What’s that boom? Tooele Army Depot conducting open detonations

TOOELE, Utah — Utah residents that feel the ground shake this week, officials say there is not need to worry. In line with what the Tooele Army Depot has done for decades, they’re actively conducting detonations from April 1 thru October 31.

“If it’s calm, then we’re going to feel it and hear it more, but if it’s really windy, it’s going to carry in the way of the wind,” said Daniel Wall, Wage Leader for Tooele Army Depot South Area Operations. “We always try to do everything we do safely, and the end goal is to support the warfighter and make space for their training munitions or live munitions.”

WATCH: Tooele Army Depot demilitarizes ammo produced for WWII troops

The Army Depot conducts detonations on explosives that are old, obsolete, damaged or otherwise found unsafe. They detonate these munitions to make way for safer storage of usable explosives for our soldiers.

“In order for us to keep our soldiers that fight for our freedoms safe, we try to make sure that we take these munitions that are expired and we destroy them,” said Micael Unrine, Production Controller for the Tooele Army Depot. “These munitions that we are detonating are expired just like food that we go buy at the grocery store has an expiration date, these munitions have an expiration date.”

Many reports from various communities in the Salt Lake Valley indicated that these ‘blasts’ were heard or felt, miles and miles away from the detonation site. The Tooele Army Depot conducts most of their open detonations in the South Area of their facility which is just south of Stockton.

“Depending on the wind direction and speed it’ll carry it farther or shorter depending on the weather of the day,” said Wall.

If weather is cooperating, TEAD will conduct a series of 14 detonations each day (Monday-Friday), around 11:15 a.m. Each blast is scheduled one minute apart.