Full Body Burden
Page 43
63 Pat Schroeder insists the study: Jerry Brown, “Rocky Flats Study Should Be Given to Outside Experts, Schroeder Says,” Rocky Mountain News, August 18, 1979.
64 Moving plutonium operations would result: Buffer, “Rocky Flats History.”
65 Officials can’t agree on what type: Beth Gaeddert, “Obstacles Stall Flats Emergency Booklet,” Rocky Mountain News, November 1, 1979.
66 However, Johnson states, “Very little”: Clark, “Is Denver Safe from Rocky Flats?”
67 The plan never moves beyond the drafting: O’Keefe, “What’s the Drill: A Real Emergency Catches Rocky Flats Napping,” Westword, September 20, 1989.
68 Niels Schonbeck, the biochemistry professor: O’Keefe, “What’s the Drill”; see also Citizen’s Guide to Rocky Flats: Colorado’s Nuclear Bomb Factory (Boulder, CO: Rocky Mountain Peace Center, 1992), 47.
69 Nonetheless, a few months later: Buffer, “Rocky Flats History.”
70 Full production resumes: ABC Nightline, December 20, 1994.
71 In March 1982, Bruce Shepard, a Colorado Springs developer: LeRoy Moore, “Democracy and Public Health at Rocky Flats: The Examples of Edward A. Martell and Carl J. Johnson,” in Tortured Science: Health Studies, Ethics and Nuclear Weapons, edited by Dianne Quigley, Amy Lowman, and Steve Wing (Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing, 2011), p. 106. Also see Robert Kowalski, “HUD Official Helped Kill Flats Homebuyer Alert,” Denver Post, August 20, 1989. Those two housing developments were the Countryside development and the Lake Arbor development, both in Westminster.
72 I meet a boy named Andrew: Name has been changed.
73 The DOE isn’t unaware of problems: Janet Day, “DOE Rips Rocky Flats Management,” Rocky Mountain News, May 21, 1988.
74 And the government will continue: Gary Schmitz, “Government May Abandon Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant,” Denver Post, March 1, 1989.
75 On September 29, three people: Fox Butterfield, “Report Finds Peril at Atom Plant Greater Than Energy Dept. Said,” New York Times, October 27, 1988.
76 Rocky Flats workers are accustomed: Willie Warling, interview by Dorothy Ciarlo, May 27, 1998 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 0927).
77 He files a report: Butterfield, “Report Finds Peril at Atom Plant.” This citation applies to the next several pages of text.
78 Shortly thereafter, a comprehensive DOE study: Adriel Bettelheim, “Flats’ Buildings Top Danger List,” Denver Post, December 6, 1994.
79 At the 570-acre Hanford site near Richland: “Byproducts of the Bomb: Pollution and the Weapon Factories,” New York Times, December 7, 1988.
80 The groundwater and soil at Rocky Flats: Alan Gottlieb, “Toxicity at Flats So Bad Harm May Be Irreversible,” Denver Post, November 25, 1988.
81 Stone has been waiting months: Jim Stone, interviews by Dorothy Ciarlo, June 10, 1999 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 0978), June 24, 1999 (OH 1979), and January 6, 2000 (OH 0980). This citation applies to the next several pages of text.
82 Rockwell and the DOE have always contended: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats.”
83 “They blackballed me”: Alicia Caldwell, “Whistle-blowers Reap, but Process Takes Time,” Denver Post, January 11, 2005.
84 “I want a letter of immunity”: Jon Lipsky, interview by Dorothy Ciarlo, July 23 and 24, 2005 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1355V A-D).
85 At first, Fimberg looks at Lipsky and Smith: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats.”
86 Lipsky hates to fly: Lipsky, interview by Ciarlo.
87 The photographs indicate: Patricia Calhoun, “Dirty Pictures,” Westword, October 27, 2005.
88 Streaks of light splay out: Calhoun, “Dirty Pictures.”
89 Based on the videotape and other evidence they’ve accumulated: Tamara Jones, “FBI Alleges Cover-Up at Rocky Flats,” Los Angeles Times, June 10, 1989.
90 The affidavit states that the DOE and Rockwell: Tom Ruwitch, “Rockwell International: Gouging the Government,” Multinational Monitor 11, no. 3 (March 1990).
91 Fimberg flies to Washington: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats.”
92 His work included: Carl Johnson, “Cancer Incidence in an Area of Radioactive Fallout Downwind from the Nevada Test Site,” Journal of the American Medical Association 251, no. 2 (January 13, 1984).
93 Five months after he was terminated: Johnson, “Cancer Incidence in an Area Contaminated with Radionuclides.”
94 On December 18, 1988: Carl Johnson, “Rocky Flats: Death, Inc.,” New York Times, December 18, 1988.
95 He was buried with military honors: Pamela Reynolds, “Respect in Death for Nuclear Safety, He Took a Stand,” Boston Globe, January 11, 1989.
