WESTMINSTER, Colo. — A Westminster City Council meeting ran later than midnight on Monday as the city talked about its role in the Rocky Mountain Greenway Trail project moving forward.
The trail would connect three front-range national wildlife refuges, Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Two Ponds and Rocky Flats with Rocky Mountain National Park. Concern is growing, as some people believe disturbing the plutonium in the soil would be unsafe.
“It is a very serious matter,” said Dr. Debora Segaloff, a retired professor of molecular physiology and biophysics at the University of Iowa, and Colorado chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. “We were there until midnight.”
For Segaloff, the concern started after she moved to Colorado in 2018.
“We moved to a home that was, turns out to be one and a half miles from the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge,” Segaloff said. “We became very concerned and we moved. We put our home on the market. We sold it at a loss and moved to Niwot.”
The refuge opened up to recreational activities in 2018, decades after the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission used the Rocky Flats to make things like plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons. The facility finished cleaning up this land in 2005 with approval from the EPA and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment in 2006.
A 2020 report showed not much had changed.
As a physician, Segaloff worries the soil is not clean enough for the Rocky Mountain Greenway Trail project.
“It's a beautiful area, but that doesn't mean it's a safe area,” Segaloff said.
The city council hosted a study session this week to talk about their role in the project.
“I have to commend the Westminster City Council, they're taking this extremely seriously,” Segaloff said.
Segaloff said the Rocky Mountain Greenway Trail would not be safe for those building it and those using it.
“Those winds can kick up dust, that dust can contain plutonium bound to soil and that can be inhaled,” Segaloff said. “The completion of the Greenway would further encourage recreation on the Greenway on the refuge.”