Army to help pay $35M arsenal cleanup (xpost from Veterans)

[unhappycamper]

Army to help pay $35M arsenal cleanup
By Ivan Moreno - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday May 30, 2008 6:32:57 EDT

DENVER — Colorado will get $35 million to help clean up and restore a former nerve gas and chemical manufacturing site near Denver that had been deemed one of the most polluted in the country.

Shell Oil, which made pesticides and other chemicals at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, will provide $21 million in cash and land under an agreement announced Thursday to settle a 25-year-old state lawsuit. The Army and the federal government are providing the rest.

A federal court must approve the deal, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said.

“The settlement was 25 years in the making but we believe that it was very much worth the wait,” Gov. Bill Ritter said.

The Army manufactured chemical weapons at the 27-square-mile site northeast of Denver starting in 1942. Shell leased part of the land and produced chemicals there until 1982. Cleanup began in 1985.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/ap_arsenalclean_052908/