Chapter 5. A Raid and a Runaway Grand Jury
1 The FBI has told Rocky Flats: Jacque Brever, interviews by LeRoy Moore, June 4, 1999 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1498), and by Dorothy Ciarlo, April 9, 2004 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1210).
2 Sanchini is reluctant to let agents: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats,” Part One.
3 It felt like a factory: Brever, interviews by Moore and Ciarlo.
4 She joined the Steelworkers Union: Brever, interviews by Moore and Ciarlo.
5 Jacque shut down the line: Brever, interviews by Moore and Ciarlo.
6 They order everyone to leave: Bruce David and Mark Cromer, “Rocky Mountain Meltdown,” Hustler 31, no. 8 (January 2005).
7 They look like a bunch of chickens: Brever, interviews by Moore and Ciarlo.
8 “I have been victimized”: Joan Lowy, “Flats Raid Spreads Shock Waves,” Rocky Mountain News, June 7, 1989.
9 Romer flies to Washington: Tamara Jones, “U.S. Vows to Lift 30-Year Veil of Secrecy at Weapons Plants,” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1989.
10 A special telephone line is established: “FBI Extends Its Inspection of Rocky Flats Arms Plant,” Los Angeles Times, June 15, 1989.
11 A local radio station begins: James Coates, “Government Decides Truth Is the Light on Arms Plant Pollution,” Chicago Tribune, June 18, 1989.
12 Now, for the first time, the controversial 1983 film: Coates, “Government Decides Truth.”
13 Dark Circle includes interviews: Dark Circle, 1983, reissued in 2007, directed by Judy Irving, Chris Beaver, and Ruth Landy.
14 “The plutonium that went out”: Harvey Wasserman and Norman Solomon, Killing Our Own: The Disaster of America’s Experiment with Atomic Radiation (New York: Delacorte, 1982), 165.
15 Billy Chisolm built his home: Tamara Jones, “Neighbors Keep a Wary Eye on Rocky Flats Plant but Resist Moving,” Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1989.
16 U.S. attorney general Dick Thornburgh: Wes McKinley and Caron Balkany, The Ambushed Grand Jury (New York: Apex Press, 2004), 14.
17 It reveals that the flyover: Tamara Jones, “FBI Alleges Cover-Up at Rocky Flats: Papers Say Energy Dept. Knew of Illegal Atom Waste Disposal,” Los Angeles Times, June 10, 1989.
18 Some of these entries will end up: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats.”
19 Lipsky suspects that the Criminal Division at Justice : Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats.” See also McKinley and Balkany, The Ambushed Grand Jury.
20 The most seriously contaminated sites: Rocky Mountain News, July 23, 1989. These sites include the 881 Hillside, where dumped and buried material seeped into the groundwater; solar evaporation waste ponds that leaked chemicals and low levels of radioactivity into the soil; and the East Trenches, where flattened drums contaminated with radiation were buried in eight trenches.
21 One of the most shocking discoveries : “Material Unaccounted For” exhibit chart, produced for Cook v. Rockwell International Corporation, provided by Peter Nordberg based on information supplied by the DOE.
22 And despite the fact that Rocky Flats officials: Tamara Jones and Dan Morain, “Federal Probers Sound Alarms: Rocky Flats Boon Turns into Ecological Nightmare,” Los Angeles Times, June 20, 1989.
23 “It was on the main road”: Patricia Calhoun, “It’s Toast,” W
estword, February 3, 2005.
24 They cite an internal memo: Jones and Morain, “Federal Probers Sound Alarms.”
25 On the day of the raid: Jones, “U.S. Vows to Lift 30-Year Veil of Secrecy.”
26 “Whistle-blowers,” he says: Brever, interviews by Moore and Ciarlo.
27 Rockwell decides to sue: Tom Ruwitch, “Rockwell International: Gouging the Government.” Multinational Monitor 11, no. 3 (March 1990).
28 The company also takes out full-page ads: Keith Schneider, “Weapons Plant Pressed for Accounting of Toll on Environment and Health,” New York Times, February 15, 1990.
29 On September 28, 1989, the EPA: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats.”
30 “Sure,” the friend replies: Wes McKinley, interview by author, Denver, Colorado, January 19, 2004. See also Wesley (Wes) McKinley, interview by Dorothy Ciarlo, April 25, 1998 (Rocky Flats Cold War Museum and Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1271V A-B).
31 U.S. district judge Sherman G. Finesilver takes a full hour: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats.”
