Framing a concern
Jeffco’s health chief says Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge should stay closed until “truly independent” assessment proves that it’s safe
Jefferson County’s public health chief on Thursday declared that the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge should stay closed to the public for lack of a “truly independent” assessment of potentially lethal plutonium contamination both on and off the federal property.
Dr. Mark Johnson’s declaration — made in federal court to back a request by environment groups for a judicial order blocking the scheduled opening this summer — intensifies the recent flaring of mistrust around cleanup of the nation’s Cold War nuclear sites. It is rooted in decades of obfuscation and secrecy that have come back to haunt the government as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service labors to begin a new chapter.
Johnson also elaborated on his concerns in a Denver Post interview, saying he wouldn’t buy a house or raise children in developments adjacent to the 6,500-acre refuge, where a 1,300-acre fenced core contains buried waste that Department of Energy employees monitor daily.
During the Cold War, workers at Rocky Flats produced plutonium triggers for thousands of nuclear weapons that the United States wielded to deter the Soviet Union. They also produced horrific waste, with plutonium levels in some buildings deemed “infinity” because they were too high to measure. Plant operators apparently burned and dumped waste at the site.
“How well did we really characterize what has gone on out there?” Johnson said, emphasizing he has pored over research and data, and he feels “responsible for the health of the whole county.”
He worked as a medical expert for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and contractors dealing with the Rocky Flats mess.
“I began my job in the 1990s, right when they were figuring out how they were going to clean this up. My sense was that much of the staff of the state health department were truly not experts on radiation and its health effects. And my sense was that the U.S. Department of Energy and the contractors were trying to cover up, as much as they could, what went on out there,” Johnson said. “So my level of trust has always been not the greatest. I know they hired people to go out and review everything, but it was all paid for by the Department of Energy, and I never felt like I could trust the Department of Energy.”
The Superfund cleanup done for the $7.7 billion that Congress provided, rather than the $37 billion contractors said proper cleanup would cost, “seems too convenient for me,” Johnson said.
“I would really like to have somebody totally independent — somebody that Congress has oversight of instead of the DOE — to look at all the data that has been collected,” he said.
Johnson said his predecessor in the county health agency followed soil sampling protocols “that always showed more plutonium than the federal investigations found.”
Housing developers repeatedly have assured residents that homes near Rocky Flats are safe. The latest of four federal site reviews concluded the cleanup restored the site to a condition fully protective of human and environmental health. Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator Doug Benevento, who worked for nearly a decade as the CDPHE’s chief during cleanup, recently pronounced that the refuge is “safe for everyone, … suitable for unlimited use and unrestricted exposure.”
But Johnson held his ground.
“I would not want my grandchildren to grow up near there,” he said. “I don’t think we know whether it is safe for kids to play there.
“If I were king of the world, I would have independent experts come in who really knew what they were doing and then tell us whether it is safe to have kids hiking on Rocky Flats and whether it is safe to put in new housing and shopping centers and schools.”
This is happening as activist groups ramp up their campaign against allowing public recreation at Rocky Flats, asking U.S. District Court Senior Judge Robert Blackburn on Thursday to issue an injunction stopping the opening of the refuge. Blackburn will consider a signed declaration by Johnson in making a decision.
Dogged opposition by the Boulderbased Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center and other groups is delaying the project that federal wildlife biologists have been working on for more than a decade, to convert one of the nation’s murkiest sites into an environmental asset. The work is similar to that done at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, north of Denver and a site where the U.S. Army made chemical weapons and Shell produced pesticides.
Rocky Flats refuge cre ators purchased land to ensure a link to mountain foothills, crucial for wildlife migration. Plans for improving Colorado 93 west of the refuge include bridges for animals to cross.
Elk living on the refuge have multiplied to about 180, refuge manager Dave Lucas said.
“We have moose on there. There’s a bear out there now. A mountain lion. I saw a bobcat two weeks ago. Obviously coyotes and mule deer. All sorts of reptiles. Native pollinators. Migratory birds. And there are over 630 species of plants,” Lucas said. “This is vast biodiversity.
“The secondary value of these places is as a reminder of history, lessons learned and how we can turn a problem into something great for the future. That is something we need to teach — again and again as a society. Yeah, we made mistakes. But we fixed those. And the only way to do that is to come out here and witness it.”
The central offlimits core area at the refuge, behind a “wildlifepermeable” fence marked with warning signs, will remain the responsibility of the DOE under the under the Rocky Flats Legacy Management Agreement, Lucas said.
Last month, the environmental activists and an exFBI agent launched their legal challenge in federal court, arguing in a federal court filing that recreational hikers and bikers could inhale deadly plutonium particles and that the government skipped a required investigation.
Groups opposed to using the Rocky Flats for recreation in April enlisted leaders in seven school districts to ban or require special permission for children to go there on field trips.
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment officials recently reiterated their assessment that Rocky Flats, on windwhipped grasslands 16 miles northwest of Denver, no longer contains plutonium at dangerous levels. The CDPHE and EPA oversaw cleanup after FBI raids in 1989 exposed mismanagement and violations of environmental laws.
But soil samples apparently haven’t been taken for more than 10 years, according to federal officials. And attorney Randall Weiner is pressing for stricter scrutiny.
“If granted, an injunction will keep the refuge closed until the court takes a close look at our allegations,” Weiner said. “The federal government has failed to look at the riskiest aspect of opening this refuge — putting public trails on top of unremediated plutonium. Human health and safety is at risk.”