Remembering Adrienne Anderson

Remembering Adrienne Anderson, a longtime friend and accomplished environmental advocate 

Adrienne Anderson, a dedicated environmental activist, passed away on September 7, 2011, after a five month battle with cancer.

Adrienne was an exceedingly courageous advocate for environmental justice. She worked with labor unions, low income and other neighborhoods affected by industrial pollution, Denver neighborhood associations, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, and other organizations in Texas, where she was born and raised, and in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Oregon. She fought against contamination of farmlands, watersheds, city parks, and lakes with toxic and radioactive waste issues, and took on defense contractors, water utilities and corporate establishments to protect workers from plutonium contamination and publicize the failure to properly clean up the remains of Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant.

Adrienne uncovered a massive cover-up of ground and surface water contamination from Rocky Flats and other sites, where toxins were being illegally dumped into landfills, entering the Platte River and leaching into aquifers that served the Denver Metro area. She also campaigned against the practice of pumping effluent from rocket fuel production into aquifers and pipelines that served the Friendly Hills neighborhood of Southwest Denver and was linked to unusually high rates of cancer.

Adrienne was lauded for her role as a key witness in associated lawsuits on the behalf of exposed workers, and compared to famous whistleblowers by Judge David W. DiNardi of Boston, who ruled that her documentation of radiation at the Lowry landfill was “most credible” and “well-founded.” The judge’s subsequent analysis of Adrienne’s work and the overturned ruling and ongoing battle has appeared in a series of articles in Westword by Eileen Welsome, who won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.

Because Adrienne did not shy away from controversial and even dangerous battles for what she believed in, she was often the target of threats and publicity campaigns. Adrienne was dismissed from her position as an instructor in environmental ethics and environmental research at University of Colorado where she had taught for more than a dozen years.

Adrienne Anderson was known widely as an extraordinarily courageous woman, passionate environmental and community advocate, and role model. She received her BA in Sociology from Southerb Methodist University and an MA in Environmental Sociology from the University of Oregon. In 2005, she was awarded the very first Edward Abbey award for support of the environment.

Adrienne is survived by her two daughters, Erin, 20 and Sarah, 16, and a host of life-long friends, family members, admiring co-workers and supporters.

Donations may be made in her honor to the college fund set up for her daughters at the Public Service Credit Union, and checks can be made out to Erin and Sarah Smile and sent to them for deposit at 306 Peery PRakway, Golden, CO 80403.