32 There’s so much sandy material: Bill Kemper with Jim Stone, interview by Dorothy Ciarlo, February 16, 2005 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1302V).
33 “It takes minuscule amounts”: Schneider, “Weapons Plant Pressed.”
34 John Cobb, a professor of preventive medicine: John Cobb, interview by Hannah Nordhaus, December 24, 2003 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1302V).
35 When DOE inspector Joseph Krupar: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats.”
36 The case is dismissed: “Judge Dismisses Suit Against Bomb Plant in Harassment Case,” New York Times, September 4, 1992.
37 “The best thing I can do”: Brever, interviews by Moore and Ciarlo.
38 The “spray irrigation” was done: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats.”
39 The year after the shutdown: Sierra Club vs. Rockwell International and the Department of Energy, Case #89-B-1181. Mark Obmascik, “Flats Violated US Laws, Judge Rules,” Denver Post, April 17, 1990. The court ordered that the DOE could no longer illegally burn hazardous waste in Building 771 and had to comply with environmental law. Adam Babich, attorney for the Sierra Club, stated that “EPA and the State did not have the political courage to do it [what should have been done years before].” Quoted in The Ambushed Grand Jury, 264. See also “Closure Plan for Mixed Residue Recovery Incinerator, Building 771, Room 149,” Department of Energy, February 5, 1991, 3.
40 Under pressure, the DOE reveals: Janet Day, “61 Pounds of Radioactive Dust: Flats Ducts Have Enough Plutonium to Make 6 A-Bombs,” Rocky Mountain News, March 29, 1990.
41 “I can guarantee if we don’t move aggressively”: Matthew Wald, “38-Year Plutonium Loss at Plant Equals 7 Bombs,” New York Times, March 29, 1990.
42 At a restaurant in Brighton: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats: The Justice Department Had Negotiated a Rocky Flats Settlement, but the Grand Jury Could Not Keep Quiet About What Happened There,” Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1993 (Part Two).
43 After twenty-one months of work: Brever, interviews by Moore and Ciarlo.
44 Not a single Rockwell: Michael D. Lemonick, “Sometimes It Takes a Cowboy,” Time, January 25, 1993.
45 Rockwell agrees to plead guilty: Jonathan Turley, “Free the Rocky Flats 23,” Washington Post, August 11, 1993; see also Matthew Wald, “Grand Jury Seeks Inquiry on Weapons Plant Case,” New York Times, November 19, 1992.
46 Rockwell is required to pay: Patricia Calhoun, “Gag Reflex,” Westword, July 3, 1997; see also Rudy Abramson, “Rockwell Pleads Guilty to Waste Dumping, Blasts U.S. Settlement,” Los Angeles Times, March 27, 1992, and Bill Scanlon, “Flats’ $18.5 Million Fine Stands,” Rocky Mountain News, June 3, 1992.
47 Rockwell routinely received millions of dollars: Jones, “U.S. Vows to Lift 30-Year Veil of Secrecy at Weapons Plants.”
48 Rockwell is also allowed: Turley, “Free the Rocky Flats 23.”
49 The agreement stipulates: Patricia Calhoun, “Carved in Stone,” Westword, April 12, 2007.
50 The agreement also allows: Turley, “Free the Rocky Flats 23.”
51 They refer again to the instructions: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats,” Part Two.
52 It’s not uncommon for the Justice Department: Turley, “Free the Rocky Flats 23.”
53 “We were studying a million pages”: Bruce David and Mark Cromer, “Rocky Mountain Meltdown,” Hustler, March 12, 2008.
54 Three years earlier, the same judge: Calhoun, “Gag Reflex.”
55 But somehow, a few days later: Bryan Abas, “The Secret Story of the Rocky Flats Grand Jury,” Westword, September 1992. Ryan Ross (aka Bryan Abas), interview by author, August 19, 2004.
56 Harper’s magazine publishes excerpts: “The Rocky Flats Cover-Up, Continued,” Harper’s, December 1992.
57 Twelve of the jurors: Wald, “Grand Jury Seeks Inquiry on Weapons Plants Case.” See also Mark Obmascik, “Flats Jurors Ask for Probe,” Denver Post, November 19, 1992.
58 In January, seven of the jurors: Lemonick, “Sometimes It Takes a Cowboy.”
59 Prosecutors emphasize that they’ve been the first: Siegel, “Showdown at Rocky Flats,” Part Two.
60 In January 1993, the Wolpe committee: Turley, “Free the Rocky Flats 23.” See also Howard Wolpe, Congressman, Chairman, Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, Committee on Science, Space and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives, The Prosecution of Environmental Crimes at the Department of Energy’s Rocky Flats Facility, January 4, 1993.
61 “The most important thing”: Lemonick, “Sometimes It Takes a Cowboy.”
