Colorado Community Brownfields Forum

about VCAB and the redevelopment of the former Gates Rubber site

VCAB, the Voluntary Cleanup Advisory Board, is a community group formed to oversee the cleanup of the former Gates Rubber plant at 1-25 and S. Broadway St. in Denver. VCAB was very active during the first few years of discovery and cleanup of TCE and other contaminants at the site; VCAB's work also includes:

• helping other communities learn how to grapple with brownfields issues
• working to close gaps in Colorado's Voluntary Cleanup (VCUP) process, which has no provision for involving communities in the cleanup of contamination that is adjacent to, or underneath, nearby residents

The attached slides were presented at the March 26, 2008 Cherokee Denver Redevelopment Advisory Committee (CDRAC) Meeting, a regularly scheduled public participation meeting between Cherokee Denver and members of the neighborhoods abutting this brownfield redevelopment.

Please feel free to contact AthmarPark@ecentral.com with any questions.

The attached letter formalizes the support of the Voluntary Cleanup Advisory Board (VCAB) for Cherokee's Parcel 2B VCUP application. (See this page for VCAB consultant John Jankousky's technical review of this parcel.)

Parcel 2B is the roughly the center portion of the area west of the railroad tracks and east of Santa Fe Blvd.

These technical review documents were prepared John Jankousky of EME solutions for VCAB in its continuing oversight of the cleanup of the former Gates Rubber plant.

Click below for a PDF of the appropriate document:

• technical review of Cherokee's VCUP application for Parcel 2B
• technical review of Cherokee's Materials Management Plan
  

Click here for the letter of response from the Voluntary Cleanup Advisory Board (VCAB) to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment (CDPHE) regarding the recent Parcel 6 and Parcel 7 VCUP applications by Cherokee Denver. Attached were two summary documents (Parcel 6 and Parcel 7) from our consultant John Jankousky.

These are scans of just some of the figures included in the Parcel 6 and Parcel 7 VCUP applications for the redevelopment of the portion of the former Gates Rubber Factory west or Broadway. The general location is south of I-25 and west of Broadway in Denver, Colorado.

The intent here is just to give an overview of the cleanup plan, and to give a sense of what a VCUP application looks like. Each application contains approximately 50 pages of text, several tables, plus several additional figures. Figures not included here are:

After Saturday's successful community workshop, what's next for this website?

We'll keep an archive of workshop materials here, but also build on the concept of Colorado Community Brownfields. The address/nickname, CoCoBrownfields, won't change, but the name is now Colorado Community Brownfields Forum: information and community involvement in Colorado brownfields cleanup and redevelopment.

The image above is a locked test well at the Denver Toluene brownfields site in La Alma-Lincoln Park. The lock symbolizes the obstacles to community participation in the brownfields redevelopment process. If communities don't arm ourselves with information, decisions about our health will be made solely by the government, and decisions about our economic well-being will be made solely by developers.

What are Brownfields and how do we clean them up?

DENVER, CO -- Colorado Community Brownfields Workshop to be held Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

The Voluntary Cleanup Advisory Board (vcab-denver.org) will host a free workshop to share community skills for engaging with brownfields redevelopment on Sept. 22, 2007 from 9 am to 3 pm at 2980 Curtis Street, Denver.

Go to cocobrownfields.org for more information including registration and agenda, or leave a message at 720-837-5446.

Colorado Community Brownfields Workshop
Saturday, September 22, 2007

2980 Curtis Street, Denver, CO (map here)
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Open to Coloradans who want to help engage their communities in the cleanup and redevelopment of polluted sites, or "brownfields."

Attendance is free, thanks to our sponsors. See the links at the left for registration and further info, or leave a message at 720-837-5446. Light meal, childcare and translation provided (please indicate your needs when registering).

Check back for electronic versions of conference handouts and more info.