Wildlife Refuge At Arsenal Is Back Open

Jun 16, 2008 8:45 pm US/Mountain

DENVER (AP) — A wildlife refuge at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal has reopened to the public after a cleanup at a spot where a chemical weapon was detected last year.

Health and environment officials said that excavation work has been completed and groundwater monitoring wells have been installed in a restricted part of the arsenal once used to dispose of chemical agents. That area will remain closed to the public.

The Army started manufacturing chemical weapons in 1942 at the 27-square-mile arsenal 11 miles northeast of downtown Denver.

The part of the arsenal that is now a wildlife refuge was closed last October after a World War I-era chemical weapon called lewisite was detected by crews excavating a trench.

The area, called the Lime Basins, was designed to store wastewater from the production of chemical weapons, including lewisite. The wastewater was treated with lime to neutralize the chemical.

Construction of a protective cover over the site will mark the end of all the major excavation of contaminated soil at the arsenal. The Army will continue to manage the Lime Basins project. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages the refuge.

"We are pleased to have safely and successfully completed this phase of the project and look forward to the refuge reopening," said Army Program Manager Charlie Scharmann.

Shell Oil produced pesticides and other chemicals there until 1982. The arsenal became a Superfund site in 1987, and Congress decided to turn it into a national wildlife refuge in the 1990s.

More than 12,000 acres of the site have been removed from the Superfund site and turned into a wildlife refuge. The site is home to about 330 wildlife species, including deer and bald eagles.

Last week, the state, Army and Shell announced a $35 million settlement of a lawsuit over damages to wildlife, water and other natural resources at the arsenal. Birds and other wildlife have been affected by toxins at the site.

Besides detection of the lewisite, cleanup crews have found and disposed of bomblets, grapefruit-sized spheres, filled with sarin, a nerve gas.

The Army and Shell have spent $2.1 billion on cleanup so far.

Beginning June 14, the refuge will be open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for drop-in visitation and scheduled programs.