62 Jonathan Turley, a Washington lawyer representing the grand jurors: Turley sought a special grant of immunity so that grand jurors could tell their story directly to Congress. See also Jonathan Turley, “We Need to Unearth Environmental Felons,” Wall Street Journal, March 11, 1993, and “Jurors Alone Can Unravel Rocky Flats Mystery,” Rocky Mountain News, March 18, 1994.
63 DeBoskey disputes the government’s position: Keith Schneider, “Data for Nuclear Arms Workers Cast Light on 3 Decades of Plutonium Peril,” New York Times, November 18, 1989.
64 While residents wonder, the General Accounting Office: United States General Accounting Office, “Nuclear Materials: Removing Plutonium Residues from Rocky Flats Will Be Difficult and Costly,” September 4, 1992.
65 Silverman finds himself facing: Mark Silverman, “Cleaning Up the Cold War Legacy,” Assembly, May/June 1997.
66 Time magazine reports that “aging buildings”: Michael D. Lemonick, “Rocky Horror Show,” Time, November 27, 1995.
Chapter 6. Doom with a View
1 EG&G manufactures everything from: Adriel Bettelheim, “EG&G a Key Nuclear Contractor,” Denver Post, September 23, 1989.
2 EG&G’s four-year contract: Janet Day, “EG&G, U.S. Reach Accord on Operation of Rocky Flats,” Rocky Mountain News, October 7, 1989.
3 Response is swift, and more than: Kristen Iversen, employee newsletter.
4 Rocky Flats officials settle: Ann Breese White, interview by author, Denver, Colorado, July 31, 2004.
5 He knows he’s sitting: Michael D. Lemonick, “Rocky Horror Show,” Time, November 27, 1995.
6 A DOE official comments: Joan Lowy, “Rocky Flats Shutdown Will Take 20 Years,” Rocky Mountain News, February 3, 1989.
7 It was a real career: Randy Sullivan, interviews by author, February 13 and 17, 2007, February 17, 2008, and e-mails. See also Randy Sullivan, interview by Hannah Nordhaus, November 8, 2005 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 1386).
8 The two top managers from EG&G and the DOE walk around: Ward Marchant, “Rocky Flats’ Nuclear History Leaves Legacy of Peril and Plutonium in Colorado,” Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1995. Debra and Diane: The names of these two employees have been changed.
9 And as in the past, Rocky Flats is involved: Doug Parker, interview by author, October 29, 2006.
10 One day Mr. K: Name has been changed.
12 On November 4, a memo: Memo from A. H. Burlingame, president of EG&G, “Safe Operations Contingency Plan,” November 4, 1994.
13 The blow is softened: Horizon (Rocky Flats employee newsletter), November 3, 1994.
14 The narrator, Dave Marash: ABC Nightline, December 20, 1994. Much of this section is based on the Nightline transcript.
Chapter 7. Fire, Again
1 “people are scared of fires”: Tom Clark, “Is Denver Safe from Rocky Flats?” Denver Magazine, March 1978.
2 The Arvada and Fairmount fire districts: Brad Martisius, “Solution to Chemical-Waste Issue Sought,” Denver Post, December 19, 1979.
3 Property values in surrounding neighborhoods: Peter Nordberg, interviews by author, July 16, 2007, June 6, 2008, and e-mails.
4 On the night of January 29, 1997: Mykaila Nordberg, interview by author, September 15, 2010. 284
5 Rocky Flats could become a sort of poster child: Len Ackland, “The Other Cleanup at Rocky Flats: We’re Burying Its Significance,” Denver Post, August 7, 2005.
6 He was fifty-seven, and his time at Rocky Flats: A Russian technical team visited Rocky Flats in 1994 and 1996.
7 “We may have done too good a job”: Mark Obmascik, “Overworked Rocky Flats Manager Quits,” Denver Post, April 23, 1996.
8 In 2000, the same year, when Silverman’s cancer: Kelley Hunsberger, “Finding Closure,” CH2M Hill/Kaiser-Hill, PM Network, January 2007.
9 Dr. Harvey Nichols and others: Harvey Nichols, interview by Hannah Nordhaus, September 14, 2005. See also Rocky Flats Coalition of Local Governments Board Meeting Minutes, April 2, 2001, http://www.broomfield.org/RFCLOG/rockyflatsminutes4_2_01.shtml.
10 Paula Elofson-Gardine, a local resident: Paula Elofson-Gardine and Susan Hurst, “Stop the Nuclear Brushfires,” Earth Island Journal, 2000. See also Paula Elofson-Gardine and Susan Elofson-Hurst, interview by Dorothy Ciarlo, February 23, 2007 (Maria Rogers Oral History Program, OH 01457V A-B).