Westminster city officials say they want clear and to-the-point signs that warn walkers, joggers and bikers using a trail near the shuttered Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant that they could be exposed to dangerous radioactive and chemical contamination.
City councilors this week were shown three potential warning signs that could be posted on the Rocky Mountain Greenway Trail and near the Indiana Street overpass.
Critics say soil from the Greenway Trail, which leads from Rocky Flats, is still heavily tainted with deadly plutonium. Critics worry that trail’s users will bring that contamination into Westminster.
City councilors in 2024 narrowly agreed to drop their support for the Greenway Trail, swayed by testimony from advocates that the trail would spread contamination from Rocky Flats.
Councilors seemed inclined to prefer a sign affixed with strong language warning about the dangers of Rocky Flats contamination, which includes the international symbol of radioactivity. The signs should also emphasize some background on the Rocky Flats controversy, councilors said.
Mayor Pro Tem Sarah Nurmela brushed aside recommended language that began by listing the vegetation along the trail.
“The vegetation is not why we have the sign up,” Nurmela said. “We need to jump right into the radiology.”
City staff members will bring back a sign for an official vote at a later date. The cost of city-produced signs would range from $10,000 to $20,000.
The alternatives were written with proposed language submitted from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Boulder County, and the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center.
The sign preferred by several anti-Rocky Flats activists reads in part that: “Persons on the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge may become exposed to radioactive and other hazardous materials through dust in the air or through contact with the soil. These materials are invisible to the naked eye and may be carried home in dirt on shoes, bicycle tires, or other personal effects.”
It adds that plutonium is the primary radioactive contamination on the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. “Plutonium emits alpha radiation, which cannot be detected by a Geiger counter, and it will remain radioactive for more than (100,000) years.”
Most of the proposals are a (well-deserved) embarrassment to Westminster. A critique of the alternatives is available at https://rockyflatsneighbors.org/wp-content/uploads/ReplyToWestminsterSignage-June2025.pdf
Sooner or later Westminster’s flagrant departures from “best available science” mandates (some used in determining grant eligibility) will catch up with them. Does Westminster intend to place such warnings for those headed eastbound from the Refuge? Soil plutonium levels (due to wind patterns before the Rocky Flats “Pad 903” was cleaned up and sealed in 1969) are as high just east of Indiana Street as they are on the eastern Refuge boundary.