Is Superior on fire and radioactive? (Denver, Boulder: cul-de-sac, house, neighborhoods)

[mobs2003]

My husband and I went out to look at neighborhoods in western Denver to figure out what area we should concentrate our search in. We were extremely discouraged because all of the suburbs were so on top of each other. And the higher we raised our budget, the bigger the house, but the lot didn't get any bigger.
We briefly drove through Superior, and thought it was also more house on house action. However, when we got back home to VA, we found a house in Superior that has everything we want: 3 car garage, 15K+ sqft lot, at the end of a cul-de-sac, backing and along side of green area, full walk out basement, community amenities, plus all the schools K-12 are rated Excellent on the School Accountability Reports. I mean, I think we've found what we're looking for!!!
Now here's the big BUT...
I was reading the forum about Superior, just because we really didn't spend much time there, to find out what people had to say about it.
I understand that it was an old mining town, as were a lot of other towns outside of Boulder that was developed in the late 80s early 90s. But did one of the mines catch fire, and so Superior is on fire underground? Is that true, and if so, are there fumes or toxic gases to be worried about?
Also, I heard about the Rocky Iron Flats site and how it was a government facility with a nuclear trigger used to manufacture weapons. I've read a lot about it, even the last 5 year report that was just done in 2007. Apparently there is still seepage into ground water that affects the acceptable levels of uranium, arsenic and some other elements in the surface water and soil, that still needs to be repaired. I could go into it further, but if you'd like to read the report it's on the lm.doe.gov website.
I'm scared of moving my family into an area that has a potential to harm their health. I realize however, that a lot of people live in Superior, and I'm sure they've educated themselves about the affects of the Rocky Irons Flats site. I'd really appreciate some perspective from anyone from Superior who could share why they decided to live there. Hopefully I'm just freaking myself out more than I should about the situation, but I know that it's real and something to be considered. So any additional perspective would be appreciated!!

[Verdigris]

I moved to Superior, from VA actually, about 2.5 years ago and I've never heard any such thing. So either I'm REALLY out of the loop or someone has been watching "Silent Hill" a little too much.

[Katiana]

There is coal burning underground at Marshall Mesa, west of Superior. That land is Boulder County open space, because, obviously, it can't be built on. Rocky Flats is quite a way from Superior, several miles anyway down Indiana St. I don't know where Superior gets its water. It would probably be a good idea for you to contact the Town of Superior and ask them. You can google their website.

[jazzlover]

Old coal mines have been burning for decades in Boulder County. I remember one area near Marshall where the ground surface was hot enough that snow would never stick there, and you could see steam and little smoke seeping out from time to time. As for Rocky Flats, yes it did produce plutonium triggers for atomic weapons, and when it was put on the Superfund list for cleanup, it was considered by many to be the single most environmentally contaminated location on the planet. Another piece of trivia: in the 1960's, the government got the great idea of disposing of radioactive water from Rocky Flats by injecting it deep into rock strata beneath the plant. There was no evidence of radioactive contamination, but the water lubricated some of the strata underlying Denver, and the city had numerous minor earthquakes (up to about 5 or so intensity on the Richter Scale) for several years. When they stopped injecting the water underground, the earthquakes stopped, too.

Interestingly, my family knew two people who worked at Rocky Flats. Both died in their early 50's from cancer . . .

PS--Rocky Flats was at the west side of Denver metro; on the northeast side was the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which produced and stored some of the deadliest chemical weapons ever produced. South of town, at Louviers, was the large DuPont explosives plant. Yup, back in the '50's in 60's--if something had gone way wrong--you could get potentially irradiated, gassed, or blown up just depending on which side of town you lived on. And--depending on where you were in town, you could also see ICBM missiles on trucks being hauled from Martin Marietta southwest of town out to silos in northeastern Colorado, western Nebraska, and SE Wyoming. And, yes, some of those silos are still armed and active.

