DENVER—Years of major environmental cleanup work at Rocky Mountain Arsenal are finally over.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar attended a ceremony Friday marking the milestone. The arsenal has been turned into a wildlife refuge and Salazar and Hew Wolfe of the Army signed a document officially transferring 2,500 acres from the Army to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the refuge. The refuge now covers more than 15,000 acres.
The $2.1 billion cleanup of the former chemical weapons manufacturing site finished a year ahead of schedule.
After World War II, Shell Chemical Co. made pesticides and other chemicals there until 1982. It was later designated a Superfund site before Congress in 1992 declared that it be turned into a national wildlife refuge.
