Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Division
Former Hamilton Sundstrand Denver Facility

Background

This site is a "corrective action" hazardous waste site in unincorporated Adams County.  The goal of the hazardous waste corrective action program is to ensure timely and appropriate stabilization and cleanup of facilities that have experienced spills or other releases of hazardous constituents or wastes.  The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's 1989 authorization to implement corrective action was provided for under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

The RCRA corrective action process consists of three primary activities: characterizing the release, selecting a remedy from identified alternatives and implementing the selected remedy until the desired remediation goals are achieved.

Location

The Hamilton Sundstrand site comprises a former manufacturing facility and its adjacent land located on West 70th Avenue in unincorporated Adams County.

History

The former Hamilton Sundstrand Denver Facility was constructed in 1955, and was used until 2004 to manufacture and test aerospace industry components.  The former facility is located on approximately 44 acres on the southwest edge of unincorporated Adams County.  The Perl Mack neighborhood is located directly east of the site.  Manufacturing operations included shaping, milling, grinding, welding and polishing steel components that were then electroplated or painted.  Manufacturing processes used oils to cool and lubricate machines and parts, and cleaning solvents to prepare components for plating or painting.  Historical storage of fresh and spent cooling oils and solvents in above-and below-ground tanks and containers led to releases of these materials into the soil and shallow groundwater beneath the facility.

Cooling oils released to the soil migrated down to shallow groundwater and formed a light non-aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) layer that typically floats on the water table.  Solvents released to soil and shallow groundwater are called chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs).  These compounds were released in mixtures with the cooling oils.  Volatile organic compounds only impacted the shallow alluvial groundwater, not groundwater in the deeper bedrock.

In August 2000, Hamilton Sundstrand entered into an EPA Consent Order to address contamination in the soil and groundwater and provide further assurance that the adjacent neighborhood was protected.  The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is currently evaluating the final remedies for the facility and its surrounding area concerning the soil and groundwater contamination.  The proposed remedies are described in the Draft Corrective Measures Work Plan.

For questions or comments, contact:

Dave Walker
State Project Manager
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
4300 Cherry Creek Drive South
Denver, CO  80246-1530
303-692-3354
(888) 569-1831 ext. 3354 toll-free

Warren Smith
State Community Involvement Specialist
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
4300 Cherry Creek Drive South
Denver, CO  80246-1530
303-692-3373
(888) 569-1831 ext. 3373 toll-free

or

Allan Steckelberg, Arcadis U.S. Project Director
720-344-3500

Related Documents

Presentation from April 24, 2008 Public Meeting

Fact Sheet for Proposed Remedy    English     Spanish