[13], As part of the clean up of the RMA, much of the soil, up to 10 feet below the surface was removed from the site. Further testing revealed that the containment issue is an ongoing problem, the lawsuit says. Photo source: Dave Showalter Rocky Mountain National Park Tour from Denver 49 Recommended Full-day Tours from $195.00 per adult Private Rocky Mountain National Park from Denver and Boulder 49 Recommended Full-day Tours from $849.00 per group (up to 5) Hiking Adventure in Rocky Mountain National Park from Denver 265 Recommended Full-day Tours from $139.00 per adult Much of the site is now protected as the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. 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. 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. The U.S. Army later reactivated Arsenal facilities for Cold-War weapons production and demilitarization. Groundwater treatment will continue until all water leaving the site meets state and federal standards. Rocky Mountain Arsenal on FishExplorer has 222 historic conditions reports, 90 historic water temperature updates, 120 historic status updates, 138 historic water level updates, available to subscribers. The history of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge stretches back more than 60 years. Following the war and through the early 1980s, the facilities continued to be used by the Army. 1973The Vietnam Conflict ends, and demilitarization becomes the primary focus of the RMA. An official website of the United States government, Rocky Mountain Arsenal has recently published its annual community report. 2003The EPA removes 917 acres of RMA land from the National Priorities List. During November 1967, the Denver region was shaken by five moderate earthquakes. An astonishing array of animals and habitats flourished on six obsolete weapons complexes mostly for nuclear or chemical arms because the sites banned the public and other intrusions for decades, Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), In this Oct. 13, 2005, file photo, deer cross a road striped of its asphalt at the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons plant near Golden, Colo. (Ed Andrieski, AP File photo), How Denver is spending the $41M from the Broncos sale, Three members of Colorados congressional delegation seek $60 billion to reduce wildfire risk, restore Western land, Troubled K.P. Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which was once a U.S. Army chemical weapons manufacturing facility, became a wildlife refuge in 1992. 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. In 1984, the Army began a systematic investigation of site contamination in accordance with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), commonly referred to as Superfund. Site reviews will be conducted every five years to make sure the cleanup remedy is still effective. MORE: Federal prosecutors say they cant find files on investigation into Rocky Flats nuclear arms plant. The primary contaminants include organochloride pesticides, organophosphate pesticides, carbamate insecticides, organic solvents and feedstock chemicals used as raw products or intermediates in the manufacturing process (e.g., chlorinated benzenes), heavy metals, chemical warfare material and their related breakdown products and biological warfare agent such as TX. 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. But parts of the refuge remain off-limits, including specially designed landfills where the Army disposed of contaminated soil. Office of Public Health Practice, Planning, and Local Partnerships, Chemicals from firefighting foam & other sources, Colorado Legacy Land/Lincoln Park Superfund site, Test & Fix Water for Kids at Family Child Care Homes, Toxicology and environmental epidemiology, Engage with the Water Quality Control Division, Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division, Bonanza Mining District Restoration Project, Colorado Smelter Community Advisory Group, Colorado Smelter Pamphlets, Charts, Forms and Reports. The site was placed in 1987 on the EPAs National Priorities List, which is also known as the Superfund list. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Damage on a lesser scale occurred throughout the area. The Surveillance for Birth Defects utilized passive observational data from an existing birth defects registry March 1989 March 2009. So theres a huge downside to converting it into a wildlife refuge, because it allows residual contamination to remain in place, said Jeff Edson, a former Colorado state health official who worked on the cleanup. selected for the Rocky Mountain Arsenal includes the removal of contaminated soil down to 10 over much of the contaminated area, and that contaminated overburden is contained in two hazardous waste landfills that remain on the site. Today, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, once some of the most contaminated land in the country, is a cleaned-up nature center. By year end, the United States has out-produced the Axis . Catch . The cleanup was completed in 2010 and five large parcels of land have been deleted from the NPL . (8 of 9), "The Refuge and adjacent property represent a public-private partnership done right," said Mayor Sean Ford. (5 of 9), Mayor Pro Tem Ren Bullock, who also sits on the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Front Range Wildlife Refuges, stated "As a decades-long participant in transitioning this site from munitions manufacturing to wildlife sanctuary, I can honestly say the Refuge is an shining example of promises made, promises kept and should serve as the gold standard for how to make former Superfund sites benefit the communities in which they are located." Fish and Wildlife Service to create and later expand the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. 