ROCKY FLATS SUPERFUND SITE AND STANDLEY LAKE ARE UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR FRACKING

Contact: Gina Hardin, President, 350 Colorado, ginahardin@msn.com (303) 525-3076 for Immediate Release: 10/31/2018 ROCKY FLATS SUPERFUND SITE AND STANDLEY LAKE ARE UNDER CONSIDERATION FOR FRACKING

Denver, Colorado – On Friday, interested parties received a copy of an Application to the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), by an English and Scottish Company, Highlands Natural Resources Corporation, to horizontally drill four sections of the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, including the superfund site where the plutonium triggers were manufactured. The Application requests authority to drill four pads and up to 31 wells in unspecified locations throughout the four sections. (Attachment 1, Application, including map). The 1989 FBI raid of this site was the first time in history that the FBI has raided another federal agency. Some 5000 barrels of plutonium contaminated oil were stored out in the open, unprotected, corroding and leaking into the soil.

According to a Jefferson County map dated 10/30/2018, it is now clear that there are applications pending to frack the whole of Rocky Flats, as well as two sections overlying Standley Lake, and two sections connecting the two locations. (Attachment 2, Jefferson County map, dated 10/30/2018 & Attachment 3, same map but with explanations inserted by author). The map indicates that 109 wells on 16 pads have been applied for. The COGCC has never, in its history, denied a permit. These areas are adjacent to numerous West Metro communities, including Superior, Broomfield, Westminster and Arvada. There has been on-going concern from these communities that any activities that could release radioactive particles in the superfund site and other areas in Rocky Flats could endanger anyone who is exposed to such.

Now, the surrounding communities, will be exposed to increased risk of radioactive exposure and contamination from fracking, and potential oil and gas explosions in these areas, as well as the numerous health, environmental and safety risks associated with fracking that that have been well documented by scientists and health professionals. See e.g., Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking, https://www.psr.org/blog/resource/compendium-of-scientific-medical-and-media-findings-demonstrating-risks-and-harms-of-fracking/ (the Nobel Prize winning Physicians for Social Responsibility’s March 2018 update of the rapidly expanding evidence indicating harm to health from fracking and methane infrastructure).

Gina Hardin, President of non-profit 350 Colorado, warns that this is clear evidence that the oil and gas industry is completely unwilling to regulate itself. It will aggressively seek profit like an amoral machine, destroying without conscience, anyone and anything in its path. Coloradans must vote and take other actions with the knowledge that they, and their loved ones, may be next.

- - 3 0 - - attached: fracking application and maps of potential drilling sites