Several advocacy groups have filed a petition asking a U.S. District Court to make public certain grand jury records from a long-closed investigation into the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant site in Colorado.
In June 1989, the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Environmental Protection Agency jointly conducted a raid at Rocky Flats, seizing 135 boxes of records. Another 49 boxes were taken from DOE offices in Albuquerque, N.M. Two months later a special grand jury was convened to look into alleged environmental violations at the site, the petition says.
The grand jury investigation ended after a March 1992 plea agreement in which weapons plant contractor Rockwell International pleaded guilty to criminal breaches of environmental law, including laws covering hazardous waste and water. The violations include groundwater contamination and illegal handling and storage of solidified toxic and low-level radioactive waste. The company eventually paid an $18.5 million fine.
The groups said Jan. 10 they believe the former Energy Department site 16 miles north of Denver in Jefferson County, Colo., was prematurely declared safe in September 2006 in part because of inadequate sampling for hazardous substances in soil and water especially outside the central plant area.
In 1997, DOE selected Rocky Flats as an accelerated cleanup site with closure targeted inside of 10 years. The department awarded the business to contractor Kaiser-Hill, a joint venture of ICF Kaiser International and CH2M Hill.
The petitioning groups believe the documents might provide evidence of residual plutonium contamination and other ongoing environmental dangers at land that is now part of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge.
While the Rocky Flats Refuge spans 5,237 acres, the cleanup site at the center of the property will likely will remain a hazardous waste Superfund site closed to the public far beyond any foreseeable future, the groups said. An Energy Department fact sheet says the former operating section of Rocky Flats amounts to about 1,300 acres.
The petitioning organizations are: the Alliance of Nuclear Workers Advocacy Groups, Rocky Flats Downwinders, Candelas Glows/Rocky Flats Glows, Environmental Information Network, Rocky Flats Neighborhood Association, Rocky Flats Right to Know, and Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center.
Some of these same groups are also plaintiffs in a legal action questioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to open the refuge area surrounding the weapons plant site to the public, the Associated Press reported.
The Rocky Flats weapons plant produced plutonium pits, or triggers, for nuclear weapons. The site is now monitored by DOE’s Office of Legacy Management. A spokesperson for that office declined comment on the recent filing.
