The event held at the Arvada Center June 6-8, 2014 was interesting, and I commend the organizers and participants. I have posted earlier commentaries about the event, and I am considering perhaps one more. One panel discussion was titled “The Raid in Retrospect—Keynote Panel.” The Moderator was Patty Limerick and the panel consisted of Jon Lipsky (FBI leader of the raid), Former Governor Roy Romer, and former Congressman David Skaggs.
David Skaggs was the first panelist to speak who described how he had won a close Congressional race and was told by Tim Wirth, “Now Rocky Flats is yours.” Mr. Skaggs added that he was unaware of the raid until after it began and was made public.
Former Colorado Governor Romer was next, who began by describing how the Governor of Idaho refused three railroad cars of waste from Rocky Flats (an important occurrence). He toured the Plant and issued an order that limited the amount of waste allowed to be stored there.
The mostly mundane nature of what was being discussed was broken with Governor Romer saying that he was going to discuss something for the first time in public. He described how he had been informed that a night-time surveillance flyover of Building 771 at Rocky Flats had identified heat coming from the stack, which was interpreted to indicate that wastes were being illegally incinerated. He said he was very concerned and went to the Plant to look at the incinerator. (What follows approximates his comments.) “The incinerator was about the size of a refrigerator. I asked how many people had to be in the loop to run this ‘furnace.’ I was told it takes 30 people, and I didn’t think the ‘furnace’ had burned. Years later the FBI said the film was faulty and didn’t show the ‘furnace’ was burning.”
Governor Romer also discussed that he believed Rocky Flats was in the wrong place with 96% of the nation’s plutonium being located a few miles from Denver. He said he was worried about why more bombs were needed, but he did not call for it to be shut down. He believed it was needed to finish the mission and then close. “This is an unsolved problem.”
Jon Lipsky followed by describing his role followed by a passionate and articulate condemnation of the site. He mentioned the operation of the Plant had “practices against people” and the workers were “exposed to illness and death.” He said a key to obtaining the search warrant for the raid came from DOE reports criticizing the Plant. One was a Technical Safety Audit preformed in 1988 that had 85 findings and 39 repeat offenses. He mentioned the oft-repeated (and incorrect) allegation that “plutonium is the most toxic element on the planet,” and that there were also over a thousand carcinogenic chemicals used by the site. He then discussed what he called “the Walker memo” (from a DOE lawyer) that reported were no Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) monitoring wells at Rocky Flats. (The site had a large number of monitoring wells, including some from the very early days when no monitoring wells were required. However, those wells did not meet specific RCRA requirements for how the wells had to be placed and operated.) He said the memo mentioned that some waste facilities were “patently illegal.” (As I wrote in my book, it was standard procedure for DOE to write reports criticizing their sites to acquire additional funding.)
Mr. Lipsky mentioned during the question and answer session that he was appalled when someone (on the panel) not only revealed but also mischaracterized grand jury information, which is sealed and secret, by saying the incinerator did not operate. He leaned forward and glared at Governor Romer as he made this statement, and Governor Romer appeared to be shaken. David Skaggs, to his credit, mentioned there is no violation of secrecy requirements if the information was learned from another source other than the grand jury. Mr. Lipsky probably knew that Governor Romer had not learned about the incinerator from the Grand Jury. I doubt it had even been called into session until long after his visit to the site to look at the incinerator. Mr. Lipsky had earlier said that he had been forced to unseal the search warrant, and the allegations about the incinerator were a key to obtaining the warrant. There was even an internet link to watch the video taken by the spy plane that was one time available on this web site. That link has been taken down. Regardless, it appeared Mr. Lipsky succeeded at shutting down a critic. Governor Romer said very little if anything the remainder of the session.
I have one more comment about the “spy plane video” that was important to obtaining a search warrant of Rocky Flats for the raid. People (who did not have access to secret grand jury testimony)have observed that the heat of headlights on cars driving on Rocky Flats “lit up” the infrared heat sensing equipment about the same as the heat signature of the Building 771 stack that was interpreted as damning evidence by people who were excited “to do Rocky Flats.”
Mr. Lipsky mentioned the Wolpe Congressional investigation of Rocky Flats. He did not mention that even the report of that investigation, which was mostly friendly to his cause, said that he was the only Justice Department investigator who continued to advocate after the full and extensive investigation that there had been criminal activity deserving indictments. The other investigators quoted in the Wolpe report said things such as, “Virtually none of the allegations contained in the search warrant were borne out after a full investigation.” (See pages 81-85 of my book for documentation.) (I apologize that I could not find a link to the full report. I have included the link to a brief news article.)
I will close this longer than usual commentary by saying that I know and accept that nothing I would ever write would convince Mr. Lipsky he was and is wrong. How could I believe I could accomplish that when the people in the Justice Department who worked with him and saw the full body of evidence could not?
The fact that Jon Lipsky occupied such a prominent position in this stage farce reinforces my assertion that the event was little more than an opportunity for the Flats Haters Society to try to justify this miscarriage of justice. How sad for Roy Romer. And how ironic that this week a video of our present Governor reveals that, had he talked to the state’s county sheriffs before signing his party’s silly gun bills into law, he likely would have vetoed them. For both men, the “facts” they chose to believe were the ones dictated by their ideologies and political expedience – no due diligence required. And boy, do we hear that tune a lot!
I too am a long-time RF employee. While I worked in various buildings over 22 years, I considered B771 my “home.” I had not realized Gov Romer visited the plant in connection with the allegations over the incinerator – his comments were rational and fact-based – a pleasant surprise. In retrospect, DOE’s decision to keep the EPA out for so long was a mistake – it allowed the EPA to develop their own conspiracy theories about the plant, and conspiracy theories are immune to facts. But I am surprised the FBI agent absorbed the anti-RF line so thoroughly and is still so emotional. He can’t possibly still believe the allegations were true, so is he trying to save face? Justify the huge expense? Or can even FBI agents get sucked into conspiracy theories?
Fills you with confidence, does it not? I remember dealing with the FBI. I was deposed during the investigation and was threatened with jail whenever I gave an answer that didn’t support the agents’ predetermined suppositions. None of the agents we dealt with were remotely civil to us. I’m still uncomfortable remembering the experience. I fear that Agent Lipsky may represent the rule, not the exception.