Environmental Information Network (EIN), Inc. is giving a presentation of the Marcus F. Church v. United States of America, Dow Chemical Company, Rockwell International Corporation Pre-Trial Statement plaintiff file for Rocky Flats Right to Know February meeting. Everything EIN states is their opinion after researching and working on these issues for over 30 years.
This is the land that the Church family wanted to subdivide for a housing development. At the time, one of the Jefferson County Commissioners asked the head of the Jefferson County Health Department, Dr. Carl Johnson, his opinion. Dr. Johnson did a little investigation and his answer was because of the contamination, “No.”
One Jeffco Commissioner happened to own some “investment” property that he wanted to develop. In EIN's opinion, the “developers” and the County Commissioners bided their time and “got a couple of their own” into the Commissioners fold. One of which was Mr. Newman who owned a chemical company just south of Rocky Flats (RF) that by the way was doing work for R.F. How convenient!
The crux of the Church Lawsuit was that the Department of Energy (DoE) and Dow Chemical and Rockwell International had contaminated the ranch land so badly that the County would not allow them to zone the property for subdividing, leaving the Church –McKay family with worthless property due to no fault of their own.
So Marcus F. Church found himself an attorney and sued the U.S. Government and got $9 Million in the end because his land had been so badly contaminated with Pu and Am. Then they turned around and said the property was “below” the Colorado State Standard for Plutonium (Pu) in the soil and it was below that standard. We will talk about the efforts it took to get that Pu tilled into the soil so that could be accomplished.
In the meantime the DoE paid for the Colorado Dept. of Health to do a Dose Reconstruction Project and put together a “Health Advisory Panel (HAP)” to do it. It was during the 9 -10 years of meetings that Paula Elofson-Gardine and Susan Elofson-Hurst attended and participated in these meetings along with Mr. James Stone, Dr. William Kemper, Mr. Gregory K. Marsh, Dr. Gale Biggs, who were part of the Rocky Flats Cleanup Commission with them. This is where the CDH came up with the idea of “revisiting” the Pu Soil Standard by organizing a Citizens Sampling Subcommittee for it. This was from the brains of the DoE, CDH and developers, NOT the citizens that attended the meetings as CDH’s Dr. Norma Morin claimed.
Getting the Pu in the Soil Standard raised from .02 d/p/m to that of 2.0 d/p/m is what the new standard was changed to – which took the Rocky Flats Cleanup Commission to be disbanded in favor of the CAB which was headed up by compromised R.F. workers, economic developer interests and “go alongers” to get this done without the usual dissenting voices of reason there to say – this isn’t right. You don’t make a soil standard that is based on what is in the soil; you make it based on human health!! As a matter of fact, the soil from the S.E. Corner of the R.F.P. was used to calibrate equipment. EIN will tell you why the Environmental Measurements Laboratory took Rocky Flats off the International monitoring site.
EIN will tell the story about how the Department of Energy, Colorado Department of Health (CDH), EPA, Jefferson County, the Cities of Broomfield and Westminster were signatory to the Settlement Agreement that allowed the Church-McKay family to “leverage” these entities to allow for Candelas to break ground of some of the most contaminated land around – if you don’t count Hanford which has 600 miles of a Buffer Zone.
· What happened to the PM-10 Air Monitors that were supposed to monitor the Pu and Am in the soil and air during and after construction? Remember the COMRAD program?
· What happened after a Chromic Acid Bath was “accidentally” left on during a weekend that left hundreds of gallons pooled in the environment?
· EPA stated that no contamination went “beyond the fences” at Rocky Flats?
· How and why the “Unholy Alliance” of CDH, DoE, EPA, Jeffco allowed construction East and South of the R.F. property.
· WHY was the uncharacterized R.F. Buffer Zone turned into a National Nuclear Wildlife Reserve? The story you won’t want to miss!
· How was Standley Lake taken off the Super Fund List with no cleanup!
