Physicians for Social Responsibility and other groups sued the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland and other federal agencies Monday, claiming radioactive contaminants still linger along the former grounds of the Department of Energy’s Rocky Flats Plant in Colorado.
“Although this facility is no longer in operation, the radioactive contaminants, particularly weapons grade plutonium, that persist in the local ecosystem threaten grave harm to those who live, work, or recreate in or near these areas,” according to the Jan. 8 complaint. The action was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The suit targets approvals by the Federal Highway Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for an eight-mile hiking trail through part of what is today the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.
The trail would pass through the most heavily plutonium-contaminated section of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge, according to the lawsuit.
“Plaintiffs claim that walkers, bikers, and people in nearby communities would risk exposure to highly radioactive ‘hot spots’ of cancer-causing plutonium that were never cleaned up,” according to a press release from the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit is brought by the Physicians for Social Responsibility, Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center, Environmental Information Network, Rocky Flats Downwinders, Candelas Glows/Rocky Flats Glows and Rocky Flats Public Health Advocates. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly.
The Rocky Flats DOE plant made pits, fissile plutonium cores for nuclear weapons, from the 1950s through the 1980s. DOE certified final remediation of the site in 2005, and it is now overseen by DOE’s Office of Legacy Management.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Environmental Protection Agency raided Rocky Flats in 1989 after a two-year probe into mismanagement and misconduct at the DOE facility. Rocky Flats cleanup was finished in October 2005 at a cost of $7.7 billion over the ten-year project, the plaintiffs say in the lawsuit, a figure that roughly matches DOE’s own estimate.
More than three years ago, Colorado officials concluded a proposed toll road around the former nuclear weapons plant would not have unduly high radioactivity levels.
