The U.S. Army is taking public comment through the end of the month on its plans to clean up five former munition disposal sites at Tooele Army Depot.
The plans call for remediation at five spots, located in and around the depot’s boundaries, with significant contamination from leftover munitions, the result of previous missions where hazardous materials were released.
All told, there were originally 57 sites identified as being in need of remediation by investigations from the late 1970s to mid-1990s. In 1991, the Army was required to clean up 40 of those sites; the remaining 17 were handled and investigated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, better known as Superfund.
More than 600 acres will be affected by the Army’s cleanup effort on the five sites, which include former munition burn pits, deactivation furnaces and open burn sites. The locations were used to dispose of everything from mortars, rockets and bombs to furnace ash, small arms and bullets.
According to the Army’s proposed clean-up plan, some of the sites are being used for cattle grazing or could be used as the future home of renewable energy installations like the solar panels and windmills currently on site.
Measures under review to mitigate the impact of the munition disposal include land use controls, such as educational awareness, prohibiting future residential development and perimeter fencing at the former burn pits. The Army is also looking to use metal detectors and visual inspection to remove munitions left behind at the various sites.
For contamination below the surface, the proposal calls for removing all surface and subsurface soil to a depth of one foot where appropriate.
There will be a public meeting on the remediation proposal on March 15 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Utah State University – Tooele Regional Campus, 1021 W. Vine Street in Tooele City.