Community leaders call on City of Westminster to stop Rocky Flats bridge plans

WESTMINSTER, Colo. — A group of activists is calling on the City of Westminster to stop plans for a pedestrian bridge to the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production site.

In 1989, the facility was raided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for alleged environmental violations, including elevated levels of plutonium. All operations were suspended. Since then, trails have been developed on Rocky Flats.

In 2016, wheels were set in motion to develop the Rocky Mountain Greenway, a string of trails from the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge to the Rocky Flats Mountain Wildlife Refuge to Rocky Mountain National Park.

Jefferson County

Scientists, public health activists, and other community leaders gathered at Westminster City Hall on Monday to express their concerns.

"That's something that can't be smelled, tasted, or seen with the naked eye," said John Lipsky, a former FBI agent who led the raid into Rocky Flats in 1989.

Lipsky surmises that he developed cancer due to his involvement with the investigation.

"The tumor on my kidney started probably in 2010. And last year, I was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma," said Lipsky.

Lipsky was among several people calling for Westminster City Council to stop plans for a pedestrian bridge from municipal land to property that was formerly part of Rocky Flats.

"The diseases I care for in Rocky Flats workers are terrifying," said Dr. Sasha Stiles, who spoke at the news conference. "Brain, bone, lymph and lung cancer."

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The group also called for a withdrawal from the Rocky Mountain Greenway project to reduce the risk of public exposure to radioactivity.

"There is no safe level," said Diane D'Arrigo, the radioactive waste project director at the Nuclear Information and Resource Center . "Legal levels are not safe levels."

The group also attended the Westminster City Council's open study session on the issue Monday evening. According to the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, after a similar study session, Broomfield decided to withdraw participation from the Jefferson Parkway project, which was also set to go through Rocky Flats.

Environmental and public health advocates have filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, D.C. in hopes of stopping the Rocky Mountain Greenway project. The suit accuses the Federal Highway Administration under U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Fish and Wildlife Service of failing to review evidence of serious health dangers from building the trail and consider alternative locations.

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