July 2007
Sixteen miles northwest of Denver,
the site where once the trigger mechanisms for nearly every nuclear weapon
in the United States were made, has become the country's newest wildlife
refuge.
The U.S. Department of Energy, DOE, transferred nearly 4,000 acres of its
former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production site to the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service Thursday. The transfer creates the Rocky Flats National
Wildlife Refuge.
Over the warnings of some citizens groups, public access will be allowed
to large portions of the site.
Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management James Rispoli
said, "We are proud to transfer this space to the U.S. Department of
Interior and we will continue with plans to complete environmental cleanup
work at five more sites across the country by 2009."
From 1951 until 1989 the Rocky Flats Plant manufactured the triggers and
in the process released radiological and hazardous material contamination,
including plutonium, uranium, beryllium and hazardous chemical compounds,
into the air, ground and water surrounding the plant.
After more than a decade of environmental cleanup work, in 2005, DOE
certified the environmental cleanup work at the former Rocky Flats site
complete.
The Energy Department says environmental cleanup of the site cost $7
billion. It was finished more than 50 years ahead of initial forecasts and
for nearly $30 billion less than estimated in 1994.
The Rocky Flats site encompasses approximately 6,200 acres of high prairie
that has been closed to the public for more than 50 years.
During production and cleanup, a 5,800 acre buffer zone surrounded the 400
acre industrial area where the trigger mechanisms were manufactured.
"With the transfer of nearly 4,000 acres from the Department of Energy,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will establish the Rocky Flats National
Wildlife Refuge in order to conserve the rare and unique tallgrass prairie
found along Colorado's Front Range," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Director Dale Hall. "As intended by Congress, the refuge will preserve a
lasting wildlife and habitat legacy for future generations."
Habitat conservation will include management of xeric tallgrass and native
plant communities, as well as weed control, removal and revegetation of
unused roads and stream crossings, management of deer and elk populations
and black-tailed prairie dog colonies, and protection of habitat for the
Preble's meadow jumping mouse, a species listed as threatened under the
federal Endangered Species Act.
Visitor use facilities will eventually include 16 miles of trails, a
seasonally-staffed visitor contact station, trailheads with parking, and
developed overlooks. Most of the trails will use existing roads, and
public access will be by foot, bicycle, horse or car.
Under the refuge conservation plan, the Service will develop a limited
public hunting program. A study done in 2004 of radioactivity in deer on
the Rocky Flats site by scientists with the Service found "minimal human
risk" from eating the meat of deer shot at the site.
"The maximum calculated risk level in this study is at the low end of the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's acceptable risk range," the study
found.
In May, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency completed regulatory
certification and released the lands for unrestricted use as a National
Wildlife Refuge.
The Energy Department will retain 1,300 acres in the center of the site
for long-term surveillance and maintenance. This area is protected by
physical and institutional controls and contains surface and groundwater
monitoring equipment, four groundwater treatment systems, and two closed
landfills.
Many Coloradans are not satisfied that Rocky Flats is safe enough for
public access. The Rocky Flats site is "still extensively contaminated
with plutonium and other toxins from decades of nuclear bomb-making,"
wrote LeRoy Moore, PhD, founder of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice
Center, on July 5.
In an article published on the website of the Colorado Coalition for the
Prevention of Nuclear War, Moore wrote, "There are many reasons to be
skeptical of claims that Rocky Flats is 'safe' for public use. Under the
minimal standards the government set for cleaning the site, significant
quantities of plutonium and other toxins have been left in the
environment. With a half-life of 24,400 years, plutonium remains
dangerously radioactive for eons; even minuscule particles taken into the
body may result in cancer, harm to the immune system, or genetic
abnormalities."
Moore warns that the plutonium still left at Rocky Flats could migrate and
that cleanup standards were were "based on computer modeling rather than
direct observation" and "differ strikingly from actual documentation of
significant plutonium migration at other sites and even at Rocky Flats in
the exceedingly wet spring of 1995."
Wildlife ecologist Dr. Shawn Smallwood, in his 1996 study, demonstrated
how 18 species of burrowing animals redistribute contaminants left in the
soil at Rocky Flats, and he also discovered substantial intrusion of waste
structures by burrowing animals.
Pocket gophers, harvester ants, and prairie dogs all burrow to depths of
10 to 16 feet and disturb large areas on the surface, while coyotes,
badgers, rabbits, and other animals also move soil.
"Those who set the legally binding cleanup standards for the site ignored
Smallwood's findings, and relied instead on claims from an earlier study
that plutonium in Rocky Flats' soil had "weathered in" and thus was stable
in the environment," wrote Moore.
The Rocky Flats Citizens Advisory Board, which shut down in 2006 after 13
years of involvement, warned in its closing statement that "Water quality
will be a significant measure of the site's cleanup."
Water quality problems have occurred at Rocky Flats during periods of
increased precipitation and run-off, the Board warned. Although surface
water quality as its leaves the site has always remained below regulatory
limits, there have been some instances, as recent as 2005, where onsite
water quality has exceeded state standards for plutonium, uranium, and
americium.
The Board says that because "there is some residual contamination left at
the site," it is very important that the Department of Energy develop
"readily accessible and easy-to-understand information that describes this
contamination and explains its risk."
"Although this information can be found in the thousands of pages of
written information documenting the cleanup, the Board believes it needs
to be condensed and presented in a better manner."
The information should provide simple maps, diagrams and other graphic
materials that show where contamination exists. It also is important that
this information include an easily understood description of the inherent
risk.
While general public interest in Rocky Flats is likely to diminish over
time now that the cleanup is complete, community members still need to be
provided opportunities to receive information and ask questions, the Board
advises.
"Are the cleanup remedies such as the landfill caps and the groundwater
treatment units functioning as intended? Are water quality standards being
met? the Board asked. "These and other questions must remain a part of the
community's interest in the site."
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