Epidemiologic Studies

Rocky Flats Plant Site

INTRODUCTION

Overview
This is the sixth in a series of seven volumes which constitute a guide to records of the Rocky Flats Plant useful for conducting health-related research. The primary purpose of Volume VI is to describe record series pertaining to workplace and environmental monitoring activities at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Rocky Flats Plant, now named the Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site, near Denver, Colorado. History Associates Incorporated (HAI) prepared this guide as part of its work as the support services contractor for DOE's Epidemiologic Records Inventory Project.

This introduction briefly describes the Epidemiologic Records Inventory Project and HAI's role in the project, provides a history of workplace and environmental monitoring practices at Rocky Flats, and identifies organizations contributing to workplace and environmental monitoring policies and activities. Other topics include the scope and arrangement of this volume and the organization to contact for access to these records. Comprehensive introductory and background information is available in Volume I.

Other volumes in the guide pertain to administrative and general subjects, facilities and equipment, production and materials handling, waste management, and employee health. In addition, HAI has produced a subject-specific guide, titled The September 1957 Rocky Flats Fire: A Guide to Record Series of the Department of Energy and Its Contractors, which researchers should consult for further information about records related to this incident.

The Epidemiologic Records Inventory Project
The Epidemiologic Records Inventory Project is indicative of DOE Secretary Hazel R. O'Leary's efforts to support openness initiatives in the areas of environment, safety, and health. In view of the importance of various administrative, organizational, and operational records to epidemiologic and health-related studies, a moratorium on the destruction of such records has been in effect since 1989.

In May 1992, the DOE Office of Epidemiology and Health Surveillance (EH-42), responsible for the coordination of all health-related activities throughout the DOE complex, directed each DOE and DOE contractor site to prepare an inventory of all records useful for worker or community health-related studies. EH-42 prepared and furnished each site with guidelines that defined epidemiologic records, provided instructions for describing record series, outlined the sites' role in inventorying epidemiologic records, and discussed the relationship of the epidemiologic inventory to DOE's comprehensive records inventory. The epidemiologic inventories should be completed in 1995. It should be noted, however, that some of the information contained in the site records inventories, such as the location of active (still in use) records or the volume of the records, may change over time. The continued usefulness of the inventories and this guide depends on their systematic update.

Role of HAI
In August 1993, DOE selected HAI as its support services contractor for the Epidemiologic Records Inventory Project. HAI, a professional records management, archives, and historical research services firm incorporated in 1981, has provided records management, historical research, and technical support for a number of DOE projects. HAI's role in the project includes verifying the accuracy, comprehensiveness, and quality of existing inventories, providing guidance to site records management teams, and, in some cases, performing additional records inventories.

BACKGROUND

History of Workplace and Environmental Monitoring
When the race to create a self-sustaining nuclear reaction began in 1942, scientists of the Manhattan Engineer District (MED) were already aware of the need for workplace and environmental monitoring to protect workers and the environment from radiation contamination. They were faced, however, with the lack of necessary equipment and standards for conducting those activities. Under the MED, the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory took the lead in developing monitoring instruments and standards for use in the atomic energy program. Erratic measurements, changing experimental conditions, makeshift apparatuses, immovable or clumsy parts, and a paucity of available monitors made existing monitoring practices and equipment inadequate. New instruments needed to be portable, more sensitive, and provide prompt results, requirements which challenged researchers and designers.(1)

Throughout World War II, research to develop adequate alpha-counter instruments continued at a rapid pace. Hand and foot counters, air samplers, Geiger-Mhller counters, and other survey meters had to be developed and produced in sufficient number for use in the production and research sites of the Manhattan Project. By 1952, however, sufficient progress had been made so that Rocky Flats was able to begin monitoring efforts immediately upon commencement of production. (2) Workplace monitoring was usually conducted by industrial hygienists on the Rocky Flats staff. Later, these activities were often combined with the broader environmental monitoring activities, because the functions and efforts of the two areas overlapped.

Federal, state, and local government agencies and the site contractors have been actively involved in monitoring the environment (air, water, and soil) around the site for potential contaminants. These operations increased during plant expansion in the late 1950s, 1960s, and again in the early to mid-1980s. However, monitoring efforts were mostly concentrated around a handful of onsite production buildings, most notably Buildings 444, 707, 771/776, 774, 779, 881, 991, and 995. (3) Rocky Flats began issuing monthly and annual environmental monitoring reports in 1970. (4)

In addition, as the federal government became more attuned to the potential hazards to the environment, it began passing numerous regulatory acts, including the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. This legislation, along with the 1986 Compliance Agreement and other site-specific agreements, increased DOE accountability for its actions and vastly increased the oversight and reporting requirements for environmental monitoring. (5)

In 1989, DOE announced an initiative to strengthen the safety, environmental protection, and waste management activities at its facilities. "Tiger Teams" were established in conjunction with this initiative to conduct environmental compliance assessments at each site. The Tiger Team visiting Rocky Flats in June 1989 concluded that the strategies and procedures designed for sampling and reporting environmental monitoring results needed to be more comprehensive and better managed. About the same time, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the site to investigate allegations of mismanagement and negligence. Rockwell International, the site management and operations contractor, was accused of improperly burning and dumping radioactive wastes. Rockwell eventually pled guilty to ten counts, including violations of the Clean Water Act, and agreed to pay a fine of $18.5 million. (6) Later that year, the plant ceased plutonium operations, and in 1992, EG&G, Rockwell's successor, started the transition to cleanup site status. Eventually the site will be decontaminated and decommissioned.

