A $375 million class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of property owners who lived downwind from the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant has yielded more than 10,000 claims, and so far about half “appear to be valid,” the attorney overseeing the case said Wednesday.
Merrill Davidoff, with the Philadelphia-based law firm Berger & Montague, said he has received 10,036 claims and 5,276 appear to be eligible to receive compensation for loss of property value that resulted from plutonium releases from the plant.
But Davidoff said there will likely be more valid claims against the facility’s operators tallied in the coming days. Of the total number of claims his office received, 7,830 have been reviewed, meaning roughly 2,200 submissions haven’t yet been looked at.
“That’s a very high claim percentage,” he said, noting that many potential claimants have died or didn’t receive notice of the settlement in the 27 years that have passed since the suit was filed. “I would anticipate several hundred more claims will come in.”
Davidoff said checks could go out as soon as this fall for those who ultimately qualify. Dollar amounts for claimants haven’t been determined yet, but he said individual payouts would like reach at least several thousand dollars.
The deadline for submitting a claim was June 1, but Davidoff said people who think they might be eligible can still file a claim as long as they provide an explanation for why they are filing late.
Davidoff said 1,633 of the claims his office received are “deficient” and need additional information to move forward. Just over 900 claims have thus far been rejected, which could mean their addresses don’t fall in the class area. Claimants in the deficient and rejected categories will receive letters telling them they will have 30 days to amend and refile their claims.
The resolution to the case known as Cook et al. vs. Rockwell International was announced in May of 2016. It brought to an end a legal saga that began in 1990 when homeowners living in an area largely encompassing neighborhoods surrounding Standley Lake sued the plant’s operators, Rockwell International Corp. and Dow Chemical Co., for degradation of property values.
The plaintiff class includes all those who as of June 7, 1989 — the day after the FBI raided the plant — owned property in the affected area. Anyone who sold their property before that date and anyone who purchased property after that date does not qualify, the settlement stated.
The 6,200-acre site, 16 miles northwest of Denver, opened in 1952 to manufacture plutonium triggers for the nation’s nuclear arsenal. Dow operated the plant until 1975, when Rockwell took it over and ran it until 1989.
The plant was shuttered in 1992 and underwent a $7 billion cleanup that concluded in 2005. It is now a national wildlife refuge, although a 1,300-acre core area where weapons production occurred remains a Superfund site and off limits to the public.
In 1992, Rockwell settled with the Justice Department and pleaded guilty to 10 violations of the Clean Water Act and federal hazardous-waste laws, including illegal storage of hazardous wastes. The company paid $18.5 million in fines.
