WHY?
As the area around the former Rocky Flats becomes developed it becomes ever more important that we new neighbors of the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge remain informed about its evolution. This includes having easy access to reliable information.
It is also important for the voices of people who live in these new developments to be heard by local municipalities and state and federal entities so that the discourse on the Wildlife Refuge is no longer dominated by people who live elsewhere and who have "no skin in the game" or hold long grudges against the Department of Energy.
FYI: Financial support
This site was set up by David Wood with no financial support from or interference by anyone involved with developing or building houses around Rocky Flats, or any commercial or government entity.
Although information from the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment and the Department of Energy is excellent, this site is intended to educate rather than to just convey information. The focus is very much on recent data and recent science. Information on this site is intended for those who wish to understand at a variety of levels (from the very non-technical through the fairly technical) the science behind the assurances that living near or visiting the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge is safe for adults and children. We have been careful to draw information (whenever possible) from 2012 to the present, and from international (not simply US federal) sources. intend that it serve as a repository of carefully vetted information (and links to more) drawn from the published, peer-reviewed literature in health physics, radiation biology, biophysics, medicine, and epidemiology, or from personal experience.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, DMW thanks Terri for not throttling him during seven months of obsessive work on non-euphoric topics.
DMW would also like to thank Paul Karolyi for thoughtful questions which made me reconsider the initial tone of the website with respect to those suspicious of all things Rocky Flattish, David Lucas of F&W for providing some old and new documents, Scott Surovchak for helping me contact Michael McDonald about RESRAD, and to Mike himself for answering bunches of naive RESRAD questions. There will be more. Thanks, Mike!
Behind RockyFlatsNeighbors.org
The Rocky Flats plant ceased operating in 1992; the cleanup was completed in 2006. The time for a qualitative, alarmist view about living around Rocky Flats and using the National Wildlife Refuge is over. We hope our site provides an up to date perspective on why the Wildlife Reserve represents an excellent recreational opportunity which is also safe for use despite its history.
David Wood
Site administrator and technical content; aficionado of radiation imagery.
David Wood has a B.A. in physics from Princeton University (1974) and a Ph.D in physics from Cornell University (1981). He spent 7 years at the Solar Energy Research Institute (now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory) predicting properties of new semiconductors before joining the physics faculty at the Colorado School of Mines in 1989, supervising a handful of MS and Ph.D students and teaching mostly graduate courses in mathematical physics, quantum mechanics, electrodynamics, statistical mechanics, and condensed matter physics. He retired in July 2017 to “enjoy his remaining limbs”, as Dumbledore said of a professor who taught Care of Magical Creatures.
"I am not an expert in the effects of nuclear radiation on human health. That is precisely the point: that someone can educate himself or herself on the issues and reach reasonable conclusions without deferring directly to “experts” or panicking as a result of what they read on the Internet. As interesting as the science is, I do not take the dangers of radiation exposure lightly."
Kim Griffiths
Contact and liaison
As of 2018, Kim is a member of the Rocky Flats Stewardship Council Board of Directors
Kim Griffiths is a Candelas resident and active participant in the dialogue regarding the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge (RFNWR). With a background in healthcare, business, and a Masters Degree in Healthcare Systems from the University of Denver, scientific data and evidence-based thinking have provided a compelling case as to the safety of RFNWR for the planned Visitor Center with access to hiking and biking trails on the Refuge. Let's turn a past liability into a future asset and open the Refuge to all who want to use it.
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