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What's up with VCAB and vcab-denver.org?

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

VCAB was fortunate to receive help from FRESC and Making-Connections Denver as well as federal technical assistance grants to hire expert help to analyze the cleanup documents.

Over the past couple of years, even before the current recession, the cleanup process began to slow. The VCUP application for the final parcels has been made, but since it involves the excavation of the interior of the massive old factory buildings, obviously that part of the cleanup has not been completed. Treatment of the underground plume of TCE that extends northeast into the West Washington Park neighborhood continues. Meanwhile federal technical assistance grants for communities have dried up, the redevelopment process has languished, and Cherokee has relinquished part of the property back to Gates.

everything has slowed down, what about VCAB?

Since closure has been elusive, VCAB continues to maintain a watchful community perspective on the still-existing contamination and the incomplete cleanup and redevelopment processes. Most of VCAB's citizen members are still active in the community and still want to see the successful cleanup and redevelopment of the Gates site.

what happened to vcab-denver.org?

The website at vcab-denver.org was hosted by Site Crossing, a service of Web Crossing. The Site Crossing service stopped charging for renewals and stopped answering support emails a couple of years ago. Web Crosssing in turn was sold to a company named Bayspire just over a year ago. It was still possible to renew the domain registration through the last renewal, May 2009, and vcab-denver.org remained up until it abruptly disappeared in late 2009. The mechanics of freeing the domain name for use with another host have been surprisingly complicated. As of now, the domain has been released by the old registrar and henceforth it will point here, so the conversation can continue at cocobrownfields.org. The vast majority of the conversation and the documents from vcab-denver.org are in safe keeping and could be hosted here if there is demand.

Also look for more news and resources for all Colorado communities grappling with brownfields redevelopment.

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