In the early 1900s, Denver was an active radium-processing center. Radium was used for medical, equipment, and security efforts during World War I. The production process created huge amounts of waste materials, called "tailings", which were left in piles near the processing plants. In the 1920s, radium processing was discontinued in Denver due to overseas competition. The tailing piles were abandoned as the radium processors closed. Over the years some of these piles were moved around Denver and used as fill or in construction activities, including street construction. In the late 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) located the tailings and initiated a cleanup by identifying the tailings as a Superfund Site, including several Denver streets built using the materials.
Denver’s Radium Streets Program was in response to EPA’s designation of these streets as part of the Denver Radium Superfund Site. Denver Radium Streets, which EPA calls "Operable Unit 7" (OU7), is comprised of nine street segments. At the end of 2007, the Radium Streets Program was successfully completed after a five-year clean up effort between the Department of Public Works and Environmental Health.
On November 8, 2010, the Radium Streets Program (OU7 of the Denver Radium Superfund Site) was officially deleted from the Denver Radium Superfund Site and OU7 is no longer part of the National Priority List. For additional information on any of the other OUs, please refer to EPA's website at http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/co/denverradium/index.html
More Information:
Contact Lisa Farrell at lisa.farrell@denvergov.org or at 720-865-5439.