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EPA salutes Coloradans' environmental work

Release Date: 7/26/2001
Contact Information:
303 312 6314,

Release Date: 7/26/2001
Contact Information:
303 312 6780,

Release Date: 7/26/2001
Contact Information:
800 227 8917 +EXT

DENVER–Coloradans are safeguarding mountain waters, keeping tons of household hazardous wastes out of landfills and sewers, cutting waste in manufacturing and energy use in schools , protecting migrant workers from water-borne illness and working to eliminate lead poisoning among children. These and related challenges brought Environmental Protection Agency awards recently to three individuals and eleven groups in Colorado, a total of 40 people.

“These individuals embody the kind of environmental commitment and partnership EPA recognizes as crucial to protecting our land, water and air,” said Jack McGraw, EPA’s acting Regional Administrator in Denver. EPA will present the awards at future individual events.

Awardees and their contributions included:

• The JEFFERSON COUNTY COMMISSIONERS for a pilot study that could lead to criteria for evaluating water quality and quantity in the mountain areas of the county subject to development pressures. Most groundwater models are based on flatland geology. Water behaves differently in the fractured rock of the mountains. Information gained here could help shape decisions on lot sizes, density, spacing of septic systems, placement of wells and related issues. “This is one of the first places in the country where a scientifically sound approach to characterizing water resources in this hydrogeologic setting has been developed,” according to EPA.

• LINDA LUTHER, of the San Miguel County Planning Department in Telluride, for detailed assessments of threats to sources of drinking water for seven communities in the San Miguel River watershed. Spotting potential contamination areas helps water suppliers take early actions to protect their sources. Luther’s work is well ahead of others in the state and will serve as a model for such work elsewhere.

• DENVER’S HOUSEHOLD HAZARDOUS WASTE PROGRAM which has removed nearly 186,000 pounds of hazardous materials from 1,521 homes in Denver in the past 19 months. The wastes could have ended up in area landfills or sewers or remained in households. Instead, about 93 percent, including paint, oil and filters, anti-freeze, car batteries, aerosols, corrosives and pesticides will be recycled. Only about 7 percent will be incinerated or landfilled.

• JOHN D. HAMILTON and DENNIS TREGO of COLORADO SWEET GOLD for cutting nearly eight million pounds of hazardous materials from their corn-starch production plant in Johnstown. In 1996, the company used almost eight million pounds of ammonia, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid and chlorine. Last year they used none. “It saves us money to increase environmental safety,” says Hamilton, the company’s manager. The plant also stopped discharging wastewater to the Little Thompson River in 1999. It now applies treated wastewater on land and is working to improve that system as well.

• The POUDRE SCHOOL DISTRICT in Fort Collins whose energy conservation programs have saved the district some $768,000 since 1994. The programs now save more than $200,000 yearly and help keep 7,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, 31 pounds of sulfur oxides and 245 pounds of nitrogen oxides out of the air, the equivalent of planting an acre of trees each year. Last year, four District schools received Energy Star ® awards for superior energy performance. Harris Bilingual, built in 1919, is the oldest school in the nation to receive a perfect score under Energy Star.

• DR. ED HENDRIKSON, Fort Lupton, who works for the Brighton-based Salud Family Health Center. Hendrikson travels the state visiting migrant farmworker camps in a mobile unit equipped for testing of drinking water. It’s not unusual for workers to drink from ditches or supplies tainted with lead, nitrates, pesticides or disease bacteria. Hendrikson strives to inform workers of the quality of their drinking water and about precautions they can take to avoid illness for themselves and their families.

• The COLORADO LEAD COALITION. These eight health and housing agencies are working together to create housing free of lead contamination for low-income families. Group members have created a Lead-Safe House as temporary housing for people whose homes are being cleaned of lead, tested 175 children, distributed 100 lead-dust cleaning kits and information to an estimated 250,000 families in Colorado.