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Old coal mines have been burning for decades in Boulder County. I remember one area near Marshall where the ground surface was hot enough that snow would never stick there, and you could see steam and little smoke seeping out from time to time. As for Rocky Flats, yes it did produce plutonium triggers for atomic weapons, and when it was put on the Superfund list for cleanup, it was considered by many to be the single most environmentally contaminated location on the planet. Another piece of trivia: in the 1960's, the government got the great idea of disposing of radioactive water from Rocky Flats by injecting it deep into rock strata beneath the plant. There was no evidence of radioactive contamination, but the water lubricated some of the strata underlying Denver, and the city had numerous minor earthquakes (up to about 5 or so intensity on the Richter Scale) for several years. When they stopped injecting the water underground, the earthquakes stopped, too.

Interestingly, my family knew two people who worked at Rocky Flats. Both died in their early 50's from cancer . . .

PS--Rocky Flats was at the west side of Denver metro; on the northeast side was the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which produced and stored some of the deadliest chemical weapons ever produced. South of town, at Louviers, was the large DuPont explosives plant. Yup, back in the '50's in 60's--if something had gone way wrong--you could get potentially irradiated, gassed, or blown up just depending on which side of town you lived on. And--depending on where you were in town, you could also see ICBM missiles on trucks being hauled from Martin Marietta southwest of town out to silos in northeastern Colorado, western Nebraska, and SE Wyoming. And, yes, some of those silos are still armed and active.

The incident of earthquakes from injections of fluids in the 1960s was done at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal and not Rocky Flats. There is no report of this waste water being radioactive. That is the event as I remember reading. Was there injections of radioactive waste at Rocky Flats???? Please provide a reference, I am very interested.

Rocky Mountain Arsenal Deep Injection Well

[Noahma]

I lived in the Country Side sub-division in westminster, (closer to rocky flats) just to the south of Jeffco airport. I am still fine and dandy (with one exception which has no known cause from materials in the area)

I lived in the same house from the time I was 1 untill I moved out of my parents house at 21

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by livecontent

The incident of earthquakes from injections of fluids in the 1960s was done at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal and not Rocky Flats. There is no report of this waste water being radioactive. That is the event as I remember reading. Was there injections of radioactive waste at Rocky Flats???? Please provide a reference, I am very interested.

Rocky Mountain Arsenal Deep Injection Well

You are correct about the water. I rechecked some old stuff I'd saved about that, but didn't feel like editing my post after midnight last night. What is ironic about all of it is that it was the federal government that played so hard and fast with the Colorado environment back then. To be sure, there were some egregious abuses by private industry, but they paled compared to the federally-sponsored mischief that occurred. I neglected to mention the underground nuclear detonation at Rulison (near Rifle) that was supposed to fracture formations to release all kinds of natural gas for production. Funny thing, they found out all the gas was radioactive--so much for producing that. Anyone remember that the Denver Federal Center was originally built by the federal government as a munitions plant during World War II, and operated by Remington Arms? And of course, there were the uranium processing plants at Uravan, Grand Junction, Durango, Canon City, Gunnison, and Rifle. Some of those messes took decades to be cleaned up. I especially remember the one at Durango. The tailings pile from that one was right across the river from the railroad station and the south part of downtown, and radioactive dust would blow all over downtown every time the wind came from the southwest, which was fairly often. (The Durango mill was also the one that milled the uranium for the A-bombs used on Japan.)

Then, of course, more recently there is the Summitville Mine Site in Rio Grande County. A gold mine operated by a Canadian company using a "heap-leach" gold extraction process from 1986 to 1992, Summitville became one of the most expensive (if not the most expensive) Superfund site in the US. It is estimated that the total cleanup and monitoring of that site (for the next 100 years) will top a quarter of a billion dollars. While the mine was operating, the company supposedly made only a $20 million profit on the operation.

[Katiana]

The above was very interesting, but we are talking about Superior.