Radioactive Uranium and Other Toxic Contaminants Found at Pinon Canyon

At Colorado’s State Capitol Wednesday morning, June 18th, Representative Wes McKinley (D-Walsh) held a news conference to announce a request for an Army accounting into its conflicting statements about the still-burning fire at its Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeast Colorado. He is seeking the truth from varying accounts and rumors about the origin and apparently poor Army response, putting Colorado lands and residents at risk.

To date, the fire has leapt the Purgatoire River off-base and burned thousands of acres of private ranchland, an area that the Army has sought acquire by eminent domain from unwilling sellers. The attempted land grab has spawned a controversial and hotly contested expansion plan that could militarize much of the southeast section of the State of Colorado.

Fanning the flames further, Rep. McKinley also disclosed information from an independent environmental assessment he and other ranchers from the region conducted last year on the Army’s Pinon Canyon site during a legislative tour of the area. With the Army’s permission, the group collected samples of soil, plants and water for independent analysis. (See a You Tube video we co-produced and posted with segments from Rep. McKinley's Capitol news conference).

Among ranchers from the region who were part of the independent sampling team was a rancher whose land was obtained by the Army using eminent domain in1982 for a portion of what now comprises the current Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site’s acreage.

The findings revealed that a number of sites sampled onsite throughout an estimated 20 miles of the training fields evidenced high levels of uranium, a long-lived radioactive element, as well as other toxic metals.

The Nuclear Nexus Project of the Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Center was asked by Rep. McKinley to review the independent laboratory’s findings. RMPJC researched uranium levels considered naturally occurring around the world, and compared the findings to another radioactive site in Colorado where uranium in surface soils is considered a public health and environmental threat.

According to the independent lab analyses, the surface soils collected and analyzed for uranium ranged from a low of 47.23 mg/kg (milligrams per kilogram) to a high of 61.12 mg/kg. An average of 4 soil samples collected was 54 mg/kg. All samples of all media also evidenced detectable levels of toxic metals cadmium, chromium and lead. The ranchers submitted the samples they'd collected of surface soil, water and plant tissue for analysis by Olsen’s Agricultural Laboratory, Inc. in Nebraska.

In searching for comparisons for uranium contamination in Colorado, RMPJC found that the Colorado Department of Health and Environment considered a clean-up remediation level of 27 mg/kg for radioactive, uranium-contaminated soils at the Cotter Corporation’s uranium milling site in Canon City, Colorado, an EPA-designated as Superfund site, along with an adjacent neighborhood, Lincoln Park. In reviewing the lab report provided Rep. McKinley, RMPJC determined that the uranium detected in surface soil on the Army’s Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site - on average - were double the levels the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment suggested as a soil clean-up level for the radioactive uranium milling site in Canon City.

“Clearly, the levels detected are many times those considered to be within the range for naturally occurring uranium, as measured at locales around the globe, and are twice as high as the uranium levels considered a contamination threat at the Cotter Corporation’s uranium mill in Colorado, where questions of serious public health problems have been at controversy among neighboring residents for years,” said Adrienne Anderson, Coordinator of RMPJC’s Nuclear Nexus Project, who has investigated a number of radioactive sites in the Rocky Mountain region over the last two decades.

Asked at the Capitol news conference why he felt sampling the area for radioactive elements was necessary, Rep. McKinley reiterated his history as a foreman of the Rocky Flats Grand Jury, and anecdotal reports of southeast Colorado citizens and others going back decades reporting that trucks from Rocky Flats dumped hazardous wastes in Pinon Canyon.

The Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center has further raised questions as to whether radioactive weaponry may have been tested at the Pinon Canyon site during training activities. The Army has denied use of any uranium-based weapons at Pinon Canyon.

However, the Army's credibility around such denials is slim to none these days. Last year, Hawaiian citizens cornered the Army into finally admitting that depleted uranium weapons had been test-fired at training bases in Hawaii. Citizens had brought in an independent scientist who measured by Geiger counter high radiation levels downwind of firing ranges where DU weapons were long suspected by local citizens to have been in use. The Army for years had denied it used depleted uranium weapons in Hawaii.

Today, Representative McKinley issued a public call for the U.S. Army to provide full disclosure about the fire, any training activities being conducted on the site during the time the fire first erupted. He also urged investigation of any on-site hazards that may have put area citizens and lands at risk if dispersed by the fire and related winds, and expressed concerns for the safety of soldiers training at the site.

“This fire proves that there is definitely a threat to public health and safety,” Rep. McKinley warned.

RMPJC echoes the concerns Representative McKinley has raised today and urges that a full on and offsite environmental investigation should be conducted, testing the grounds for a full suite of radioactive compounds, toxic metals and other persistent toxic compounds often found at military training bases.

IIn 2007 the RMPJC notified the CDPHE that concerns about potential toxic and radioactive hazards at the Pinon Canyon site warranted an environment assessment of the area, both on and offsite. RMPJC's Nuclear Nexus Protect will continue to monitor hazards at the U. S. Army's Pinon Canyon site. We support calls for a halt to any proposed expansion of the Army's lands in southeast Colorado.

For further information, contact

Adrienne Anderson

Coordinator, RMPJC’s Nuclear Nexus Project

e-mail adrienne@rmpjc.org for return calls

For further information about the sample collection, contact

Representative Wes McKinley 303-866-2398 or by e-mail representativmckinkey@hotmail.com

Thanks to Gerald Trumbule of DenverDirect.tv for video and co-editing assistance.