsenal also played a role in Americas space exploration by manufacturing the rocket fuel used to power the Apollo 11 flights. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal was a United States chemical weapons manufacturing center located in the Denver Metropolitan Area in Commerce City, Colorado. Another group asked the courts to release documents from a 27-year-old criminal investigation into the weapons plant, hoping they will show whether the government tracked down and cleaned up all the contamination. Official websites use .gov RMA contained a deep injection well that was constructed in 1961. Since there is no further use for the building, the Army will remove it as part of a larger effort to reduce the Armys footprint at RMA. Lake Skipper (s): All manufacturing activities ended in 1982. Boulder sustained minor damage to walls and acoustical tile ceilings on April 27, 1967, as result of a magnitude 4.4 earthquake. Congruent with the outline of the June 1996 USFWS Comprehensive Management Plan, RMA will be available for public use through both community outreach and educational programs (as provided by the Visitor Access Plan and the USFWS). The Army and Shell took remedial actions to prevent the contamination that includes the installation of the groundwater barrier system which treated approximately 1 billion gallons of water every year. The facility was built in 1942, in response to the outbreak of World War II in Europe. A 14-year, $2-billion remediation effort begun in 1996 will turn most of the arsenal into a national wildlife refuge. Solid and liquid chemical hazardous wastes were disposed of in trenches, burn pits and pooled in open basins covering wide areas. The Energy Department estimates it will cost between $323 billion and $677 billion more to finish the costliest cleanup, at the Hanford Site in Washington state where the government produced plutonium for bombs and missiles. 1995-1996Following extensive community input, the Off-Post and On-Post Records of Decision (ROD) are signed. Please click here to see any active alerts. Farmers in the vicinity complained about the damage to crops due to the water pumped from the shallow alluvial aquifer. Soon after, Congress enacted legislation designating the RMA as a future national wildlife refuge. Most of the land areas now belong to the U.S. Rocky Mountain Arsenal continues to leak, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Get to know all 17 Denver mayor candidates , Rocky Mountain Arsenal continues to leak contaminants into groundwater, Colorado health department lawsuit says, Feds sue water company for rupture damaging Rocky Mountain National Park again. Finally, the Act provides for the transfer of some Arsenal land for road expansion around the perimeter of the Arsenal and 915 acres (3.70km2) to be sold for development and annexation by Commerce City. Damage on a lesser scale occurred throughout the area. Rocket fuel to support Air Force operations was also manufactured and stored at RMA. CERCLA also gave the Federal government the authority to respond to the release of life-threatening hazardous materials.[2]. Residents were generally shaken, but no damage was sustained. From 1964 -- 1966, waste was removed from an isolated section of Basin F and was combined with waste from a pre-treatment plant, located near Basin F, and then pumped into the well. Rocky Mountain Greenway Trail Open: Year-round to hiking, bicycles, and Class 1 e-Bikes Length: 4.8 miles This regional trail corridor will link Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge with Two Ponds and Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuges, along with many other protected open space and park lands throughout the Denver metro-area. In an effort to foster economic growth in the area and maintain the facilities for national security, private companies were encouraged to lease facilities beginning in the mid-1940s. [8][9] The well remained unused until 1985 when the Army permanently sealed the disposal well. Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge was established in 2004, in part, to protect our national symbol, the bald eagle. State and federal officials say its safe, but skeptical activists filed a lawsuit saying the federal government didnt test the refuge carefully enough. The timeline below highlights important milestones from each decade. It was also helpful that the location was close to Stapleton airfield, a major transportation hub.[5]. Parts of a C-shaped buffer zone around the perimeter are open to visitors asHanford Reach National Monument. (3 of 9), REDEVELOPMENT - Commerce City, CO a northern suburb of Denver,and a sports enterprise business have invested more than $120 million in the property, which yields 1.7 million visitors annually. In 2004, 5000 acres along the perimeter of the site were deleted from the National Priorities List of Superfund sites to establish the National Wildlife Refuge. An official website of the United States government. SITE HISTORY - Rocky Mountain Arsenal was listed on the NPL in 1987. It stipulates that the majority of the site will become a National Wildlife Refuge under the jurisdiction of the Fish and Wildlife Service when the environmental restoration is completed. Starting in 1942, the U.S. Army used the 27-mile site for the manufacture, assembly, and disposal . However, the Army estimates that the waste was a more dilute version of the Basin F liquid which is now being incinerated. It cited seven violations. 1942The U.S. Army establishes the Rocky Mountain Arsenal to produce chemical weapons as a war-time deterrent. Residential and commercial property is located to the north, south and west. The site was placed in 1987 on the EPAs National Priorities List, which is also known as the Superfund list. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge has been transformed from a 17,000+ acre facility used for weapons and chemical manufacturing into a beautiful nature sanctuary. Known today as an urban national wildlife refuge, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal traces its beginnings to the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II.. But parts of the refuge remain off-limits, including specially designed landfills where the Army disposed of contaminated soil. The Army was dumping dangerous chemicals into a deep injection well out at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Longstanding agricultural and health concerns related to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal have resulted in a complex history of political and legal battles. They have been left in place to excavate, so they have been left in place. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal was placed on the National Priorities List of Superfund sites in July 1987. Safety concerns for neighboring residents, Economic impact of contamination and clean up, Last edited on 17 February 2023, at 15:23, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, "The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge: On a Rocky Road to Creating a Community Asset", "Remediation Management of Complex Sites, Case Study 6.4 Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Colorado", "A Brief History of Rocky Mountain Arsenal", "Remediation of Groundwater Contamination at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal: Numerical and Geostatistical Analysis", "Colorado Sues Government Over Rocky Mountain Arsenal Site", "Rocky Mountain Arsenal Oversight Program FAQs", Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Commerce City, Adams County, CO, Rocky Mountain Arsenal Archive: A collection of primary, historical documents, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rocky_Mountain_Arsenal&oldid=1139926896, North boundary groundwater treatment system (197982) $4.3 million, Irondale groundwater treatment system by Shell (1981) $1.1 million, Basin F liquid evaporation and contaminated sewer removal (1982) $1.5 million, Northwest boundary groundwater treatment system (1984) $5.5 million, Removal of 76,000 drums of waste salts (1986) $10.5 million, Treatment in the public water supply and The Klein Water Treatment Facility supplies safe drinking water to 30,000 south Adams County residents (1989) $23.1 million, Removal and containment of 10.5M gallons of Basin F liquids and 564,000 cubic yards of sludges (1989) $42 million, Improvements and modifications to North boundary system (19901) $2.75 million, Basin F groundwater intercept system (1990) $0.7 million, Basin A neck groundwater treatment system (1990) $3.1 million, Northwest Boundary System Improvement (1991) $1.4 million, Rail classification yard and motor pool ground water (1991) $3.0 million, South tank farm plume (1991) $0.5 million, Reapplication of windblown dust control (1991) $0.25 million, Groundwater treatment system to the north (19923) $8.7 million, Building 1727 sump cleanup (1993) $0.18 million, This page was last edited on 17 February 2023, at 15:23. 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