Rocky Mountain Arsenal
Encyclopedia
Commerce City, Colorado
The city of Commerce City is a Home Rule Municipality located in Adams County, Colorado, United States. Commerce City is a northern suburb of Denver and now the 18th most populous municipality in the state of Colorado...
, Colorado. The site was operated by the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
throughout the later 20th century and was controversial among local residents until its closure in 1992.
According to an Army account of the history of the site, the 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. It was also helpful that the location was close to Stapleton airfield, a major transportation hub.
In 1942, the U.S. Army acquired 19,915 acres (80.59 km²) of land on which to manufacture weapons in support of World War II military activities at a cost of $62,415,000. Additionally, some of this land was used for a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
camp (for German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
combatant
Combatant
A combatant is someone who takes a direct part in the hostilities of an armed conflict. If a combatant follows the law of war, then they are considered a privileged combatant, and upon capture they qualify as a prisoner of war under the Third Geneva Convention...
s) and later transferred to the city of Denver
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
as Stapleton Airport expanded.
Manufacturing Operations
Napalm
Napalm is a thickening/gelling agent generally mixed with gasoline or a similar fuel for use in an incendiary device, primarily as an anti-personnel weapon...
, and mustard gas. RMA is also one of the few sites that had a stockpile of Sarin
Sarin
Sarin, or GB, is an organophosphorus compound with the formula [2CHO]CH3PF. It is a colorless, odorless liquid, which is used as a chemical weapon. It has been classified as a weapon of mass destruction in UN Resolution 687...
gas (aka nerve agent GB), an organophosphorus compound, and one of the most toxic substances ever created in a lab. The manufacture of these weapons continued until 1969. Rocket fuel to support Air Force operations was also manufactured and stored at RMA. Subsequently, through the 1970s until 1985, RMA was used as a demilitarization site to destroy munitions and chemically related items. Coinciding with these activities, from 1946 to 1982, the Army leased RMA facilities to private industries for the production of pesticide
Pesticide
Pesticides are substances or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling or mitigating any pest.A pesticide may be a chemical unicycle, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest...
s. One of the major lessees, Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company is the United States-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, a multinational oil company of Anglo Dutch origins, which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 22,000 Shell employees are based in the U.S. The head office in the U.S. is in Houston, Texas...
, along with Julius Hyman and Company and Colorado Fuel and Iron
Colorado Fuel and Iron
The Colorado Fuel and Iron Company was a large steel concern. By 1903, it was largely owned and controlled by John D. Rockefeller and Jay Gould's financial heirs. While it came to control many plants throughout the country, its main plant was a steel mill on the south side of Pueblo, Colorado...
, had manufacturing and processing capabilities on RMA between 1952 and 1982. The military reserved the right to oust these companies and re-start chemical weapon production in the event of a national emergency.
Deep Injection Well
RMA contained a deep injection wellWater well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
that was constructed in 1961. It was drilled to a depth of 12,045 feet (3671 m). The well was cased and sealed to a depth of 11,975 feet (3650 m), with the remaining 70 feet (21 m) left as an open hole for the injection of Basin F
Basin F
Basin F was constructed by the United States Army in 1956 at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, to provide for the disposal of contaminated liquid wastes from the chemical manufacturing operations of the Army and its lessee Shell Chemical Company....
liquids. For testing purposes, the well was injected with approximately 568,000 US gallon
Gallon
The gallon is a measure of volume. Historically it has had many different definitions, but there are three definitions in current use: the imperial gallon which is used in the United Kingdom and semi-officially within Canada, the United States liquid gallon and the lesser used United States dry...
s (2150 m³) of city water prior to injecting any waste. The injected fluids had very little potential for reaching the surface or usable groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
supply since the injection point had 11,900 feet (3630 m) of rock above it and was sealed at the opening. The Army discontinued use of the well in February 1966 because the fluid injection may have triggered a series of earthquakes in the area. The well remained unused until 1985 when the Army permanently sealed the disposal well.
Environmental Issues
Superfund
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
. In 1987, the RMA was placed on the National Priorities List
National Priorities List
The National Priorities List is the list of hazardous waste sites in the United States eligible for long-term remedial action financed under the federal Superfund program. Environmental Protection Agency regulations outline a formal process for assessing hazardous waste sites and placing them on...
(NPL) of Superfund sites. As provided by CERCLA, a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study (RI/FS) was conducted to determine the extent of contamination. Since 1985, the mission at RMA has been the remediation of the site.
