For decades, people living near two Colorado nuclear sites breathed air and drank water tainted by radioactive contamination, and many never received a dime from the federal government for it. Now Congress is weighing legislation that would change that, making Colorado eligible for compensation under a program that has so far focused on downwinders in other Western states.
The bill, known as the Radiation Exposure Compensation Reauthorization Act of 2026, was introduced in August and would designate Colorado as a downwinder state, according to The Denver Post. It would formally recognize the former Rocky Flats nuclear-weapons plant northwest of Denver and the Cotter uranium mill near Cañon City as Manhattan Project waste sites, opening the door for residents who lived nearby and later developed certain illnesses to file claims. Eligible applicants could receive reimbursement for medical expenses plus a separate payment of $150,000, per the same report.
The legislation is led by U.S. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat representing Colorado's 7th Congressional District, which includes both Rocky Flats and the Cotter uranium mill. Pettersen said she pursued the bill after hearing from constituents who lost family members or became ill but did not qualify for existing compensation programs, the Denver Post reports. Rep. Joe Neguse co-sponsors the measure, which Pettersen has called a huge step for Coloradans and their loved ones impacted by radiation illnesses.
Two Sites, Decades of Contamination
Rocky Flats operated for more than 30 years as a nuclear-weapons parts facility located 16 miles from Denver, where workers used plutonium to build triggers and other components for nuclear warheads during the Cold War. Contaminated waste from the site entered soil and nearby creeks over the plant's operating history. A federal investigation halted operations at the plant in 1989, and the Denver Post reported that Nevada nuclear-test fallout exposed thousands of people.
Some sections of the former plant site were later rechristened the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Federal officials declared the Rocky Flats cleanup complete in 2005, though the property's legacy has continued to generate scrutiny, including through updated warning signage that Hoodline reported drew community concern over potential airborne plutonium contamination earlier this year. Separately, two private-sector Rocky Flats operators paid a $375 million settlement in 2017 covering 7,500 households, based on lost home value after plutonium traveled downwind to Broomfield, Westminster and Arvada.
South of Cañon City, Cotter Corp. opened the uranium mill in 1958, a facility that stored radioactive waste from the Manhattan Project's atomic-bomb creation before closing in 2011. Cotter Corp. is a Denver-based subsidiary of General Atomic. Radioactive waste at the site still remains, totaling 5.8 million tons, the Denver Post reports.
Local Advocates Push for Recognition
Jeri Fry, co-chair of Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste, said the bill could bring recognition and compensation for damage suffered near the Cotter site. Her group advocates for the community surrounding the mill, while Rocky Flats Downwinders has collected stories from people who became sick after living near Rocky Flats, according to the Denver Post's account. Fry said contamination can remain in the environment for millions of years and can be resuspended, carried, or dug up long after a site officially closes.
Colorado Citizens Against Toxic Waste began providing free well-water testing to residents this summer, a service that matters because individual water testing can cost up to $500 per sample, per the same report. Stephanie Dalton said recognition and support through the bill would bring long-overdue justice for people affected by Rocky Flats.
Downwinder Program's Origins and Scope
The compensation framework being expanded traces back to the original Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, which President George H.W. Bush signed into law on October 15, 1990, establishing a federal trust fund to provide compassionate lump-sum payments to people who contracted serious illnesses after exposure to Cold War atmospheric nuclear testing or uranium processing, according to Wikipedia's summary of the law. Since then, the Department of Justice has awarded more than $2 billion in compensation to approved downwinders, nuclear test participants, and uranium workers nationwide, per the U.S. Department of Justice.
That original program largely covered people exposed during open-air nuclear weapons tests conducted in Nevada during the 1950s and 1960s, when winds carried radiation hundreds of miles from the test sites. Colorado residents could receive restitution under the proposed expansion if they lived in the state during that testing period and later developed illnesses such as leukemia or breast cancer, per the Denver Post's reporting. The broader expansion would also cover people who live or have lived in 57 zip codes near Rocky Flats and the Cotter mill and developed certain illnesses, and would extend nuclear-program eligibility to sites in other states, including Ohio's Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
The program expired on July 7, 2024, but was extended and expanded on July 3, 2025, according to Trusted Ally News. The application deadline is December 31, 2027, if the new bill does not pass, while the reauthorized program is set to expire on December 31, 2028, per the Denver Post.
Rocky Flats' Criminal History and Worker Compensation
Rocky Flats' legacy includes one of the more dramatic chapters in federal environmental enforcement. In 1989, dozens of FBI and EPA investigators executed a surprise search warrant at the plant in what was described as the first time a federal law enforcement agency had raided another federal facility for criminal environmental violations, according to News From The States. Federal agents reportedly entered under the pretext of providing an ecoterrorism briefing before serving the warrants. Plant contractor Rockwell International, which had managed site operations for the Department of Energy since 1975, was fined $18.5 million for environmental violations, including a Clean Water Act violation.
Eligible former Rocky Flats plant workers can receive federal compensation and medical benefits through a separate program, the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000, which is administered by the Department of Labor rather than the Department of Justice and has paid out more than $27 billion nationally, per Trusted Ally News. The program covers qualifying workers diagnosed with specific cancers.
Conflicting Health Findings
The push for compensation unfolds against a backdrop of unresolved questions about health risks near the two sites. A May 13, 2005, public health assessment by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is cited in discussions of those risks. By contrast, a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment study conducted in 2016 and 2017 did not examine thyroid or other rare cancers in communities surrounding the former Rocky Flats plant, and further study was planned.
Amid that unresolved tension, Pettersen and Sen. Michael Bennet sent a letter Friday to the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency urging transparency and cleanup progress in Cañon City, according to the Denver Post. The letter adds pressure on federal regulators even as the compensation bill moves through Congress, with advocates like Fry and Dalton arguing that recognition for affected residents is long overdue.
