Homeowners, Rocky Flats Operators Reach $375M Settlement

AP Photo/Ed Andrieski
In this Oct. 13, 2005 file photo, deer cross a road stripped of its asphalt at the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons plant near Golden, Colo.
Photo: Rocky Flats site near Golden (AP Photo)
In this Oct. 13, 2005 file photo, deer cross a road stripped of its asphalt at the former Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons plant near Golden, Colo.

Fifteen thousand property owners near Arvada and Westminster sued the operators of the nuclear weapons plant in 1990, alleging wide-spread plutonium contamination. Now, the sides have come to an agreement, according to an attorney for the plaintiffs.

If approved by a judge, the settlement will be paid out by the companies that ran the plant -- Dow Chemical and Rockwell International, now owned by Boeing. It’s not clear how much the federal government is on the hook for; details of the settlement were not immediately available.

Rocky Flats opened after World War II. For more than three decades it produced nuclear weapon components. It’s now a wildlife refuge.