In addition to conducting routine monitoring in work areas and the plant surroundings, plant personnel have performed asbestos removal, building safety inspections and analyses, decontamination and decommissioning planning, emergency response unit evaluations, hazard assessments, weather statistics compilation, employee training, environmental impact appraisals, and seismologic and geologic studies in an effort to protect plant workers and the environment.

Workplace and Environmental Monitoring Organizations

Dow Chemical Company (1952-1975)
From a review of available organizational charts and semiannual reports sent from the site to the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), HAI determined that Dow Chemical Company did not maintain a formal Industrial Hygiene organization. (7) The first mention of the discipline is in a 1956 organizational chart which lists one salaried industrial hygienist position in the Facilities and Shop subsection of the Health Physics and Medical Department. Interestingly enough, the 1957 organizational chart does not mention this position, which may mean its discontinuation or removal to a different department. A variety of Industrial Hygiene records were created under Dow's management, including air sampling records, environmental contamination measurement records, environmental monitoring reports, industrial injury and accident reports, and safety management files.

Rockwell International (1975-1989)
Under Rockwell's tenure, the industrial hygiene functions at Rocky Flats operated under the umbrella of the Health, Safety and Environment Organization. In 1975, Industrial Hygiene was a subbranch of Health Sciences, which was renamed Health Sciences and Industrial Safety in 1976. Industrial Hygiene became a subbranch of a newly organized Environmental Sciences and Occupational Health branch in 1982. Starting in the 1980s, Rocky Flats began maintaining records to comply with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, which was responsible, in part, for requiring more substantial monitoring of potential environmental contamination. (8)

EG&G (1990-1995)
Under EG&G's management, Industrial Hygiene and Safety is a branch of the Safety, Safeguards and Security Organization. It consists of three subbranches: Industrial Hygiene, Occupational Safety, and Area Management. Environmental monitoring activities continued under the Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Organization, which, in 1991, was renamed the Environmental Waste Management Organization. Under EG&G, Rocky Flats continued to create and maintain monitoring and compliance records, including radiological surveys, asbestos monitoring reports, safety inspections, air sampling, and stack effluent monitoring reports.

ACCESS

For more complete information regarding access to the records, please refer to Volume I. The Department of Energy's Rocky Flats Plant: A Guide to Record Series Useful for Health-Related Research.

For specific information or permission to review Rocky Flats records, contact:

U.S. Department of Energy
Records Management Department
Contracts and Services Division
Rocky Flats Office
P.O. Box 928
Golden, CO 80402-0928
Telephone Number: (303) 966-6177

SCOPE

The record series found in this volume pertain to monitoring of the workplace and the environment both on and off the site. Records in this category are usually not specific to individual employees. Record series generally consist of sampling data and environmental impact reports. Other records described in this volume are discussed above in conjuction with the contracting organizations which created them.

This volume reflects information collected from research conducted during site visits from March 1994 through January 1995. Users of this volume should note that omissions are likely due to the nature of the records targeted for research. For example, the June 6, 1989, seizure of records by the FBI rendered an unknown quantity of records unavailable for review by HAI staff. Moreover, HAI team members did not inventory records stored in radiation-controlled areas.

HAI relied on existing finding aids prepared for Rocky Flats records. HAI was unable to verify that these research tools include all records that may exist. In addition, researchers should note that records at all of the repositories listed in this guide may be moved, transferred to a different location, reviewed for changes in disposition authority, and changed to a different format (i.e., from paper to microfilm).

ARRANGEMENT

1. Barton C. Hacker, The Dragon's Tail: Radiation Safety in the Manhattan Project, 1942-1946 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1987), 64-66.
2. Ibid., 40-42.
3. Chemrisk, Project Tasks 3 & 4: Final Draft Report: Reconstruction of Historical Rocky Flats Operations and Identification of Release Points (1992), 21.
4. Michelle A. Hanson, "Site History of Rocky Flats" (Washington, DC: United States Department of Energy, History Division, January 1993), 9.
5. Ibid., 10.
6. Ibid., 12-17.
7. Annual Reports of the Atomic Energy Commission (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1958-1966).
8. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 [Public Law 94-580 (Title 42 U.S.C. 6901)].