DENVER—Workers at Rocky Mountain Arsenal have found an area of contaminated soil in a section of the property once used to dispose of hazardous waste.
The arsenal’s program manager, Charlie Scharmann, said Wednesday the discovery was made in late June in Basin F, an area where byproducts from the production of pesticides and chemical weapons were disposed.
The area is about a mile away from where another area of contaminated soil was discovered last fall. Waste was previously removed from Basin F and workers were installing a cover over it when the new contamination was discovered.
The cover was being installed to prevent any residual waste from being carried down into groundwater by rain and snow.
Scharmann said the contamination appears to be related to drainage system that carried waste to the basin. The contaminated area, which is about 600 feet long and the width of a sewer pipe, has been temporarily covered with six inches of clean soil.
Scharmann said officials must decide whether to remove the soil or extend the cap to cover the area. The arsenal’s two landfills are full so, if the soil is removed, it will have to be taken somewhere else.
The Army started manufacturing chemical weapons in 1942 at the 27-square-mile arsenal 11 miles northeast of downtown Denver.
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.
