Benzene leaking into Sand Creek? What about the benzene from Lowry Landfill being pumped daily into Washington Park and City Park by Metro Wastewater?

Recent articles have revealed that benzene, a toxic carcinogen, is leaking from the Suncor refinery into Sand Creek in Denver. Steps have been taken to investigate the source and reduce the flow. But records show that benzene is among the many carcinogens being pumped into our parks and lakes in the guise of recycled water.

Metro Wastewater Reclamation District (MWRD) issues permits to allow pollutants to be flushed into Denver and Aurora sewers. After a secret deal (later made public by Westword) between the major polluters (Coors et. al.) at Lowry Landfill Superfund Site (LLSS) and then-Mayor Webb in 1996, a permit was granted by Metro Wastewater Reclamation District to allow over 60 toxic chemicals (including radionuclides like plutonium) to be flushed into Denver's sewer about a mile from Lowry Landfill. Pages 5 and 6 from the current permit, obtained from MWRD by a Colorado Open Records request, are reprinted below. Note that benzene is on the list. (Click to enlarge)

Back in those days, this toxic sewer water mix flowed into the Platte River. When Denver started to recycle it's sewer water in 2004, those contaminants flowed instead to the Robert W. Hite water recycling plant at 6450 York St. There the mix is treated to remove organic contaminants, but nothing is done to remove the toxic chemicals, which flow unabated (through purple pipes) to Washington Park (Grasmere Lake) and City Park (Ferril Lake and Duck Lake).

Remember when they put a rubber bottom under Grasmere Lake? That was necessitated by the fact that this contaminated effluent exceeds the allowable limits of ground water and the lake was leaking into the ground water.

Denver Water steadfastly maintains that these "allowable" limits are safe and acceptable. They even blatantly lie about the plutonium, claiming to have "disproven" the fact that plutonium is in the water. The permit tells no lies.



See also:

Recycling Plutonium: How the EPA is Disbursing Toxic and Radioactive Waste From the Lowry Landfill to the Sewage System and onto CO Farmlands and Public Parks

and for much more type "pollution" into the search box at the upper right on this blog.