Loud booms heard along Wasatch Front are munitions detonations, pose no threat
Sep 19, 2024, 12:51 PM | Updated: 7:02 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — Loud booms that were heard across the Wasatch Front were planned detonations from the Tooele Army Depot, officials confirmed.
On Thursday, several residents across the Wasatch Front from Farmington to Draper called KSL TV and KSL NewsRadio about hearing and feeling booms.
— S_Sligt (@ScottSligting) September 19, 2024
Salt Lake County officials confirmed it was from the Tooele Army Depot, which was disposing of old and unstable munitions from the Department of Defense in Rush Valley.
“Tooele Army Depot is given the mission to demilitarize old and unstable munitions for the Department of Defense. It’s a mission that we’ve done here since World War II, every year,” said Col. Luke R. Clover.
However, several residents were in disbelief about it being miles away from their homes as they felt the booms from in their homes.
“We’re all curious about what it would be. And we’re thinking, you know, are they doing demolition somewhere?” said Sandy resident Scott Sligting.
took this video of it! pic.twitter.com/hM3k8jLkAm
— caleb (@calebsmaughan) September 19, 2024
Clover said the recent weather changes were the reason people so far from the explosions could hear and feel the booms.
“With the recent moisture we’ve had from all the rain, that, along with the limited cloud cover we had today, has propagated some of those detonation sounds further than they usually do go,” Clover said.
Clover said crews didn’t expect the booms to travel from Tooele County to Salt Lake County, and the Depot will work on warning residents about them.
“We want to definitely want to be good neighbors with the local community. And so we will reassess the conditions at which we do detonations to minimize effects like this into the future,” he said.
I work at an elementary school in CH and while at recess, we heard the booms. Shortly before going into a temporary shelter in place, I recorded a few of the sounds. The kids were terrified – as were the staff! Wish we knew ahead of time. pic.twitter.com/O95PjwjV3y
— Siena (@FowlCrown) September 19, 2024
Eagle Mountain officials said the detonations are set to continue on weekdays through Oct. 31.
Tooele Army Depot released a statement Thursday afternoon that said there was no danger to the public.
We understand that the sounds and vibrations that were experienced today surprised people and were scary. We know that these types of things can be concerning to some people. It’s not something that they experience every day.
Tooele Army Depot is tasked with destroying the Nation’s old, obsolete, and unsafe munitions. We do that to ensure our Warfighters have the best tools to use when needed.
The operations we conducted today are something that we do every year and have done since WWII. We are permitted to conduct open detonations from April through October. We only conduct these operations when weather conditions are right to mitigate the sounds and shaking from the detonations. There was no danger to the public from these operations.
Today’s detonations were propagated further than normal because of the increased moisture in the ground and lack of cloud cover, which amplifies the effects of the detonations. We do our best to be good neighbors while also accomplishing our mission.
We have confirmed with Tooele Army Depot that they are performing detonations today and believe that to be the source. The detonations are part of TAD’s routine operations to dispose of expired military munitions.
The army depot conducts detonations typically from September…
— Salt Lake County Emergency Management (@SLCoEmerMngt) September 19, 2024
Contributing: Michael Houck, KSL TV
