Critics Say Rocky Flats Has Not Been Cleaned Up
From 1952 to 1989, DOE produced plutonium pits for the United States nuclear arsenal and other weapons components at Rocky Flats. Weapons operations used highly radioactive and hazardous materials, such as plutonium, beryllium, depleted uranium and solvents. These substances contaminated the air, soil and water in and around Rocky Flats.
In 1995, DOE, Congress and Kaiser-Hill, a DOE contractor, made a deal for the cleanup of Rocky Flats. They arranged a fixed sum for completing all closure and cleanup activities and set December 2006 as the deadline. As a part of their deal, Congress allocated $7 billion for the cleanup. However, only 7% of this money, or $473 million, could be spent on actual soil and water cleanup.
Kaiser-Hill announced recently that the cleanup has been completed early, saving as much as $1 billion. The savings will not be spent to improve cleanup. Instead, Kaiser-Hill may receive a $560 million bonus from DOE for finishing early and under budget. The bonus is almost $90 million more than was spent on the cleanup itself.
DOE used the site's future use as a wildlife refuge to determine clean up levels for the heavily contaminated soil. In doing so, they established different standards for th cleanup of surface and subsurface soil. While surface soil must be fairly clean, DOE allowed high levels of contamination to remain at depths below three feet. These standards would not be acceptable if the land were to be used for a residence or farming.
Representative Wes McKinley, of the Colorado state legislature, does not believe that the site has been sufficiently cleaned up. He intends to introduce legislation that will address what he considers to be a continuing public safety threat. McKinley's legislation will require that all visitors to the wildlife refuge be notified that the site is still contaminated.
Activists are concerned that the cleanup leaves toxins, such as plutonium, in the ground. Furthermore, they contest that the cleanup depends on instutional controls, such as government regulation of land use, to protect the public; controls which the National Acadamy of Science says should be expected to fail.
LeRoy Moore, of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, said, "The real drivers of the Rocky Flats cleanup were three decisions made behind closed doors. [The first was] to finish cleanup and closure activities by the fixed date of December 2006. [The second, was] to complete all closure activities, including cleanup, for a fixed sum. And [the third was] to clean the site only to the level required to protect a wildlife refuge worker. This last item shows that the cleanup is a short-term solution to a long-term problem, because Rocky Flats will cease being a wildlife refuge long before plutonium left in the environment at Rocky Flats ceases being dangerous." |
