[CPEO-MEF] WWII dump on Mt. Evans cleaned up

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WWII dump on Mt. Evans cleaned up
Threat low, but feds happy to clear one site off books
By Steve Lipsher
Denver Post Mountain Bureau

Thursday, January 02, 2003 - It was always considered a dirty little
secret - a World War II Army dump just a few hundred yards from a picnic
area at one of the state's most popular tourist attractions.

But this fall, in what would be considered a minor task but a major
success for a financially strapped federal program, crews cleaned up a
few tons of junk, contaminated soil and even an asbestos-laden stove
from a site near Echo Lake on Mount Evans.

"It was a real win-win in terms of having all the agencies agree to it
... and getting it cleaned up," said Ed LaRock, an environmental
protection specialist for the state Department of Public Health and
Environment.

The site was a dump for the Buckley Field Arctic Training Center, a
short-lived camp set up in the early 1940s to give high-elevation winter
experiences to soldiers and members of the Army Air Corps.

Although the site was not nearly as threatening to human welfare as some
of the 93 other spots in Colorado that fall under the Army's Formerly
Used Defense Sites program, officials said it is important to close the
easy cases while addressing the serious ones.

"This was more of a nuisance and an eyesore. But it's nice to close out
some of the simple ones and get them off the books," LaRock said.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E1084592%257E,00.html

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