An organization planning a new toll road for the Denver metropolitan area, near the Rocky Flats Natural Wildlife Refuge, has detected no new plutonium contaminated soil samples since one was collected this spring.
About 25 soil samples, taken since May, show plutonium well below the level of 50 picocuries per gram, considered to pose no risk to human health, the Jefferson Parkway Public Highway Authority said in a Sept. 19 news release. The parkway authority is continuing to take samples and report findings to the state.
“Each location sample was analyzed twice, using two different methods,” so there are basically 50 new plutonium surface soil test results, said Laura Dixon, spokeswoman for the Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
This is consistent with all previous soil samples taken in the same area of the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. The plant manufactured plutonium pits for nuclear weapons from 1952 until 1989. In 2005, the Energy Department certified it had completed the $7 billion remediation at the site.
The authority is collecting and analyzing 250 soil samples around the right-of-way for the 10-mile toll road, which will pass along the eastern edge of the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge. The authority plans to file its results with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). The state agency said it understands the public is spooked by the May sample with plutonium levels about five times higher than what is considered benign.
The Jefferson Parkway is a long-planned, publicly owned toll road scheduled to begin construction next year. One local participant, the city of Broomfield, Colo., has suggested it might hold up funding for the project until questions about radioactive soil are addressed.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Sept. 6 released a soil sampling report on planned hiking trails at the refuge. The report said contamination levels would not pose a risk to people who use the area for recreation or to residents who live nearby.
