Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge

Awareness Raising and Show of Support Planned for Sat July 19 2014. Join Us!

“Today We Made a 250,000 Year Commitment”

In 1990-1991, artist John Freeman created a billboard series to bring attention to the potentially toxic and hazardous operations of Rocky Flats. He was warning us that every day the plant was in operation, it was creating waste that would keep the site toxic for hundreds of thousands of years. Now, after only a few decades and 25 years after the FBI/EPA raid that shut down the plant, development is underway and planned in ways no one would have imagined then because of the known contamination. Many locals, experts, ex-officials and ex-workers are horrified at pending underway developments in the area that could still pose a public health threat. But many people thinking about recreating or moving into housing developments like Candelas and Whisper Creek are moving from outside the area and often from outside the state.

As much of this development has been pushed through with attempts to minimize debate and sweep concerns under (the radioactive) rug, locals have been beginning to gather voicing their collective concerns. We will again be gathering to raise awareness about Rocky Flats’ controversial, contaminated past and keep its memory alive so that people can be protected from its potential hazards.

Join us on Sat, July 19th at 11:00am

at the corner of Indiana & McIntyre in Arvada

at the Candelas new housing development.

Check out the Facebook event page and share: https://www.facebook.com/events/1509951512549741/

We’ll educate and raise awareness, discuss, and take action to say no to development around Rocky Flats, no to opening a “wildlife refuge” on contaminated soil, no to a plutonium parkway, and no to pumping water from the Western slope to feed over-sized, controversial housing. We want communities, children and animals nearby and downwind to be protected and ex-workers to be honored and treated. We’ll have information, signs, and extra has-mat suits for those who want them.

For those who’d like more information first or who would like to help make signs and prepare can come to a teach-in Wednesday July 16th from 6pm to 7:55pm ** LOCATION CHANGED: at the Lakewood Public Library.**

Denver Post Article on Candelas Glows & Rocky Flats concerns

Sunday’s Denver Post (2/9/14) featured an article on community concerns about Colorado’s controversial developments surrounding Rocky Flats, an infamous former nuclear weapons plant. The coverage is important because much of the housing developments have occurred without much public debate. Many neighbors, ex-workers, and people in the know shake their heads or have conversations about their surprise, dismay, or worries, in fact those conversations helped spark “Candelas Glows.” The controversy has largely flown under the media radar, however, which could be bad news for new-comers, neighbors, residents and workers.

The release of this article is a good time to reiterate that the concerns here are not just about the families moving into these homes adjacent to Rocky Flats. If the soil is contaminated, then the dust is contaminated and workers are digging in it and kicking it up for folks in Denver, Westminster, Arvada, Broomfield and Superior, etc. to breathe it in. What about workers and neighbors?

One thing still to be adequately covered by the media and authorities include the effects of September’s flooding on the site, both on and below the surface including nearby water, some of which serves as drinking water to nearby communities. Who will have oversight on this land when other natural disasters like the flooding or drought occur? US Fish & Wildlife?! Will they know what to watch out for to protect the public from their “Wildlife Refuge?”

Please take a moment to comment on the article, or better yet, respond through a letter to the editor. It doesn’t have to big or fancy. It’s important that your thoughts be shared– even if you’re not a “professional protester,” scientist or policy maker!

candelasglows@gmail.com

Ooops! You’re Building Next Door to 28,400lbs of Buried Plutonium Waste!

We’ve been invited to Standard Pacific Homes’ Opening Celebration at Candelas on Saturday! They must not know the history of the land they’re building on and next to, so we’ll be there to raise awareness–for the developer, home-buyer, worker and passerby alike.

Join us in our safety suits as we educate the community about the controversial history of the development’s biggest & closest neighbor: Rocky Flats (formerly a Nuclear Superfund Site)…
Bring a friend!… But we wouldn’t partake in the free ice cream if we were you…

Sat. August 10
11:05am-3:05pm
Just West of Indiana & Candelas Parkway, Arvada CO