We’re not sure why there was any hesitation in the first place, but the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has stepped up to the plate by agreeing to clean up 13 radioactive “hot spots” at Rocky Flats.
Few places at Rocky Flats more harshly symbolize the site’s sorry environmental history than the area known as the 903 pad. Starting in the 1950s, government contractors buried barrels of radioactive chemical wastes near the concrete slab. The barrels oozed toxins into the ground before the government dug them up but left contaminated soil in place.
As Rocky Flats has been cleansed, mopping up the 903 pad mess was a key goal. The DOE’s lead contractor, Kaiser-Hill, believed it had removed the contamination enough to meet appropriate standards. But the government hired another consultant to verify the results, and Tennessee-based Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education found the hot spots this summer.
Initially, the DOE seemed to balk at taking remedial action. There was a dispute about whether Oak Ridge had used the proper method for testing contamination, but the department’s first reaction looked like bureaucratic quibbling. The government had embraced Oak Ridge’s earlier reports that supported the statistical sampling methods used to test for contamination. The DOE looked hypocritical for praising Oak Ridge when it produced favorable results and criticizing it when the reports were less optimistic.
More was at stake than a dispute among engineers and cleanup specialists. The issue became a test of the government’s trustworthiness. A 2003 pact the DOE signed with cities and counties near Rocky Flats said soils at the site should be left with no more than 50 picocuries per gram of radioactivity, but the 903 pad’s hot spots registered as high as 400.
Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said discovery of the hot spots “raises several concerns, the foremost being whether the site has been sufficiently cleaned up.” Independent sources close to the situation say Allard’s reaction was key in making the DOE agree to clean up the mess.
Department officials say they intend to clean up any problems uncovered in the future. Fulfilling that pledge will be crucial to maintaining the trust between the feds and communities that surround Rocky Flats.
