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DENVER — Colorado regulators are withholding approvals on the environmental cleanup at a former air base being converted to a housing development, saying the Air Force has not paid up to $100,000 it owes the state.
The dispute, reported Wednesday in The Denver Post, complicates the cleanup of Lowry Air Force Base, sandwiched between Denver and the western suburb of Aurora.
When the 15-year cleanup and redevelopment of the 1,900-acre site is complete in 2009, it will include a mix of businesses and about 4,500 homes and apartments. About 80 percent of the housing units are built.
“What’s really confusing is that the Air Force has looked at our billing practices before and didn’t signal anything was wrong,” said Howard Roitman, director of environmental programs for the state Department of Public Health and Environment.
The department has final oversight of nearly all environmental cleanup activities in the state.
An Air Force spokeswoman declined to comment until after a meeting with state officials scheduled next week to discuss the unpaid bills.
Lowry Redevelopment Authority spokeswoman Hilarie Portell told The Associated Press Wednesday that work at the site has not be held up by the dispute.
“Our cleanup is moving forward,” she said, but will eventually require reviews and approvals by state regulators.
The Air Force closed Lowry in 1994 and began redeveloping the site and cleaning up the groundwater, which is contaminated with asbestos and TCE, a solvent.
State regulators’ absence from Lowry worries some residents.
“It’s absolutely vital that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s oversight is constant,” said Anne Callison, a member of the local cleanup advisory board.
“Without it, the property owners at Lowry have no one to turn to for answers or for the protection of their health,” she said.
The dispute, reported Wednesday in The Denver Post, complicates the cleanup of Lowry Air Force Base, sandwiched between Denver and the western suburb of Aurora.
When the 15-year cleanup and redevelopment of the 1,900-acre site is complete in 2009, it will include a mix of businesses and about 4,500 homes and apartments. About 80 percent of the housing units are built.
“What’s really confusing is that the Air Force has looked at our billing practices before and didn’t signal anything was wrong,” said Howard Roitman, director of environmental programs for the state Department of Public Health and Environment.
The department has final oversight of nearly all environmental cleanup activities in the state.
An Air Force spokeswoman declined to comment until after a meeting with state officials scheduled next week to discuss the unpaid bills.
Lowry Redevelopment Authority spokeswoman Hilarie Portell told The Associated Press Wednesday that work at the site has not be held up by the dispute.
“Our cleanup is moving forward,” she said, but will eventually require reviews and approvals by state regulators.
The Air Force closed Lowry in 1994 and began redeveloping the site and cleaning up the groundwater, which is contaminated with asbestos and TCE, a solvent.
State regulators’ absence from Lowry worries some residents.
“It’s absolutely vital that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s oversight is constant,” said Anne Callison, a member of the local cleanup advisory board.
“Without it, the property owners at Lowry have no one to turn to for answers or for the protection of their health,” she said.
