How Green Turned Purple

Think of it this way: Recycling our sewage effluent after proper treatment is a good idea. No problem. Very “green”.

Denver Water says it saves the equivalent of 40,000 households water use by not using potable water to irrigate the park grassland. Now we can use the recycled water, in the purple pipes, for that, and fill the lakes too. Hey, I’m all for that. (I'm not even going to complain about the $154,000,000 cost.)

So where’s the beef? The beef is Permit No. 2360-3-1A (see below), which allows the vile toxins from the bottom of the Lowry Landfill site to be pumped into the supply side of our recycling system, that is, into our sewers. Sure, they treat it on site but only to an economically feasible point. The “cleaned up” Lowry stuff still contains measurable levels of 158 pollutants and 10 radionuclides, and that’s just what’s being measured now. 5 new pollutants were added since the last permit.

Why would we want this stuff added to our sewers, and thence into our valuable and perhaps very cool recycling system? Are we being paid large amounts of money to accept this toxic crap? Who benefits?

Well, it ain’t you babe. No, the beneficiaries can easily be traced to the major polluters who were identified at Lowry from the beginning. Slipping their toxic essence into our sewer system saves them millions. Too bad the high cost to the health and welfare of the citizens will not be known for years. And let’s not forget the ducks, who can’t read the signs.

Twenty years from now, when we (and our children) look back at the current practice, we will be amazed and appalled. “How could we have allowed them to pump all of those carcinogens onto our fields and lakes? What were we thinking?”

(click to enlarge)