• The PROWERS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, Lamar, and PARKER AG SERVICES of Limon for a 10-year program of applying “bio-solids” to wheat fields and other lands in Prowers County. A by-product from wastewater treatment plants in New York City and Boston, the bio-solids have improved soils, reclaimed a “sand blowout” area and re-established vegetation on problem areas along the lower Arkansas River. Launched in controversy in 1992, the program keeps expanding to meet demand of area farmers.

• ATTORNEY REED ZARS, formerly of Colorado, now of Laramie, whose lawsuits on behalf of the Sierra Club’s northwest Colorado office forced major pollution reductions at power plants at Craig and Hayden, CO. The plants, directly upwind of the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness Area will cut 21,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 10,000 tons of nitrogen oxides and 2,000 tons of particulates each year. The decisions set important new national precedents for citizen suits under the Clean Air Act.

• ECO-CYCLE’S BROOMFIELD RECYCLING CENTER for tripling recycling in Broomfield in two years. In its first three years of operation, BRC has diverted more than 4 million pounds of valuable resources form the landfill. Paper recycling alone has “saved” 32,000 trees. The facility innovates, too, EPA said, launching book recycling in 1999, and Colorado’s first community home computer recycling roundup last November.

• ENGLEWOOD’S COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT for creativity and leadership in the “Brownfields” program that reclaims formerly contaminated properties and puts them back into productive use. Highlights include reclaiming the old General Iron Works foundry for residential and transit uses, solving problems to free up the Thomas Plating site and providing financing for private-sector cleanups that put vacant land and buildings back into use and created jobs.

• COLORADO INDUSTRIAL PRE-TREATMENT COORDINATORS ASSOCIATION for a training and education program that protects taxpayers’ investments in their communities’ wastewater treatment plants. The Clean Water Act requires many industries to pre-treat some wastes, removing contaminants that could upset the biology or chemistry at publicly owned treatment plants designed mostly to treat human wastes. Because Colorado lacks such a program, the coordinators developed their own training, providing “Pretreatment 101" to more than 100 industrial users from Colorado and Wyoming.

• The FORT CARSON INSTALLATION ACTION PLAN TEAM which is on track to clean up areas of contamination on the base years earlier than once projected. Efforts are aimed at meeting two key elements of hazardous waste cleanups nationally: an end to human exposures to waste and an end to migration of contaminated groundwater. The base expects to meet the human health goal in 2002 (7 years early) and the groundwater goal by 2006 (9 years early). (This Award presented 7/24/01)

• Southern Colorado residents organized as “CITIZENS UNITED FOR RESPONSIBILITY TO THE ENVIRONMENT ” received “Friend of EPA” awards for their persistence in pursuing water pollution practices of a coalbed methane drilling project west of Trinidad. The group documented illegal discharges and filed a citizens’ lawsuit which led to a settlement between the State and the drilling company. Singled out for special attention were C.U.R.E. president David Groubert, Leslie Beck, Mike Kircher and Ed Richardson.


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Editor: for details, please feel free to contact the nominator of the group or individual:

Awardee Nominator Phone Number

Jefferson County Commissioners Karen Hamilton 303 312 6236
Linda Luther Mike Wireman 303 312 6719
Denver Household Haz Waste Julie Klein 303 640 1977
Colorado Sweet Gold Eric Steinhaus 303 312 6837
Poudre School District Patty Crow 303 312 6464
Dr. Ed Hendrikson Jean Belille 303 312 6556
Colorado Lead Coalition Amanda Hasty 303 312 6966
Prowers County Comm/
Parker Ag Services Bob Brobst 303 312 6129
Reed Zars Larry Svoboda 303 312 6004
Broomfield Recycling Center Sam Cole 303 444 6634
Englewood Commty. Dvlpmt. David Ostrander 303 312 6931
Colo. Industrial Pretreat. Coord. Curt McCormick 303 312 6377
Fort Carson Action Plan Team Ron Lillich 303 312 6149
C.U.R.E. Jean Belille 303 312 6556