On May 10th, 1969, a plume of black smoke arose over Superior to the south of Boulder County. It was coming from the Central Operating Unit of the Rocky Flats Weapons Facility. This was a Department of Defense facility charged with the delicate metallurgy required to complete the production of plutonium triggers for nuclear missiles.

The history of nuclear weapons development at Rocky Flats has seen its share of media and scandal over the years. The technical operations of the plutonium triggers used in modern nuclear weapons has also been the subject of much mystery, media and public and political speculation. Why it is that the spent and residual material from the clean up and closure of these Rocky Flats industries remains a continual issue for our area deserves to be carefully disclosed.  

I was raised downwind of Rocky Flats, in a little track home in the city of Arvada. One day, my father came home from work, and he said to me: "If they ever want to know where the toxic waste is, tell them they are dumping it in Marshall Lake." My father, who is currently 79 and struggling with ALS, does not remember this moment, but I do. I believe I can recall this today because of the way my father spoke to me that day.

Then some 43 years later, long after having moved back to the area, the Marshall Fire would erupt in South Boulder, and I would eventually come to the hypothesis that the Marshall Fire and the Marshall Lake my father mentioned in 1979 may be only separate conditions of the same site. Perhaps it is in a deeper acquaintance with the radioactive material being handled at the old Rocky Flats site that it seems logical the dumping (alleged) may have changed the chemical nature of Marshall Lake such that sometimes it is wet water and sometimes that water ignites. 

What my father told me about toxic waste being dumped and the unexplained nature of the Marshall Fire may coincide into a tremendous misfortune for our region. I believe the Marshall Fire (Dec 30, 2021) was in fact a contamination fire begot by decades of neglected radioactive pollution created by the dumping of hazardous materials into Marshall Lake and around Marshall Mesa (March 1,1979 or earlier). This is the hypothesis I would like to think of as the worst-case scenario for the region because the implications are so far reaching. 

It is not my hope to create alarm but only to properly understand the events we have seen and, where it concerns the ramifications of the Marshall Fire, to reconsider the threats we face from a wildfire and cancer susceptibility point of view across the Front Range of Colorado. 

-Travis