24,590 were here. In 1942, the US Army acquired 19,915 acres (80.59km2) of land on which to manufacture weapons in support of World War II military activities at a cost of $62,415,000. A lot of the environmental stories are kind of doomy and gloomy, and these are successful ones, something positive, he said. Birth defects included in the analysis were: "total congenital anomalies, major congenital anomalies, heart defects, muscle and skeletal defects, and kidney and bladder defects," and these categories were inconsistent in reporting accuracy. An astonishing array of animals and habitats flourished onsix obsolete weapons complexes mostly for nuclear or chemical arms because the sites banned the public and other intrusions for decades. The injected fluids had very little potential for reaching the surface or useable groundwater supply since the injection point had 11,900 feet of rock above it and was sealed at the opening. Mallard carcasses found to have higher levels of Dieldrin. 1984The U.S. Army conducts the RMA Remedial Investigation / Feasibility Study, which includes the systematic investigation of contamination and the development and evaluation of cleanupalternatives. In 1992, Congress designated the sites as a wildlife refuge. Slighter rumblings (below magnitude 3.0) occurred throughout the remainder of 1966, and through the first week of April 1967. [4], The Arsenal's location was selected due to its relative distance from the coasts (and presumably not likely to be attacked), a sufficient labor force to work at the site, weather that was conducive to outdoor work, and the appropriate soil needed for the project. The CDPHE issued the Army a notice of non-compliance, claiming its containment and treatment measures were not working. Already since 1995, the buildings became the seat of the National Eagle Repository, an office of the Fish and Wildlife Service that receives the bodies of all dead Golden and Bald Eagles in the nation and provides feathers and other parts to Native Americans for cultural uses. After 42 years of chemical manufacturing, in 1984, the United States Army began to inspect the level of contamination at Rocky Mountain Arsenal (RMA). After the war, it became a bustling center of industrial activity -- a top-secret center that created a lot of dangerous waste. From a tiny Pacific island to a leafy Indiana forest, a handful of sites where the United States manufactured and tested some of the most lethal weapons known to humankind are now peaceful havens for wildlife. Also, they noted that if all groundwater were to be cleared for human consumption, the cost would be $500 million annually. Most of the land areas now belong to the U.S. The Army is still struggling with cleaning up Jefferson Proving Ground in southeastern Indiana, part of which becameBig Oaks National Wildlife Refuge. A small herd of wild bison was introduced to the refuge in March 2007 as part of the USFWS Bison Project. Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Additionally, ordnance (including incendiary munitions) was manufactured and tested, and asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were used at RMA. Theoretically, if the Earth still exists in the year 3000, theyll still be monitoring groundwater at the arsenal, he said. The organic content of the solution was high but is largely unknown. Baseline rates of congenital anomalies in the study area compared to Colorado as a whole did not show significant differences between populations. When the cleanup was completed, it was clear that no Arsenal chemicals had been released into the air that exceeded the health-protective levels established for the site since the environmental cleanup began in October 1997. The end result was approximately 165 million gallons of Basin F liquid waste being injected into the well during the period from 1962 through 1966. The land has a unique story - it has survived the test of time and transitioned from farmland, to war-time manufacturing site, to wildlife sanctuary. More by The Associated Press, Got a story tip? Colorado health officials contendthat Shells trenches and slurry walls have not prevented pesticides and other dangerous chemicals from leaching into the groundwater. By year end, the United States has out-produced the Axis Powers by 150 percent. The arsenal's animals are intended to refresh bloodlines of the national park's herd, Rocky Mountain Arsenal Refuge Manager David Lucas told CBS4. 