Who’s afraid of visiting Rocky Flats?

Re: “The Rocky Flats scare brigade gains a new general,” June 10 column

Vincent Carroll’s article on Rocky Flats should calm the fears about its use as a wildlife area.

I moved to Colorado in 1977 and visited Rocky Flats to see if my new company could do some work there. When returning to our office I jokingly noted that I had been “knee deep in cesium,” since there was concern about the facility.

Since there are abandoned uranium mines along Hwy 93 as well as throughout Colorado, we are exposed here more than any of the other 13 states I have lived in during my life. I now live in Golden where a few of the former employees have lived during their employment at the Flats and are still alive without problems. Last year, I toured the Flats with an employee who has worked there for the past eight years. All of the employees are tested annually for radioactive contaminants and all are free at the present time.

John Tracy, Golden

“The remedy (at Rocky Flats) has not stabilized,” are the words of a Broomfield official. The abbreviated cleanup left two landfills, plutonium processing building foundations and other contaminants on site. The surrounding land is not safe for recreation, however many times the Department of Energy and the Department of Energy paid state health officials to tell us it is.

Bonnie Graham-reed, Arvada