New Preserved Book: Rocky Mountain Arsenal Case Study
The Groundwater Project is committed to making essential groundwater knowledge accessible to a wide audience. One of its key initiatives is the preservation of important books that were originally published by other publishers more than a decade ago. These preserved books are republished because they continue to offer valuable educational insights or exemplary case studies that remain relevant today. By revisiting these works, we can learn from past challenges while informing modern water management strategies.The latest additions to the Preserved Books Collection include a case study from Rocky Mountain Arsenal (RMA) and examples of sustainable underground storage facilities.
The RMA investigation took place in 1991, when R.L. Stollar & Associates Inc. and researchers from the University of Waterloo investigated a highly contaminated groundwater plume at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal (RMA) near Denver, Colorado. Decades of chemical and incendiary weapons production by the U.S. Army, followed by pesticide manufacturing, left the site heavily polluted. By the mid-1970s, groundwater contamination was discovered beyond the base, affecting groundwater production wells, surface water, and even local agriculture.
One of the key findings of the study was that contaminants, despite their expected tendency to adhere to soil particles and thus migrate more slowly than groundwater, were moving at the same rate as groundwater. This unexpected phenomenon—facilitated transport—suggested that conditions within the very complex plume were reducing sorption, allowing chemicals to travel farther and faster than anticipated. These findings had significant implications for groundwater contamination modeling and cleanup strategies, demonstrating the value of investigations conducted in situ when dealing with complex contaminant plumes. The authors of the 1992 report are now working with others to expand upon discussions and analyses in that report, utilizing information not available at the time the report was written. When available, a link to that new information will be provided here.
