Tag: denver fire department

Denver’s fire training facility at 5440 Roslyn St. has been dumping dangerous “forever chemicals” into the soil, surface water and groundwater, contaminating the South Adams County Water and Sanitation District’s water supply, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District  Court on Tuesday. 

The pollution — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS — comes from foam products that firefighters and trainees use to put out fires at the training facility. 

The Commerce City-based water district first discovered the chemicals in 2018, and the district has spent “tens of millions” to treat and import water, and to start construction on a new, $80 million water treatment plant. The water is safe for domestic use, according to the complaint — but at a high cost the district wants Denver to help pay. 

The district delivers more than 3 billion gallons to 75,000 people over 28 square miles in Adams County each year. The water comes from the alluvial aquifer tributary to the South Platte River and stems from 11 water supply wells and some other sources. 

The fire training facility is roughly a mile from one of those wells and dates back to at least 1991. Part of the facility is a burn house that the city lights on fire and then extinguishes with a foam that includes PFAS, the lawsuit states. 

The complaint alleges the department has failed to control the release of the foam and polluted the water.  Denver itself has found PFAS contamination at the site as recently as 2024. 

The contamination has forced the South Adams County district to buy more water from Denver Water to dilute the forever chemical contamination. It also has used granular activated carbon to treat water at the existing plant, raising costs.

Meanwhile, the district is building a new water treatment facility to treat PFAS. While the project will get state and federal funding, the district needs more money to complete it. The lawsuit seeks to force Denver to pay for the district’s past and future costs to respond to the contamination.

The district’s planned new treatment facility, the Klein Enhancement Project, will use ion exchange technology to treat the water. Building and operating that will be costly, with the district estimating the construction cost at $80 million. It received $61 million in federal grants and will sit just west of the Klein Water Treatment Facility at 7400 Quebec St. in Commerce City. Completion is expected to continue until late this year.

Denver’s City Attorney Office declined to comment on this story. Neither the Denver’s City Attorney’s Office nor the South Adams County Water and Sanitation District immediately responded to requests for comment. 

Denver voters were in a pretty decisive mood on Election Day, with the electorate making firm decisions on numerous ballot measures.

But a couple issues closely divided them, including Referred Question 2T. The proposal would allow non-citizens to work as police and firefighters, if they have proper work authorization.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, the measure was passing with 51.4 percent of the vote. Its margin of 6,000 votes may be enough to win, but it was a relatively close vote in a city that prides itself on supporting immigrants.

“It certainly brings to light the complex feelings voters have across the political spectrum but I’m hopeful for an expanding ‘Yes’ as more results drop because it is the right thing to do and because I support our immigrant community deciding their careers for themselves,” wrote Councilmember Jamie Torres in a text message to Denverite.

Torres co-sponsored the measure with council president Amanda Sandoval. They said the city’s current policy, which forbids non-citizens with work authorization from taking police and fire jobs, violates federal law.

Torres told Denverite the measure faced a two-front battle from anti-immigration opposition and progressive voters who didn’t want the police department to grow.

Some immigration advocates aren’t worried about the close vote.

President-elect Donald Trump centered immigration throughout the campaign. And while Colorado overwhelmingly voted against Trump, a trend that bucked a national pattern, the state has taken on a prominent role in his campaign’s messaging. 

In his late-campaign rally on the outskirts of Aurora, Trump said he would launch a mass arrest and deportation program named “Operation Aurora,” as he painted a violent image of immigration in Colorado. 

Raquel Lane-Arellano, the communications manager for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said he was concerned about xenophobia exhibited by Trump and his supporters, but didn’t see that manifest in the polls in Colorado. 

“We’re heartened that Colorado voters rejected hateful rhetoric and voted to protect immigrant families – even after Trump chose to focus his disinformation campaign and mass deportation plan against immigrants in Aurora,” Lane-Arellano said.

If 2T passes, non-citizens with certain work and residency qualifications could apply for roles in the police and fire departments. Applicants would still need to meet hiring standards that apply to all potential applicants for police and fire departments, including age and education requirements, physical and mental tests and background checks.

In 2016, the Denver Sheriff’s Department settled a lawsuit for $10,000 after the U.S. Justice Department found the department required applicants to be U.S. citizens to apply—a requirement that has since been lifted for that agency. Other neighboring cities, including Aurora, already allow qualified non-citizens to work in police and fire departments.

How did you vote on Denver’s ballot measures? Email [email protected].