Rocky Flats refuge won’t open until at least Sept. 15

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service won’t open trails at the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge until at least Sept. 15, according to court documents filed in a lawsuit pending against the agency.

The announcement was included in a response to a motion filed by a group trying to keep the refuge closed until a judge decides the merits of the case.

Before Monday’s filing, the fish and wildlife service had given a nebulous opening date as summer or late summer of 2018.

A coalition of groups filed the lawsuit against the fish and wildlife service in May, alleging that the agency hasn’t conducted required testing to prove that the refuge is safe for public visits. A federal judge tossed a similar suit last year.

The fish and wildlife service contends that the new lawsuit lacks any merit because the agency has met its legal obligations by “thoroughly analyzing the opening of the trails to the public on the refuge.” The agency also disputes plaintiff claims that the study it’s using as a basis for opening the refuge is “stale,” because it is more than five years old, documents show.

The fist and wildlife service also contends the site is safe for the public — it defers to studies by Environmental Protection Agency and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment — but activists continue to push for a new study.

The roughly 5,300-acre refuge surrounds the former Rocky Flats Plant where plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons were assembled for 40 years before the plant was raided by the FBI in 1989 and shut down a few years later.