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. Photo source:CBS Denver Vote in our annual food bracket challenge. Theyre not going to want to be in a place with chemical pollution or radiation problems., Email: newsroom@coloradosun.com By the end of December 1962, 190 earthquakes had occurred. Critics sayRocky Mountain Arsenalin Colorado illustrates the shortcomings of a cleanup designed to be good enough for a refuge but not for human habitation. Its location was selected because it is far from the coast and it has sufficient labor force. Some parts of the refuge have been deemed safe but visitors must watch a safety video and sign a waiver promising not to sue if theyre injured by an exploding shell. Several persons scurried into the streets when buildings started shaking back and forth. Many of the surrounding neighborhoods have been provided with potable tap water from other areas of Adams county because of the potential effects of contaminated groundwater from wells. RMA is also one of the few sites that had a stockpile of Sarin gas (aka nerve agent GB), an organophosphorus compound. But CERCLA empowers Colorado to enforce federal standards, the lawsuit claims. Madison, the Fish and Wildlife Service historian, said the refuges are salvaging something valuable from ecological devastation. Cancer incidence in the communities near the arsenal was also monitored and found to be varied across location, gender, race and time, and have been determined to not be related to past Arsenal exposure or cleanup activities. Many projects have attempted to clean contaminated groundwater at the Arsenal. As cleanup progressed, the Army transferredmost of the land to the U.S. Feds light fires at Rocky Mountain Arsenal to restore prairie for multiplying bison and the visitors who flock there Prescribed fire is meant to invigorate about 875 acres of short-grass . Exchanging animals among smaller herds. Restrictions on well water use, residential development, consumption of fish and game from the arsenal, and agricultural use of the arsenal will exist in perpetuity until further scientific research is completed at the site. Another strong shock rumbled through the Denver area on November 14, 1966, causing some damage at Commerce City and Eastlake. But forty years ago, a series of quakes rocked the Denver area -- quakes caused not by Mother Nature, but by Uncle Sam. The Arsenal also played a role in Americas space exploration by manufacturing the rocket fuel used to power the Apollo 11 flights. The facility was built in 1942, in response to the outbreak of World War II in Europe. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal was created out of farmland on the eastern edge of metro Denver during World War II to arm the U.S. Army. In addition to the containment structures, the agreed-upon remedy directs that the entire area is subject to restrictions on land use in perpetuity, including residential development, agricultural use, any potable use of the groundwater, and any consumption of fish or game from the Arsenal. Conditions reports for this lake are available when logged in. Reunion is located on the north border of RMA. The manufacturing of these weapons continued until 1969. Despite yesterday's earthquake that hit the Trinidad region, "Colorado is considered a region of minor earthquake activity," according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The military closed the sites to keep people safe from the dangerous work that went on there, not to save the environment, said Havlick of the University of Colorado. That said, it would be better if they were cleaned up more thoroughly.. The magnitude 5.2 event caused widespread minor damage in the suburban areas of northeast Denver. CDPHE is asking the federal court to compel the Army to install or modify the existing treatment system to effectively prevent pollutants from contaminating groundwater, the lawsuit says. (6 of 9), TOURISM - Nearly 500,000 people annually visit the 15,000-acre Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge where they can see more than 330 species of animals including bison, deer, bald eagles and black-footed ferrets. Thousands of ducks died after coming in contact with its wastewater ponds in the 1950s. The Army needs to find a way to clean up the depleted uranium safely.. In September of that year, the Army began removing fluid from the Arsenal well at a very slow rate, in hope that earthquake activity would lessen. Fish and Wildlife Service inventoried more than 330 species of wildlife that inhabit the Arsenal including deer, coyotes, white pelicans and owls. Official websites use .gov Three criteria were es The Rocky Mountain Arsenal, a manufacturing center of United States chemical weapons, is located in Commerce City, Colorado. The 17,000-acre site is 10 miles northeast of Denver. In addition, the Rocky Mountain Arsenal had a POW camp for German soldiers, called Rose Hill. Several were felt, but none caused damage until the window breaker that surprised Dupont and Irondale on the night of December 4. The U.S. Army permanently manages. In September 2017, the state of Colorado filed a lawsuit to sue the United States government for the right to control the contaminated areas of the RMA. The cleanup of the refuge's 15,000 acres was completed in 2010. 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. The timeline below highlights important milestones from each decade. Legislators quickly moved from beneath chandeliers in the Denver Capitol Building, fearing they might fall. On May 21, 2011, the official visitor center for the refuge was opened with an exhibit about the site's history, ranging from the homesteading era to its current status. Join the Westword community and help support Soldiers test-fired millions of artillery rounds at the proving ground, some made of depleted uranium. 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