ATSDR MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT

ATSDR Releases for Public Comment its Public Health Assessment
for Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site

For Immediate Release: Sept. 14, 2004

ATLANTA - Past and current exposures to site-related contaminants do not pose harmful health effects for residents near the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology site in Golden, Colo., says the public health assessment released for public comment by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The document will be available for public review through Oct. 20.

After examining past, present and future public health implications of community members coming into contact with environmental contamination at and near the Rocky Flats site, ATSDR concluded that exposure to contaminants do not exist at levels high enough to cause adverse health effects.

ATSDR makes the following recommendations to ensure that this site's contamination does not pose future health hazards:
— Restrict access to the site and ensure that cleanup workers are adequately protected from site-related contaminants.
— Monitor water quality in wells along the eastern boundary of the site to ensure that groundwater contaminants are not migrating offsite.
— Monitor the surface water at Walnut Creek, Woman Creek and Mower Ditch to ensure that site-related contaminants do not flow into these bodies of water as a result of ongoing cleanup efforts. ATSDR also recommends indefinite monitoring of the municipal drinking water supplies that draw from Standley Lake for plutonium contamination.
— Operate air-monitoring stations to test for plutonium and other site-related contaminants for the duration of site cleanup and building decontamination efforts.

The public comment period is an opportunity for residents to review and comment on agency findings or proposed activities noted in the assessment. The assessment will be available for review through Oct. 20 at:

Boulder Public Library
1000 Canyon Blvd.
Boulder, CO

Louisville Public Library
950 Spruce St.
Louisville, CO

Irving Street Library
7392 Irving St.
Westminster, CO

Comments must be made in writing to:

Chief, Program Evaluation, Records and Information Services Branch
ATSDR
1600 Clifton Road, N.E. (MS E-32)
Atlanta, GA 30333

Comments received during the public comment period will be logged in to the ATSDR administrative record for this public health assessment. Comments received, without the names of individuals who submitted them, and ATSDR responses to the comments will appear in an appendix to the final public health assessment. Names of those who submit comments, however, will be subject to release for requests made under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

For more information, community members may contact ATSDR Health Physicist Michael Brooks or Health Communications Specialist Dawn O'Connor, toll-free, at 1-888-422-8737. ATSDR Regional Representative Glenn Tucker also may be contacted at 303-312-7010.

ATSDR, a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, evaluates the human health effects of exposure to hazardous substances.

Established by Congress in 1980 under the Superfund law, ATSDR conducts public health assessments at each of the sites on the EPA National Priorities List, as well as other sites when petitioned. Headquartered in Atlanta, ATSDR is staffed by more than 400 health professionals including epidemiologists, physicians, toxicologists, engineers and public health educators.

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Members of the news media can request an interview with ATSDR staff by calling Jennifer Sarginson in the ATSDR Office of Communication at 404-498-0070.