The Lowdown on Lowry

The city thought it had settled any questions about the Lowry Landfill. The truth is a toxic shocker.

A A A Comments By Eileen Welsome Thursday, Apr 12 2001

...continued from page 7

Just four years later, in 1984, Lowry was declared one of the most hazardous Superfund sites in the country.

The same year that Milt Adams sold his company, Chemical Waste Management contracted with the City of Denver to operate the landfill. Chemical Waste Management immediately assigned the contract to Waste Management of Colorado. Sanitary landfill operations continued until 1990 at the Superfund site, then were moved to the section directly north of the closed site. Today Waste Management shares an office at the landfill with city employees and continues to be deeply involved in the cleanup activities.

Michael Hogue

Julie Hutchinson

Details

For more detailed maps and other documents, click to our Lowry Superfund Site website.

Westword's coverage of Rocky Flats

Link to www.projectcensored.org

More About

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

The upshot of the two transactions? The City of Denver obtained a new partner in the landfill business, but it was a partner that various parties would soon allege was equally culpable for the toxic mess at Lowry. Ironically, Denver itself had only disposed of about five gallons of garden chemicals at the site through 1980, and the city didn't really start taking household garbage from Denver residents to the landfill until that year.

Next week: Lowry Coalition members make massive settlements to the city, which are put in secret trusts. But will the funds cover potential plutonium cleanup?

Click over to our Lowry Superfund Site website. It contains all the documents used in this investigation, database excerpts, maps, and links to discuss the story with other Westword readers