Rocky Mountain Arsenal | David T. Hanson

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Denver is an especially revealing example of the “creative,” cost-effective solutions that the new “green” military is finding for the enormous cleanups it faces. The manufacture and subsequent demilitarizing and disposing of mustard gas, nerve gas, other chemical weapons, and conventional munitions (in addition to major pesticide manufacturing and disposal) extensively contaminated the Arsenal, which was often labeled “the most polluted site on Earth.” In 1992, Congress officially designated the area as the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. The Arsenal has used its new status for strategic public relations effect, including tours for grade-school children bused in from the Denver area to experience firsthand this “historic native grasslands and wildlife refuge.”