FBI agents, spying by plane on the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant with infrared photographic equipment, saw hazardous waste being burned at night in an incinerator ordered shut down two months earlier, according to documents released Friday.
Investigators also saw dangerous chemicals flowing from the plant into nearby creeks that drain into public water supplies."If the allegations are true, the Department of Energy has a much larger problem than an impact on their credibility," said Melinda Kassen of the Environmental Defense Fund in Boulder. "We're talking about alleged criminal activities that, if this were a private company, would result in its immediate shutdown.
"We are talking about activities that deserve jail sentences. We're talking about plant officials who believe they're outside the law."
The 116-page affidavit indicates that the investigation, dubbed Operation Desert Glow, will probe activities at the plant dating back to November 1980. Two former Rocky Flats employees were sources of information for the investigation, the affidavit said.
U.S. Magistrate Hilbert Schauer unsealed the affidavit after a challenge was made by the Rocky Mountain News. The document provided the basis for a search warrant issued by Schauer to the FBI and the Environmental Protection Agency, and triggered last week's raid on the plant by 75 federal agents.
"It's obvious that the federal government needs to get its act together," said Gov. Roy Romer. "It's incredible that one agency of the federal government is sending an investigative team to check out the other."
In addition to illegal incineration, the affidavit details:
-Illegal dumping of chemicals and experimental medical waste into drinking-water supplies.
-Falsifying records submitted to state health officials and the EPA claiming that Rocky Flats complied with hazardous-waste rules.
-Use of a waste pond after the EPA denied a request to use it.
-Improperly mixing chemical waste and improper storage that could lead to a buildup of explosive hydrogen gas.
Rocky Flats is operated by Rockwell International Corp. for the Department of Energy. The plant, 16 miles northwest of Denver, makes plutonium triggers that detonate nuclear bombs.
Energy Department officials were reviewing the document Friday and don't expect to have any comment until sometime this week, said Chris Sankey, agency spokeswoman in Washington, D.C.
According to the affidavit, the plant is burning hazardous waste in an outdated incinerator designed solely to recover plutonium. The building housing that incinerator was ordered closed from October 1988 to late January 1989 because of safety problems.
FBI agents said the incinerator had been used at night on Dec. 9, 10 and 15 and may have been used again since then.
EPA officials for years have tried to gain authority over operations in the incinerator building and continue to worry about what is being burned inside, said Jim Scherer, EPA regional director in Denver. DOE officials insist that operations involving plutonium are secret because of the threat to national security.
Burning chemical waste in the incinerator could spew suspected cancer-causing dioxins and plutonium into the air over the metro area.