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+--- Thread: News - Denver's Rattled Residents Rebound (/showthread.php?tid=126)
News - Denver's Rattled Residents Rebound - Joey - 06-21-2013
This Friday morning a series of earthquakes, placed by the United States Geological Survey as between 2.5 at their lowest and 4.4-magnitude at their highest, rocked the Denver area during the predawn hours between 4:30 and 5:30 AM. The Front Range Urban Corridor and Foothills felt the brunt of the disturbance, also serving as the epicenter of whatever activity that created the quakes. Nuclear plants as far as Washington, Arizona, Kansas and Nebraska were temporarily shut down as a precautionary measure.
Various news outlets go about describing the shuffling of furniture, negligible destruction of private and public property, and cracks in foundations of some smaller buildings leading to evacuations before the all-clear is given by civil engineers and inspectors. They interview residents as to the effects of the eathquake on their daily life, including the early morning commuter crowd and the late night revelers who experienced the quake on their way home when public transportation services were temporarily suspended.
As the day winds down, a number of outlets eager to cash in on the last easy headlines and aftermath stories note that some of Denver's older residents may remember the series of earthquakes that struck the city between 1962 and 1968. With almost 700 quakes of varying magnitude (some going unnoticed to all but seismologists, others violently emptying supermarket shelves), this seismic activity was largely blamed on the two mile deep injection well used to dispose over a million gallons of municipal water and chemical weapons manufacturing waste at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Scientists concluded that the compounds in the water actually lubricated a fault line and caused the quakes.
The well's use was discontinued in February of 1966 and later sealed by the United States Army in 1985. Years following the arrival of a roost of bald eagles brought federal protection over the abandoned facility, it was declared a United States National Wildlife Refuge in 1992 by then president George H. W. Bush.