Welcome to A People's Atlas of Nuclear Colorado
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Navigating the Atlas
You may browse the Atlas by following the curated "paths" of information and interpretation provided by the editors. These paths roughly track the movement of radioactive materials from the earth, into weapons or energy sources, and then into unmanageable waste—along with the environmental, social, technical, and ethical ramifications of these processes. In addition to the stages of the production process, you may view in sequence the positivist, technocratic version of this story, or the often hidden or repressed shadow side to the industrial processing of nuclear materials.
Using the buttons on the left, you may also browse the Atlas's artworks and scholarly essays, access geolocated material on a map, and learn more about contributors to the project.
If you would like to contribute materials to the Atlas, please reach out to the editors: Sarah Kanouse (s.kanouse at northeastern.edu) and Shiloh Krupar (srk34 at georgetown.edu).
Cover Image by Shanna Merola, "An Invisible Yet Highly Energetic Form of Light," from Nuclear Winter.
Atlas design by Byse.
Funded by grants from Georgetown University and Northeastern University. Initial release September 2021.
Using the buttons on the left, you may also browse the Atlas's artworks and scholarly essays, access geolocated material on a map, and learn more about contributors to the project.
If you would like to contribute materials to the Atlas, please reach out to the editors: Sarah Kanouse (s.kanouse at northeastern.edu) and Shiloh Krupar (srk34 at georgetown.edu).
Cover Image by Shanna Merola, "An Invisible Yet Highly Energetic Form of Light," from Nuclear Winter.
Atlas design by Byse.
Funded by grants from Georgetown University and Northeastern University. Initial release September 2021.
Lowry Landfill, 5/4/14,
Site
Lowry Landfill
The Lowry Landfill is a 507-acre Superfund site located two miles east of Aurora, Colorado on a former federal bombing range and former Titan missile facility. Between 1965 and 1980, the city and county of Denver oversaw the dumping of 138 million gallons of industrial and municipal waste into the landfill. Legally disposed waste products included industrial chemicals, paint, pesticides, medical and veterinary waste, petroleum products, sewage sludge, tires, and household waste. Through its years of use, the Lowry Landfill is responsible for contaminating soil, groundwater, surface water, and sediment with hazardous chemicals. Air spaces were also contaminated, due to gases produced by buried waste. Remediation began in the mid-1980s and is ongoing, supervised by the state of Colorado and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Water is being treated and used to irrigate public lands throughout Denver. Operation and maintenance activities continue.
Rumors of illegal dumping of radioactive waste from the Rocky Flats plant at the Lowry Landfill have circulated for years. A series of investigative reports published in the early 1990s argued that illegal dumping of plutonium occurred from the 1950s to about the 1980s. The “Lowry Coalition”—a group of companies implicated in the Superfund case—released a report in 1991 showing elevated levels of americium and other transuranic elements at the site. Although subsequent testing showed no transuranics above background level and the EPA believes the first findings to be in error, some citizen groups remain convinced that the cleanup process enabled a cover-up of the extent of radioactive contamination, citing corporate ties between the polluters, the media, and the remediation contractors at Rocky Flats and Lowry.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “Radionuclides and the Lowry Landfill Superfund Site.” June 2001. Accessed July 28, 2020.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Lowry Landfill Unincorporated, Arapahoe County, CO." Accessed July 28, 2020.
Rumors of illegal dumping of radioactive waste from the Rocky Flats plant at the Lowry Landfill have circulated for years. A series of investigative reports published in the early 1990s argued that illegal dumping of plutonium occurred from the 1950s to about the 1980s. The “Lowry Coalition”—a group of companies implicated in the Superfund case—released a report in 1991 showing elevated levels of americium and other transuranic elements at the site. Although subsequent testing showed no transuranics above background level and the EPA believes the first findings to be in error, some citizen groups remain convinced that the cleanup process enabled a cover-up of the extent of radioactive contamination, citing corporate ties between the polluters, the media, and the remediation contractors at Rocky Flats and Lowry.
Sources
Moore, LeRoy. “Biggest Environmental Scandal in Colorado History? The Little Known Dumping of Plutonium from Rocky Flats at Lowry Landfill." LeRoy Moore's Blog. February 11, 2014. Accessed July 28, 2020.U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “Radionuclides and the Lowry Landfill Superfund Site.” June 2001. Accessed July 28, 2020.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Lowry Landfill Unincorporated, Arapahoe County, CO." Accessed July 28, 2020.
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