GROUPS CONCERNED ABOUT FORMER PLUTONIUM PLANT HEALTH RISKS
Law Offices of Randall M. Weiner, P.C.
3100 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 202
Boulder, CO 80303
E-mail: randall@randallweiner.com
for further information, contact:
Dr. Sasha Styles (PSR) 720 375-6900
Atty. Randall Weiner 303 440-3321
or Bob Schaeffer 239 395-6773
for immediate release, Tuesday, July 6, 2021
GROUPS CONCERNED ABOUT FORMER PLUTONIUM PLANT HEALTH RISKS
ASK COLORADO STATE COURT TO BLOCK BOULDER CITY OFFICIALS
FROM SPENDING FUNDS ON ROCKY FLATS TRAILS THIS WEEK WITHOUT A HEARING AND VOTE
Organizations seeking to protect members of the public from exposure to radioactive materials abandoned at the former Rocky Flats plutonium facility have filed a motion in Colorado State Court seeking to stop the City of Boulder from making an initial payment this week for a contested underpass from public lands to a proposed Greenway Trail on that contaminated site.
Physicians for Social Responsibility (Colorado), the Environmental Information Network, and biologist Harvey Nichols, are asking for either a Temporary Restraining Order or Preliminary Injunction. In May, the plaintiffs sued Boulder claiming that officials failed to analyze a trails system that would circumvent the Rocky Flats site, as required by a City Council 2016 resolution. The Colorado court system has not yet heard that case.
The new motion states that “injunctive relief” is the only way to protect plaintiffs and taxpayers from an imminent, potential illegal expenditure of public funds to begin underpass construction. Boulder city officials have notified plaintiffs’ attorney that the first check for the project is likely to be cut on Wednesday, July 7.
In addition, plaintiffs say their members will experience injury in the form of increased physical risk “by encountering an increased amount of potentially plutonium contaminated dirt and soils brought into their neighborhoods and the Superior and Boulder open space trails from the Rocky Flats Refuge.”
A legal memorandum supporting the plaintiffs’ motion explains, “A direct land link from the City’s southern open space lands . . . to the Rocky Flats Refuge will result in dramatically increased pedestrian, bicycling and pet activity to and from the Refuge which will bring more plutonium contaminated dust and dirt into contact with Plaintiffs’ members and their properties. In addition, fugitive dust emissions during the construction period will exponentially increase the amount of dust that will blow into their neighborhoods and onto the hiking trails they frequent.”
Rocky Flats produced the plutonium cores for U.S. nuclear warheads and bombs before it was shuttered following a raid for suspected environmental crimes by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Dr. Nichols, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado Boulder who studied windblown contaminants, determined that here were "billions per acre ... of plutonium particles deposited from the Rocky Flats complex." in an area at or near the proposed Greenway Trail.
A copy of the motion for injunctive relief and supporting memorandum are available on request.
