Officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers met with Laramie County Commissioners Tuesday to discuss their plans to cleanup groundwater at a former nuclear missile site.

Omaha District Corps of Engineers Branch Chief Drew Reckmeyer says testing has revealed a large plume of Trichloroethylene (TCE) in the aquifer near Atlas Site 3, approximately 17 miles east of Cheyenne.  Missileers used TCE to clean Atlas D Missiles at the site from 1959 to 1961.

Reckmeyer says the corps' two-phased plan to cleanup the groundwater consists of injecting bacteria to break down the TCE and then setting up a barrier to stop the plume from flowing east.

"There are residents about a mile or two further east from that and we do have concerns with that that we want to monitor to make sure that it won't get to their wells."

Reckmeyer says the cleanup is estimated to take over 200 years and cost over $26 million. The Corps of Engineers hopes to begin phase one of the project next spring.

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