ENVIRONMENT

A recorded 2016 City of Arvada development agreement required Candelas homebuilders to provide homebuyers with a Contiguous Area Report discussing the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility immediately north of the community. Buyers were required to sign the report, and signed copies were to be recorded. The documents also raise another question: what happens to that disclosure when a home becomes a rental?

In 1976, Jefferson County public health director Dr. Carl Johnson and two U.S. Geological Survey scientists reported plutonium concentrations in respirable surface dust downwind of Rocky Flats as high as 380 times their measured background. Published in Science, their research questioned whether measuring plutonium in whole soil adequately captured the potential hazard from fine particles capable of becoming airborne and being inhaled.

On September 11, 1957, a plutonium fire at Rocky Flats spread into the building's filtration system, allowing radioactive material to escape into the atmosphere. Decades later, Colorado researchers reconstructed the accident and mapped how airborne plutonium may have traveled across surrounding communities.

Randy Stafford spent months reviewing decades of Rocky Flats contamination and health studies for the Jefferson Parkway Advisory Committee. His 26-page analysis identified contradictions in study methods, risk models and conclusions—raising a larger question: what would it take to finally conduct the kind of health research Rocky Flats communities need?

Thousands of property owners near Rocky Flats spent more than 26 years pursuing claims over plutonium contamination, nuisance, and diminished property values. Cook v. Rockwell ultimately produced a $375 million settlement—but it did not address residents’ personal health claims.

On June 6, 1989, FBI and Environmental Protection Agency investigators entered the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant with a federal search warrant. The investigation became one of the defining events in Rocky Flats history. Twenty-five years later, former FBI agent Jon Lipsky sat down with Rocky Mountain PBS to describe, in his own words, how the investigation began, what investigators encountered at the plant, and what happened after the search. How the investigation began L

One of the most significant contamination events in Rocky Flats history did not begin with a fire or explosion. It began with drums of plutonium-contaminated waste oil stored outdoors. A 1996 study published in Health Physics reconstructed the release of plutonium from an area of the Rocky Flats Plant known as the 903 Pad. The research was conducted as part of a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment effort to reconstruct historical contaminant releases and esti

Property owners near Rocky Flats spent 27 years pursuing claims over plutonium contamination. Their case ended in a $375 million settlement. Dow and Rockwell were the defendants—but federal indemnification meant they did not ultimately bear its financial cost. The federal government did.

In January 2012, longtime Rocky Flats researcher and activist LeRoy Moore and photographer Robert Del Tredici published an opinion piece in the Boulder Daily Camera titled “Plutonium is forever.” Moore later preserved the article on his Rocky Flats blog, where it remains available today. More than a decade later, the piece provides an important historical perspective on concerns surrounding Rocky Flats, the proposed Jefferson Parkway and opening the Rocky Flats National Wildl

In 2012, LeRoy Moore and Robert Del Tredici published “Plutonium is forever,” an opinion piece raising concerns about residual plutonium contamination, the Jefferson Parkway and public recreation at Rocky Flats. More than a decade later, the article offers a historical perspective on questions about soil disturbance, public access and long-term stewardship that continue to surround Rocky Flats today.

Great Western Reservoir helped make Broomfield's growth possible. But its location immediately downstream from Rocky Flats also made it part of Colorado's nuclear history. After plutonium and tritium associated with the plant were detected in the watershed and reservoir, Broomfield ultimately replaced Great Western as a drinking-water source. Today, plutonium remains in its sediments.

In a 2018 position paper, Jefferson Parkway Advisory Committee member Randy Stafford examined decades of soil studies, health research and historical records to argue that disturbing soil along Indiana Street could create additional public-health risks. His paper brings together important evidence—and competing interpretations—at the center of the Jefferson Parkway debate.

The Rocky Flats grand jury controversy is about more than a decades-old criminal investigation. It raises continuing questions about public access to historical records, government accountability, preservation of evidence and how communities can understand what happened at a former nuclear weapons facility when important records remain sealed or difficult to locate.