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WHEN LOWRY AIR FORCE BASE OCCUPIED THE LAND NOW HOME TO THE LOWRY NEIGHBORHOOD, portions of the property were devoted to landfill and various forms of waste disposal. A new mixed-use project comparable to Lakewood’s Belmar District is slated to occupy a site that has been characterized as a former “low-level radioactive waste disposal site” by the Air Force. Developer IRG, specialist in Brownfield remediation, is moving forward with a General Development Plan for the site, and hopes to have it rezoned this fall. Some activists are not convinced the plan is safe. For information, see article at right.

The anticipated project is located at E. Alameda Ave. between Xenia and Dayton streets on the defunct Lowry Air Force Base.

IRG, a Littleton-based corporation with multiple subsidiaries, deals in the remediation and redevelopment of “brownfields,” an Environmental Protection Agency term for land “with the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”

“We’re pursuing a General Development Plan (GDP) on the site,” says Marcus Pachner of The Pachner Company, an IRG consultant. “We just re-submitted the second GDP about three months ago and in early October we’ll start the rezoning process. It’s full speed ahead now.”

Lowry Vista will be a mixed-use development, including 500 residential units interspersed with commercial and retail spaces. Comparable to Lakewood’s Belmar District along Alameda and Wadsworth, Lowry Vista blueprints are currently moving through city approval procedures before entering final review by the state.

The 74.5-acre Landfill Zone Operable Unit 2 (OU-2), used by the U.S. military from 1948-1986 for onsite waste disposal, has since been covered by a “soft-cap” of clay and closed off to protect human and environmental health. After Lowry’s closure in 1994, the Cities of Denver and Aurora created the Lowry Redevelopment Authority (LRA), which took over management of remaining groundwater remediation and landfill closure on the property.

Eventually, in January 2006, the landfill property was transferred from the Air Force to IRG for 12 cents an acre.

When asked why Denver, in the end, did not want possession of OU-2 for Parks and Recreation, District 5 City Councilwoman Marcia Johnson responded, “Because it’s a landfill; it has to be monitored and that costs money. It’s in the city charter not to assume an unfunded liability and the parks department didn’t want it because you can’t do anything on it. IRG (now) assumes the liability. They are forever responsible for whatever’s under there.”

What’s under there appears to be a point of contention.

“State documents show that there are high levels of gross beta and all kinds of Yttrium (in the groundwater),” says Adrienne Anderson, of the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center.

“There are some (Lowry residents) who remain unconvinced that (the landfill) is contained, and that it doesn’t have anything more than asbestos,” Johnson observes.

Documents obtained by the Profile from the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment (CDPHE) Remediation and Restoration Unit’s Sheila Gaston in 2006 state: “Uranium-containing ores and materials were used at Lowry AFB. Their disposal at the landfill is a logical source of the increased uranium content in groundwater.”

The report goes on to say, “Does OU-2 contribute to increases in uranium concentrations in groundwater moving through it? The answer is yes. Uranium concentrations in groundwater are up to five times the Colorado standard.”
 
LOWRY VISTA, A MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT INCLUDING SOME 500 RESIDENTIAL UNITS INTERSPERSED WITH COMMERCIAL AND RETAIL SPACES, will be built on a former low-level radioactive waste disposal site. Littleton-based developer, IRG, is experienced in Brownfield remediation, but not everyone is thrilled with the planned project.

An environmental covenant, signed on Jan. 4, 2006, by the Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division of the CDPHE and the office of the Secretary of the Air Force, restricts future uses of the site. “The purpose (of this covenant) is to protect human health and the environment by minimizing the potential for exposure to any hazardous substance, hazardous waste, hazardous constituents, and/or solid waste that remains in the landfill on the Property,” the document reads.

In a letter dated Aug. 27, 2007, Councilwoman Johnson wrote the CDPHE inquiring if OU-2 was being adequately remediated in preparation for IRG’s proposed Lowry Vista development.

Federal Facilities Remediation & Restoration Unit’s Jeff Edson responded: “The answer is no. The environmental covenant mandates that the landfill site may only be used as open space/non- irrigated park. Therefore any proposed redevelopment of the landfill or change in use, including the proposed Lowry Vista redevelopment, is not consistent with the current remediation of the landfill.” 

Further, a 2008 document from CDPHE Remedial Programs manager Jeffrey Deckler iterates, “State law does not prohibit property owners from implementing an alternative remedy as long as the alternative remains protective, and is approved by CDPHE. To date, no plans to change the current (soft-cap) remedy have been submitted.”

However, current plans for Lowry Vista are moving forward. IRG’s development proposal will be submitted to the CDPHE for final approval following the City of Denver’s likely endorsement this fall.

“The cap will be penetrated in the process of construction and that will be monitored by CDPHE,” says Johnson. “The reality is that the asphalt for the streets and the solidity of the buildings will be a much greater coverage than the (current) clay cap.”

“CDPHE’s role is to ensure that whatever is done at the landfill remains protective of public heath and the environment. Numerous studies and expert review of data from the landfill indicate that the current cap is protective of public health and the environment, and that levels of radionuclides at that location are consistent with naturally occurring radionuclides in the area,” CDPHE’s Community Involvement Specialist Marilyn Null maintains.

“This is a very solvable issue that exists at the landfill,” claims IRG’s consultant Pachner. “This project has an entitlement process with the city, and the State of Colorado, and I have full faith in the regulatory agencies. We’ll go through (the) process and find the solutions for this site.”

Recent phone calls to IRG itself, about the status of Lowry Vista and its groundwater, went unreturned.

More about the Lowry site remediation is available at www.lowryvista.com or OU-2’s history at www.cdphe.state.co.us/hm/lafb/ou2.htm. To read details about a recent IRG-remediated site in California, visit www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct
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