A visit to Rocky Flats carries little risk, much benefit
Want to delay something indefinitely? Demand more studies. Dismiss previous findings. Disparage scientific consensus. When all else fails, sue. That’s the delay playbook and opponents of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge are using it to delay the September opening of the park to the public. That’s a shame because the health risk of visiting the refuge is low and the benefits are high.
Rocky Flats was the infamous Cold War manufacturer of nuclear bomb triggers. Three and a half decades of sometimes negligent operation left the 1,308-acre core site contaminated. In 2005, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), with oversight from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the Environmental Protection Agency, completed a $7 billion 10-year cleanup operation. Fortunately, the approximately 4,000 acre buffer zone around the core site did not require remediation because radiation levels were so low. The DOE-retained core site remains closed to the public while the buffer zone, determined safe for public access by multiple agencies, is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a wildlife refuge.
“Rocky Flats is one of the most studied pieces of land on the planet,” Lindsay Masters, Rocky Flats Project Manager at CDPHE told me. “During the cleanup there were approximately 7,230 surface soil samples, 15,890 subsurface soil samples as well as air samples, and thousands of water samples taken to produce millions of data points. All of the cleanup data and administrative records are available to the public. That gives me confidence.” All of those data points point to one conclusion: the refuge should be open to the public.
Let’s examine the risk. If an adult picnicked 100 times a year in the area of the refuge with the greatest risk of exposure to residual plutonium, he or she would receive .07 millirems (mrems) of radiation. Picnicking children would absorb .2 mrems. Sounds troubling but that’s the radiation equivalent of eating seven to 20 bananas over the course of a year.
Radiation exposure to the human body is measured in rems and millirems (one thousandth of a rem). A typical person receives a dose of 620 mrems annually from normal radiation in the environment such as omnipresent radon gas, cosmic rays, and other sources. Certain activities increase exposure. A flight from New York to Los Angeles at 35,000 feet exposes the body to 12 mrems thanks to cosmic rays. Foods like bananas, lima beans, and beer contain minute traces of radioactivity. A banana has .01 mrems of radioactive potassium. The average beer drinker absorbs .3 mrems a year from his brew.
Even manmade radioactive treatments don’t pack much of a punch; an x-ray delivers 10 mrems and a full body CT scan 1,000 mrems. That’s because the human body can withstand a fair amount of radiation. The dose at which radioactivity produces a cancer risk is 10,000 mrems.
While the risk of visiting Rocky Flats is slight, the benefits to the public are considerable. The refuge is a permanent or seasonal home to 239 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. During my visit I saw a doe with three fawns. Multiple births in deer are a sign of a heathy ecosystem. Also, the refuge has a staggering 630 plant species. In a field of milkweed flowers, we spotted monarch caterpillars. Few other places offer the range of prairie flora and fauna in the Denver metro area.
The refuge plays an important role in the conservation of native species. Most national parkland supports multiple uses from recreation (skiing, hiking, hunting) to resource development (grazing, logging, mining) to wildlife preservation. Refuges focus specifically on restoration and conservation of native habitats and wildlife-centered recreation such as hiking, horseback riding, biking, and fishing. Rocky Flats’ visitor center will provide the public information about the native ecosystem and trails will enable visitors to experience it. Like the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, another cleanup success, the refuge will likely become a popular place to enjoy nature.
It’s time to end the delays and open the doors to the refuge. Those who remain uncomfortable can visit other parks. But no bananas for you.