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USFWS Historic Lindsay Ranch Rocky Flats: Wind and solar appear a better, safer, use of the site.

From The Colorado Independent
“Groups file legal action to halt looming construction at Rocky Flats by Kelsey Ray
May 31, 2017 Environment/Energy
Denver community and environmental groups today took legal action to block the construction of hiking, biking and equestrian trails and a visitor center at Rocky Flats, the former nuclear weapons plant about 15 miles northwest of Denver.

The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center and Rocky Flats Right to Know, among other groups, filed a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court in Denver, alleging that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not complete an up-to-date environmental analysis required under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA. The last environmental review was conducted more than 12 years ago. The groups filed a lawsuit on the matter in May 17.

Plaintiffs argue that both plutonium contaminants and radiation pose threats to human health, making the area unsafe for visitors, particularly children. The injunction would halt construction scheduled for June.

“What the public does not know can hurt us and our children,” said Bonnie Graham-Reed at a press conference this morning in Denver. Graham-Reed is a co-founder of plaintiff organization Rocky Flats Right to Know. She added, “That’s why a thorough environmental analysis is so important.”

Rocky Flats manufactured plutonium components for nuclear weapons for nearly 50 years beginning in 1953. In 1989, the FBI raided the facility and found operators in violation of environmental laws. The plant shut down and never reopened.

After more than a decade of cleanup, during which it was classified as an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site, Rocky Flats was established as a national wildlife refuge in 2007.

“The lack of a thorough environmental analysis allows expert opinions about risks from the site to be swept under the rug,” Jon Lipsky, a former FBI Special Agent who led the raid that shut down the plant, said at today’s press conference. Lipsky has been involved in the fight to inform the public about Rocky Flats for years.

An independent, on-site soil analysis is necessary he said. The Department of Energy currently oversees the science and research of Rocky Flats.

Randall Weiner, a Boulder-based attorney called for federal agencies to “complete mandatory environmental analyses before construction can legally begin.”

Parts of Rocky Flats are on the Superfund list of the nation’s most polluted sites. The EPA, Colorado Fish and Wildlife and the Colorado Department of Health have declared the site safe.

But critics in groups such as Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice, many of whom are career scientists in various fields, say that radioactive and toxic materials continue to contaminate soils and sediments. They base this allegation on two federal court rulings, one in 2012 and one in 2015, that confirmed prior plutonium contamination had migrated beyond the area of the actual plant and into the area of the proposed refuge.

They also cite a 2006 report from the Department of Energy, which confirms that contaminated areas are covered with little more than dirt, which is easily moved by wind and burrowing animals. They complain that their questions about the accuracy of past plutonium sampling remain unanswered.

Those critics also note the low cost and short timeframe of the cleanup as partial evidence of its inadequacy: Original estimates anticipated that the process would take 65 years and cost $37 billion, but the total cost of cleanup, which ended up taking fewer than 20 years, was just $7.7 billion.

Weiner has said that the agency is “virtually thumbing its nose at its obligations to consider the risks its plans pose to the public.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Colorado office did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
 
Like this story? Steal it! Feel free to republish it in part or in full, just please give credit to The Colorado Independent and add a link to the original. Emphasis our own. Original here: http://www.coloradoindependent.com/165691/groups-file-legal-action-to-halt-looming-construction-at-rocky-flats

A suspicious mind must wonder if the bags provided to New Orleans, to plug the levee, by the Rocky Flats clean-up contractor were really filled with sand:
“… Jerry Long, Kaiser-Hill vice president and native of the New Orleans area recognized that robust bags used ship radioactive soil would be highly effective in closing the levee breach. The corps emergency operations center agreed with Long’s idea and requested that as many bags as possible be shipped to New Orleans. Over the last week, Kaiser-Hill, working with the Lift-Liner TM Vendor, MHF Logistical Solutions, sent more than 2,400 giant fabric bags to the Army Corps of Engineers to use as sandbags to close breaches in several New Orleans levees. The corps loaded each bag with up to 16,000 pounds of sand, then used helicopters to lower them into the breached section of the levee to help stop the flow of water into the city.
[…]
Kaiser-Hill, a CH2M HILL company and contractor responsible for cleaning up the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant west of Denver… Headquartered in Denver, employee-owned CH2M HILL is a global firm providing engineering, construction, operations, and related technical services to public and private clients…” “Kaiser-Hill Statement Regarding Use of Lift Liner Package System to Repair New Orleans Levees” 08 Sep, 2005, 01:00 ET from CH2M HILL Entire press release here: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kaiser-hill-statement-regarding-use-of-lift-liner-package-system-to-repair-new-orleans-levees-54826022.html (Emphssis our own.)


Colorado State Department of Public Health. Rocky Flats Plutonium fire 1957 via wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_contamination_from_the_Rocky_Flats_Plant