U.S. appeals court backs claim under state law in Rocky Flats saga

[WorldNews]

By Daniel Wallis DENVER (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday a decades-old pollution case over nuclear weapons production in Colorado should be sent back to the district court which in 2006 ordered companies that ran the facility to pay damages of $353 million. "This long lingering litigation deserves to find resolution soon," wrote one of the judges, Neil Gorsuch, about a case dating back to the 1980s, when Dow Chemical Co and a unit of Rockwell Automation Inc were involved in operating the Rocky Flats plant. After a four-month trial nine years ago, a federal jury awarded the nine-figure damages to 12,000 property owners who said their land was contaminated by the facility, which made triggers for nuclear bombs 16 miles (26 km) northwest of downtown Denver.

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