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National Information
Regional Information
Site Information
National Priorities List (NPL) History

Proposed Date

Final Date

Superfund Program

Mississippi and Logan TCE

Site Type: Non-NPL
City: Denver
County: Denver
Street Address: Logan Street
Zip Code: 80210
EPA ID #: 08KD
Site Aliases: Gates, Logan TCE

Site Status & Updates

Site Description

The Mississippi and Logan TCE plume site is located in Denver, Colorado, in a mixed industrial/commercial/residential area. TCE was discovered during a Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) dewatering operation, adjacent to southbound I-25 near the southwest end of the Logan Street Bridge. The former Gates Tire and Rubber facility -- north of Mississippi Avenue and west of Logan Street -- has existed there since 1911. Residential neighborhoods and parking lots are located south of and adjacent to Mississippi Avenue, west of I-25. I-25 is east of and adjacent to the Mississippi and Logan intersection. The site also is within the Transportation Expansion (T-REX) and the Valley Highway improvement project boundaries.

In December 2001, Cherokee Investment Partners purchased 50 acres of the Gates property. In October 2002, Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) workers on the Cherokee property discovered trichoroethylene (TCE) in high concentrations. Within a week of this discovery, Cherokee began drilling monitoring wells to determine the extent of the TCE and also began source area remedial actions.

The Gates Corporation has retained ownership of the property immediately adjacent to and north of Mississippi Street including a building where storage tanks were located, one of which contained TCE. This area has been shown to have high levels of TCE in the soil and ground water.

EPA began an environmental investigation of the area around Interstate 25 and Logan Street in Denver in the fall of 2004 after CDOT detected low levels of TCE in a dewatering system along I-25. Initially, EPA sampled groundwater at locations along Mississippi at Lincoln, Sherman, and Grant Streets. The primary purpose of the investigation is to determine if there is groundwater contamination under residential or commercial buildings, and if it might pose any potential health risk to nearby residents. As described above, the investigations expanded north along Logan Street across I-25.

The site is located in the South Platte River Valley. Surface runoff is generally to the west toward the South Platte River, and regional groundwater flow is west-northwest toward the South Platte River with widely varying local flow.

Site Risk

Media Affected Contaminants Source
groundwater trichloroethylene TBD

The contaminant of most interest is trichloroethylene (TCE), used primarily as a solvent to remove grease from metal parts. TCE in groundwater can move through soil and enter buildings as a vapor, usually through cracks or openings in the foundation slab or a crawl space. Groundwater in the area is not used as drinking water. The primary pathway for potential human exposure to TCE through possible vapors migrating from groundwater, moving through soil and entering homes to impact indoor air quality.

Consistent with recent EPA findings in two homes, Cherokee sampled indoor air in eight homes along the 800 block of South Lincoln Street and found TCE concentration levels to be far below Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) health-based guidelines, and also below national average background air concentrations.

EPA ground water investigations have shown higher levels of TCE present in the deeper ground water wells, which are at approximately 45 to 50 feet below ground surface. The majority of shallows installed by EPA have shown no contamination. A series of more shallow wells near Kentucky Street and west of Logan Street have shown TCE at levels of concern.

Cleanup Progress

Under the terms of a Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCUP) with CDPHE, Cherokee has installed an extensive net work of monitoring wells, focused on determining the extent of TCE migration from the initial CDOT discovery on the Cherokee property. Cherokee has also implemented TCE recovery systems at the source on their property and a program to cleanup the TCE in the plume using a bioremediation technique. Cherokee maintains a web site with current information about their findings.

Gates Corporation has recently applied for approval to work under the VCUP program to implement a remedy on the Gates property. CDPHE is currently reviewing that application.

EPA will continue to investigate the TCE plume in the area described above to determine if vapor intrusion is impacting residents in the area. An updated map for EPA's investigation is available on this site.

Community Involvement

Site documents

Note: most of the documents below are Adobe Acrobat PDF files
About PDF files Logan/TCE fact sheets:
View a map of well locations and TCE results (PDF, 966 kB)

Contacts

Steven Way
On Scene Coordinator
U.S. EPA Region 8 (EPR-SA)
1595 Wynkoop Street
Denver, Colorado 80202-1129
303-312-6723
1-800-227-8917 x6723 (Reg. 8 only)
Email: way.steven@epa.gov

Peggy Linn
Community Involvement Coordinator
U.S. EPA Region 8 (OC)
1595 Wynkoop Street
Denver, CO 80202-1129
303-312-6622
1-800-227-8917 x6622 (Reg. 8 only)
Email: linn.peggy@epa.gov linn.peggy@epa.gov

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