By Henry Kelty
Rocky Flats site, aerial photo taken prior to final cleanup. July 31st, 1995, Department of Energy
When you drive south from Boulder on Highway 93, you’re not just driving by some photogenic foothills – you’re also driving by the site of a dismantled facility that used to make parts for nuclear weapons. To this day, it might still be an environmental hazard.
Rocky Flats, which was operated by government contractors from 1952 to 1992, was a facility that made plutonium pits for nuclear bombs – plutonium pits are the parts of the bomb that trigger a chain reaction. When that chain reaction happens, it leads to a nuclear explosion.
After countless violations of federal and state environmental laws – primarily from chemical fires, leaks, and improper storage – all production at Rocky Flats was shut down after a court-warranted and federally-supported raid by the FBI in 1989. The Department of Energy then closed down the site in 1992. Even though the cleanup of the former plant area was declared complete in 2005 and a wildlife refuge was created in the area shortly afterward, there are serious doubts about the area’s safety – especially as housing has been built in the area.
First and foremost, it’s fundamental to know the sheer scale of environmental contamination at Rocky Flats. Numerous chemical fires and leaks led to hazardous and carcinogenic chemicals, especially plutonium and tritium, entering the nearby air, soil, and water. And even though the suburban sprawl of the Denver area during the Cold War was nowhere near as pronounced as it is today, communities throughout the area were still impacted. Studies into the plant’s impact on public health, particularly cancer rates, have been inconclusive.
Speaking of suburban sprawl, housing has encroached into the Rocky Flats area in recent years. As far back as 2011, the city of Arvada had planned housing development immediately south of Rocky Flats, materializing in the form of the Candelas neighborhood. Since all of the cleanup work was in the highly contaminated area where the plant physically used to be – which is now a legacy site owned by the Department of Energy – it’s not unreasonable to believe that the soil immediately north of housing in Candelas may still be contaminated with plutonium.
Furthermore, there are plans out there to build a highway between Highway 128 in Superior and Highway 93 south of Candelas. The Jefferson Parkway project, which is intended to bridge the gap between Highway 470 and the Northwest Parkway, has been delayed for decades – mostly because of the potential for soil near Rocky Flats to be disturbed, which would release even more chemicals into the air. Even as recently as 2022, the city of Broomfield has found plutonium contamination in the soil along Indiana Street.
Plutonium-contaminated soil can be swept up by the wind and enter the atmosphere, and this is an especially strong concern in the Rocky Flats area – the ignition point of the 2021 Marshall Fire, which was driven by winds well over 100 miles an hour, isn’t far up the road from Rocky Flats. Furthermore, improper storage methods in the 1960s led to chemicals at Rocky Flats leaking into the soil, which were then carried into the wind.
Even though EPA officials have stated that the Rocky Flats area is safe, many people aren’t taking the government’s statements at face value. Given what we know about Rocky Flats, it’s not hard to see why the area has been subject to numerous protests over the years – even today, groups such as Candelas Glows advocate for caution and responsibility when it comes to development in the area. Even though it’s well-known that the former plant site is definitely a no-go zone, the surrounding area’s safety is still an open-ended question decades after the plant’s closure.