Colorado should pursue a case against the U.S. Army and Shell Chemical Co. for harm caused by pollution from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Going to court may be the only way to compensate the state for real damages to its natural resources.
Located north of Denver, the 27 square-mile facility for years was known as the most polluted ground in America. Until 1980, the Army used the arsenal to make and store chemical weapons such as sarin and mustard gas while Shell used it to produce pesticides such as No-Pest strips and the now-banned DDT. For decades, chemicals and wastes were dumped into unlined pits and trenches, letting toxins ooze into soils and groundwater. When chemicals were found in drinking water wells of a nearby Adams County community, residents were given bottled water and warning signs were placed above school drinking fountains.
A $2.2 billion cleanup underway since 1996 is more of a containment project than a removal process, as most chemicals, munitions, etc., will be covered over or reburied in new waste dumps on the site. The Army and Shell also built structures to stop more toxins from seeping off the site. The project, now an $80 million-a-year effort, is to wrap up in 2011.
But it’s impossible to remove toxins that escaped into the groundwater before the safeguards were installed. These toxins are very dangerous in small quantities, so the polluted groundwater will remain unfit for human consumption for generations, depriving our water-hungry state of a precious resource. Studies also have found toxins in the arsenal’s hawks.
In 1983, then-state Attorney General Duane Woodard sued seven large polluters to compensate Colorado for damages to its natural resources. Six cases have been settled, but the one against Shell and the Army has languished for 22 years. (A Shell spokesman says the company can’t publicly discuss the suit at this time.)
So in December, Attorney General John Suthers will ask the legislature for $1 million to fund technical studies to bolster the state’s case. The Joint Budget Committee should say yes.
Shell and the Army have an obligation to compensate the state. Indeed, another Shell unit now is pursuing an oil shale project in northwest Colorado. Shell should have to pay up for its past mess before it can pursue another environmentally risky project.
