Trouble had also erupted at the plant's sewage-treatment facility in 1989 when employees discovered a green, slightly fluorescent fluid flowing into the plant. The liquid, which turned out to be chromic acid, killed the microbiological bacteria in the sewage-treatment plant that helped purify the wastewater effluent. Soon the raw or partially treated sewage was discharged to a nearby holding pond. In an effort to get rid of some of the greenish, smelly water, Rockwell then decided to spray the liquid onto an area that became known as the South Spray Field.
The grand jury later alleged that the company chose this method to get rid of the tainted liquid because "Rockwell did not want to face potentially adverse publicity from discharging the colored wastewater effluent directly downstream into the Great Western Reservoir (i.e. Broomfield's drinking water supply) and because the plant did not have sufficient storage capacity to retain all of the chromic acid on site. Rockwell realized that a substantial quantity of the toxic liquid would run off the spray field into Broomfield's water supply because the spray field was frozen at the time and it was covered completely with ice and snow."
Rocky Flats was designed to produce plutonium triggers for nuclear bombs. But what it really produced was waste -- lots of hazardous waste.Rocky Flats workers battled hazardous waste in protective suits and with glove boxes.Rocky Flats workers battled hazardous waste in protective suits and with glove boxes.
Rocky Flats workers battled hazardous waste in protective suits and with glove boxes.
Part 1: Bombs Away!
Part 3: Hot Property
View a map detailing the contamination of Rocky Flats.
Related Content
More About
Between 1987 and 1989, Rockwell also sprayed massive quantities of wastewater onto seventeen acres known as the East Area Spray Field. The runoff flowed into Woman Creek and Walnut Creek, two streams that eventually flowed downstream into municipal drinking-water basins. "Rockwell," wrote the grand jurors, "continued the spray irrigation even during blizzards, when the ground was covered with snow and ice, and it was impossible for any of the treated wastewater effluent to penetrate the surface of the ground. Massive 'ice castles' were formed around these agricultural spray irrigation devices at those times, but the flow of irrigation water seldom stopped."
Rockwell also sprayed wastewater over the eastern trenches where the plant had previously dumped uranium chips and other radioactive sludge. This practice flushed unknown quantities of hazardous and radioactive materials into the underlying groundwater and "greatly expanded" the plume that exists below the surface.
Following its two-and-a-half-year investigation, the grand jury concluded that Rocky Flats was an "ongoing criminal enterprise" and prepared criminal indictments against certain former and current employees of the Energy Department, as well as Rockwell, the DOE's contractor. "For forty years," the jurors noted, "federal, Colorado and local regulators and elected officials have been unable to make DOE and the corporate operators of the plant obey the law. Indeed, the plant has been and continues to be operated by the government and corporate employees, who have placed themselves above the law and who have hidden their illegal conduct behind the public's trust by engaging in a continuing campaign of distraction, deception and honesty."
But then-U.S. attorney Mike Norton declined to sign the indictments, saying he believed the federal government didn't have enough evidence. Rockwell got off with an $18.5 million fine that was far less than the bonuses it had extracted during its years of operation. As for the grand jurors, they were -- and still are -- unable to speak out about what they found because federal law prohibits them from talking about their deliberations.
Still, the evidence was all there -- in the soil, the water and the air.
Next week: The high cost of cleaning up.
