A lot of the damage was done long ago - the incidence of certain cancers in the residents of that area - as well as the former RF workers - is disporportionately high. Every building and stick of furniture onsite has to be cleaned, dismantled, wrapped, and disposed of as radioactive waste. Now, radioactive material that's removed from the facility is [censored] ... uh... disposed of in another state. Underground pipelines are not being dismantled and removed.
However, they're still finding "surprises" on the grounds, as recently as two years ago. In April of 2003 a buried waste incinerator as tall as a three story building was discovered, that no one knew was there.
Hazardous and radioactive contamination at the site is permanent. Despite the DOE's assurances that all's well, no one really believes that, except perhaps the DOE.
I did err in a few of my facts about Rocky Flats in the first post. It started production in 1952, not in the 1970's, (post 1 has been corrected) and was in business for some 37 years. Oh... and did I mention the fire in one of the containment buildings in 1969 that sent a plume of radioactive smoke over the Denver area? Or the plutonium deposits east of the site that were 100 times more than the fallout from atmospheric nuclear weapons tests? When confronted with this information, the plant operators informed the public that the plutonium likely didn't come from the 1969 fire, but from one in 1957, or else from leaks from thousands of drums of plutonium-contaminated waste that was stored outside. This is how we (the public and the state) found out what was really going on out at Rocky Flats.
How do you decomtaminate 6,500 square acres of land, and insure that nothing is missed? You can't. The public and the DOE can't even agree on the definition of "clean," and clean doesn't even mean clean, it means "acceptable levels at maximum exposure for humans," which isn't very reassuring, considering they are making it into a wildlife refuge, and not a housing development.
Maybe this only matters to the people of Colorado. But if you read this document, you'll see why folks here have been concerned ever since we found out what's going on a mere 16 miles from here. Just think: this is the one we know about. There are probably similar facilities all over the states that were never found out, or that are still leaking radioactive contamination into the soil, water, and air around you.
The author of the above-mentioned paper recommends that Rocky Flats be declared off-limits for a minimum of two centuries, while the full effects of the plutonium contamination are studied. Instead, we'll be sending our children on school field trips to the "wildlife refuge."
