Anti-nuclear advocacy group seeks partial relief from Rocky Flats order

Having lost its request for an injunction blocking public access to a hiking trail on property once part of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado, Physicians for Social Responsibility wants a federal court to revise part of its earlier order.

The plaintiffs assert U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly was premature in approving “the acceptability of the plutonium risks associated with the Greenway Trail Project because the relevant sampling and testing documents were not before the Court.” Physicians for Social Responsibility made the motion Nov. 8 in federal district court in Washington, D.C.

The plaintiffs said they are not asking the court to reconsider denial of the injunction but argue the judge mistakenly relied on data summaries from the U.S. Department of Transportation and other government agencies showing minimal risk to refuge visitors.

“The Court’s determination of safety at the Refuge was based on its pre-record analysis of sampling and testing undertaken by the government and parties, rather than the actual sampling documents themselves, resulting in its reliance on flawed (or at least seriously incomplete) data,” the Nov. 8 motion reads.

In a September ruling, Judge Kelly said a single contaminated soil sample in 2019 was insufficient to delay the Greenway bridge for the hiking trail.