Advocacy groups file petition to unseal grand jury records

Community groups have filed a petition asking the federal government to unseal almost 30year-old grand jury documents against a former nuclear weapons plant, now the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge and Superfund site.

Seven community groups are asking a U.S. District Court judge to release the investigative records from a 1989-92 grand jury investigation into criminal conduct by the plant’s managing contractor at the time because of environmental concerns. Rockwell International Corp. pleaded guilty in 1992 to 10 federal environmental law regulations, according to a news release from Pat Mellen Law LLC, the firm representing the groups.

“… the documents may provide evidence of unreported and unaddressed residual plutonium contamination and other ongoing environmental dangers at Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge and the adjoining Superfund site,” the news release said.

The 5,237-acre refuge, about 16 miles northwest of Denver, surrounds a restricted area where plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs were produced. The Environmental Protection Agency had identified the site that surrounds the refuge as one of the most contaminated sites in America. But after a 2006 federal and state cleanup of the now-refuge, federal agencies consider the area usable, despite concerns from community activists and some lawmakers.

However, advocates said because grand jury records can be released when they may provide information on potential litigation, the Rocky Flats documents should be accessible.

“The documents could assist Rocky Flats nuclear workers with their unique compensation claims and the concerns of residents living downwind of Rocky Flats,” Jon Lipsky, former special agent for the FBI who led the raid that shut down Rocky Flats in 1989, said in the news release.

Mellen added in the release that the records will allow community groups and advocates for “aggressive economic development” to end their standoff about the site’s future plans, “moving this conversation forward in a more productive, evidence-driven way.”

In November, an oil and gas company that hoped to drill underneath the former nuclear plant abandoned its plans because of public backlash.

The groups asking to unseal court records argue that the information is “critical to resolving policy controversies,” such as construction of the Rocky Flats Refuge trail buildout and visitors center, the Jefferson Parkway tollway, Rocky Mountain Greenway to connect the Rocky Mountain Arsenal and Rocky Mountain National Park, and fracking permits, according to the news release.

“The stalemate over the safety of Rocky Flats serves no one,” the petition stated.