Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge

Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
Location	Jefferson County, Colorado, United States
Nearest city	Westminster
Coordinates	39°53′24″N 105°13′13″W / 39.89000°N 105.22028°W / 39.89000; -105.22028Coordinates: 39°53′24″N 105°13′13″W / 39.89000°N 105.22028°W / 39.89000; -105.22028
Area	3,953 acres (1,600 ha)
Established	2007
Governing body	U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Website	Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge

The Rocky Flats is the most toxic waste site in the United States located approximately 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Denver, Colorado. The site was previously the Rocky Flats Plant's security buffer zone and is not currently open to the general public for access.

Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge is an expanse of grasslands, shrublands and wetlands, including rare xeric tallgrass prairie, where natural processes support a broad range of native wildlife. Working with others, the refuge conserves the unique biotic communities and sustains wildlife populations at the interface of mountains and prairies on Colorado's Front Range.

This refuge is home to animals such as black bear, coyote, two species of owl, elk, mule deer, northern flicker, white pelican, black-tailed prairie dog, and porcupine.

The Rocky Flats site is 6,240 acres (25.3 km²) located along the Front Range of Colorado at the intersection of Jefferson, Boulder, and Broomfield counties. The site lies on the former nuclear weapons production facility operated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Rocky Flats Plant.

Native Americans occupied the land intermittently prior to the 1800s and limited artifacts have been located from this era. Starting in 1868, the Scott family established a homestead here and the land was used to raise cattle. Later, the Lindsay family raised cattle and built a house and barn in the 1940s. In 1951, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission acquired 2,519 acres, which included the Lindsay property, for the Rocky Flats Plant to produce nuclear and nonnuclear weapons including plutonium fission primaries for nuclear weapons. An additional 4,027 acres were acquired in 1974 for plant expansion.

This 6,500-acre site was one of 13 nuclear weapons production facilities in the United States during the Cold War and was managed by the Department of Energy (DOE). The plant operated from 1952 to 1994 with manufacturing activities taking place in the center portion of the site with a large buffer zone around the area. In 1989, after the FBI-led raid for suspicion of environmental crimes at the plant, nuclear production work stopped to address environmental and safety concerns. Although work resumed in 1990, the RF mission was terminated when President George H. W. Bush canceled the W-88 Trident Warhead program in 1992. Nuclear and nonnuclear production stopped in 1993, and in 1994 the last shipment of defense-related materials was sent off-site.