DENVER—Two companies that worked as contractors with the now-defunct Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant said Tuesday they are not responsible for damages claimed by residents who won a $925 million judgment over contamination.
One of the contractors, Dow Chemical Co., denied wrongdoing and said it will appeal.
The other company, Rockwell International Corp., has in part been purchased by Boeing Co. Boeing said Tuesday it had no liability for the site.
U.S. District Judge John L. Kane on Monday ordered Dow to pay $653 million and the former Rockwell International Corp. $508 million in compensatory damages, but capped the amount to be collected at $725 million. Kane also ordered exemplary damages of $111 million from Dow and $89 million from Rockwell.
The lawsuit, filed by a group of homeowners, affects up to 13,000 people who owned land near the former plant when it shut down in 1989 because of safety violations.
The lawsuit claimed the companies intentionally mishandled radioactive waste and then tried to cover it up.
Dow Chemical operated Rocky Flats for the Department of Energy from the 1950s until 1975. Rockwell ran it from 1975 until 1989, when the plant closed. The plant made plutonium triggers for nuclear warheads.
Dow spokesman Chris Huntley said Tuesday the company operated the site “in a manner that was safe and consistent with the standards applicable at that time.”
He said the Department of Energy had agreed to be responsible for any settlements or judgment costs.
“We didn’t do anything that was wrong,” he said.
Boeing acquired parts of Rockwell in the 1990s, and Kane’s order makes Boeing responsible for Rockwell’s portion of the judgment.
Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said Rockwell International retained responsibility for any Rocky Flats claims when Boeing obtained its defense and space businesses in 1996.
He said the Energy Department had agreed to be responsible for any settlement or judgment costs against Rockwell, also.
DOE spokesman Andy Beck said the agency’s legal department has not had a chance to review Kane’s order.
Kane stayed his judgment pending appeals.
Violations documented by state and federal officials included the outdoor storing of barrels of waste oil and solvents contaminated with plutonium. State health officials have said some of those barrels leaked and contaminated the surrounding soil, which later blew downwind.
The federal government has since spent $7 billion to clean up the site and turn it into a wildlife refuge.