Contaminants
The primary contaminants include organochlorideOrganochloride
An organochloride, organochlorine, chlorocarbon, chlorinated hydrocarbon, or chlorinated solvent is an organic compound containing at least one covalently bonded chlorine atom. Their wide structural variety and divergent chemical properties lead to a broad range of applications...
pesticides, organophosphate
Organophosphate
An organophosphate is the general name for esters of phosphoric acid. Phosphates are probably the most pervasive organophosphorus compounds. Many of the most important biochemicals are organophosphates, including DNA and RNA as well as many cofactors that are essential for life...
pesticides, carbamate
Carbamate
Carbamates are organic compounds derived from carbamic acid . A carbamate group, carbamate ester, and carbamic acids are functional groups that are inter-related structurally and often are interconverted chemically. Carbamate esters are also called urethanes.-Synthesis:Carbamic acids are derived...
insecticides, organic solvents and feedstock chemicals used as raw products or intermediates in the manufacturing process (e.g., chlorinated benzenes), heavy metals, and chemical warfare material and their related breakdown products. Additionally, ordnance
Ammunition
Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...
(including incendiary munitions) was manufactured and tested, and asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were used at RMA.
Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR Act
In 1986 it was discovered that the absence of human activity had made the area an involuntary parkInvoluntary park
Involuntary park is a neologism coined by science fiction author and environmentalist Bruce Sterling to describe previously inhabited areas that for environmental, economic or political reasons have, in Sterling's words, "lost their value for technological instrumentalism" and been allowed to...
when a winter communal roost of bald eagle
Bald Eagle
The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...
s, then an endangered species
Endangered species
An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...
, was discovered on site. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service soon realized that more than 330 species of wildlife
Wildlife
Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
inhabit the Arsenal including deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
, coyote
Coyote
The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...
s, white pelican
White Pelican
The Great White Pelican, Pelecanus onocrotalus also known as the Eastern White Pelican or White Pelican is a bird in the pelican family...
s and owl
Owl
Owls are a group of birds that belong to the order Strigiformes, constituting 200 bird of prey species. Most are solitary and nocturnal, with some exceptions . Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish...
s.
The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge
Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge
The Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge is a United States National Wildlife Refuge located adjacent to Commerce City, Colorado, approximately northeast of downtown Denver...
Act was passed in October 1992 and signed by then President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
. It stipulates that the majority of the site will become a National Wildlife Refuge
National Wildlife Refuge
National Wildlife Refuge is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the world's premiere system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants...
under the jurisdiction of the Fish and Wildlife Service when the environmental restoration is completed. The Act also provides that to the extent possible, parts of the Arsenal are to be managed as a Refuge in the interim. Finally, the Act provides for the transfer of some Arsenal land for road expansion around the perimeter of the Arsenal and 915 acres (3.70 km²) to be sold for development and annexation by Commerce City.
Developments Since 2004
Although comprising 17,056 acres (69.02 km²) at the beginning of remediation in 1997, 5,976 acres (24.18 km²) of the RMA have been determined to meet cleanup requirements and are no longer part of the National Priorities List. Of that, approximately 4,927 acres (19.94 km²) were transferred by the Department of Army to the USFWS in April 2004 and another 917 acres (3.71 km²), located in the southwest corner of the site, were sold to Commerce City in June 2004. Also, in 2004, approximately 129 acres (0.52 km²), located at the boundaries, were transferred to local jurisdictions and to the U.S. Army Reserve Center for road improvement projects. An additional 7200 acres (29.1 km²) was transferred to the USFWS in October 2006, making the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge one of the largest urban refuges in the United States. The refuge currently comprises 12500 acres (50.6 km²) and is home to more than 330 species of animals. Implementation of the remedy for the estimated 11,080 acres (44.84 km²) remaining is ongoing and is scheduled for completion in 2011.Public Use
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). This public availability will be implemented while simultaneously supporting the remediation effort and the USFWS activities.Dick's Sporting Goods Park
In April 2007 Dick's Sporting Goods Park, a soccer-specific stadiumSoccer-specific stadium
Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States, Canada, Australia and South Korea coined by Lamar Hunt, to refer to a sports stadium either purpose built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multipurpose...
, was opened on part of the former Rocky Mountain Arsenal land that was transferred to Commerce City. The new venue hosts the Colorado Rapids
Colorado Rapids
The Colorado Rapids are an American professional soccer club based in the Denver suburb of Commerce City, Colorado which competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having competed in the league...
of Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...
.
Bison
A small herd of wild bisonBison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
were introduced to the refuge in March 2007 as part of the USFWS Bison Project. The animals were transferred from the National Bison Range
National Bison Range
The National Bison Range is a National Wildlife Refuge located in western Montana established in 1908 to provide a sanctuary for the American bison. The NBR is one of the oldest National Wildlife Refuges in the United States. The size of the bison herd at the NBR is relatively small, numbering...
in Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
http://www.pmrma.army.mil/involve/PressReleases07/RMABison.html.
External links
- Rocky Mountain Arsenal
- http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA288453&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf
- Rocky Mountain Arsenal History
- The Rocky Mountain Arsenal: States' Rights and the Cleanup of Hazardous Waste
- An Assessment of One of the Largest & Most Studied Superfund Sites in the Country: The Rocky Mountain Arsenal (pdf)