BRIGHTON — Residents and public officials are blasting a decision by Adams County commissioners to allow a medical-waste disposal facility near Commerce City.
“This is a very reckless decision,” said Jeannette Lewis, president of the Adams County School District 14 board.
The commissioners voted 3-0 Monday to issue a certificate of designation to Denver’s Waste Solutions for a one-story, 15,600-square- foot building on 4 acres in the 8600 block of Brighton Boulevard.
The structure will collect medical waste from hospitals and clinics, sterilize it and ship it to landfills.
Waste Solutions says the site will process “regulated medical waste” that consists largely of syringes, gauze and bandages. No chemotherapy waste or body parts will be accepted.
Mike Magee, a partner in Waste Solutions, told Adams County officials the facility provides a “critical, competitive and much-needed” service to health care providers in the Denver area and throughout the Front Range, including Cheyenne.
Waste Solutions won a recommendation from the Adams County Planning Commission in August by a 4-3 margin.
Several residents said the facility is too close to homes. The site is two blocks from a school-bus stop and six blocks from an elementary school, Lewis said.
“No one knows the long-range implications of having a facility there,” she said. “There is no guarantee that the facility won’t have a leak that seeps into the groundwater.”
But the commissioners were swayed by the fact that numerous safeguards will be placed on the facility, said Abel Montoya, director of Adams County Planning and Development.
Several agencies, including the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and the county will ensure that the pickup, storage and disposal of the wastes will adhere to tight standards, Montoya said.
“The commissioners didn’t pay attention to anything we had to say,” resident Dave Stallsworth said. “But come election time, we will remember who these people are.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
