Jon Lipsky, former FBI agent who led the 1989 raid on Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, has said he uncovered many instances of tampering with environmental monitoring and data falsification before his investigation was cut short by federal prosecutors:
"It became apparent to me during the investigation of Rocky Flats that the Department of Energy and the Department of Justice were primarily concerned about minimizing the extent to which the public became aware of the contamination at Rocky Flats, both off site and on site."
Cut to today: Become aware. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service which now has jurisdiction over the Rocky Flats buffer zone that lies around the most contaminated center, still under Department of Energy jurisdiction, has received two bids for a 300-foot wide strip of land along the eastern (Indiana St.) edge of Rocky Flats, one bid to make the land available for construction of a portion of the proposed Jefferson Parkway, another to use the land for construction of a bikeway.
Studies show that both the proposed highway and bikeway pass through an area that is contaminated with plutonium released from the old nuclear bomb plant. Bikers, adjust your safety masks and hazmat suits; drivers, hold your breath as you travel the two and a half miles across the contaminated land. The Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to determine the public preference: a toll road or a bikeway. Which deadly project do you prefer?
Plutonium released from Rocky Flats is in tiny particles. Inhaling them or otherwise taking them into your body can result in cancer or other illnesses. Plutonium remains radioactive for a quarter of a million years. Construction of either the highway or the bikeway along Indiana St. would undoubtedly stir up clouds of plutonium-laden dust, endangering construction workers, nearby residents, commuters and others.