Community leaders call on City of Westminster to halt Rocky Flats Bridge project

WESTMINSTER, Colo. — An activist group is calling on the city of Westminster to stop plans to build a pedestrian bridge to the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production site.

In 1989, the FBI raided the facility for alleged environmental violations, including high levels of plutonium. All operations were suspended. Since then, trails have been built on Rocky Flats.

In 2016, wheels were set in motion to develop the Rocky Mountain Greenway, a chain of trails from Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge to 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 voice their concerns.

“It’s something that can’t be smelled, tasted or seen with the naked eye,” said John Lipsky, a former FBI agent who led the Rocky Flats raid in 1989.

Lipsky speculates that he developed cancer because of his involvement in the investigation.

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

Lipsky was among several people who called on Westminster City Council to halt plans to build a pedestrian bridge connecting city land to a property that was once part of Rocky Flats.

“The diseases I see in Rocky Flats workers are terrifying,” said Dr. Sasha Stiles, who spoke at the news conference. “Brain cancer, bone cancer, lymph cancer, lung cancer.”

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

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

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

Environmental and public health advocates have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., hoping to stop the Rocky Mountain Greenway project. The lawsuit accuses the Federal Highway Administration, under Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and the Fish and Wildlife Service of failing to review evidence of serious health risks associated with the trail’s construction and to consider alternative locations.

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