The property owners who are suing two government contractors over alleged plutonium contamination from Rocky Flats tell emotional stories.
That much an attorney for the former plant operators acknowledged Thursday in closing arguments of the landmark environmental class-action lawsuit.
The plaintiffs, several of whom have lived in the area for many years, have told jurors about difficulties selling their property because of the stigma of Rocky Flats, a former weapons plant south of Boulder.
But David Bernick, attorney for Dow Chemical and Rockwell International, implored jurors to separate emotion from fact when they retire to deliberate.
There are logical explanations for 2,600 pounds of plutonium classified as missing; claims of a government coverup are wrongheaded; and there is no proof of increased cancer rates in the area downwind of the Cold War-era plant, Bernick said.
“The alleged cancer risk?” he said. “It is junk science.”
He said an expert hired by the plaintiffs came up with unreliable statistics.
The three-month trial stems from a 1990 lawsuit filed by property owners downwind of Rocky Flats. It has pitted a pair of corporate defendants, whose legal bills are being paid by taxpayers, against people who believe plutonium blew off-site and contaminated their property.
The 12,000 property owners who are part of the class action contend Dow and Rockwell were negligent in how they handled deadly plutonium and then covered up their actions. They are seeking $500 million in punitive and compensatory damages.
But Bernick told jurors that Dow and Rockwell had a difficult and ever- changing mission that was spelled out by government contracts. They did the best they could, he said, under immense pressure.
Assertions that the government was hiding behind claims of national security amid refusals to release documents are misleading, he said. The declassification process was undertaken by a group of people separate from those who had authority over the plant.
Furthermore, plaintiffs could have looked at the 2,100 boxes of relevant documents and taken notes, which they then could ask be declassified, the lawyer said. Attorneys for the property owners have said their case has been stymied by the receipt of reams of redacted documents, including box after box of blank pages.
Bernick also took on the suggestions that 2,600 pounds of missing plutonium could have ended up outside the boundaries of Rocky Flats. Those allegations are unproved, he said.
During the 37 years that Dow and Rockwell ran the plant, bits of plutonium wedged in cracks in machinery and were left as residue in pipes, he said. And measurement and tracking techniques were much less refined decades ago, he said.
Staff writer Alicia Caldwell can be reached at 303-820-1930 or acaldwell@denverpost.com.
