&EPA Sites in Reuse

Lowry Landfill Superfund Site

4200 South Gun Club Road, Aurora, Colorado 80018

A portion of the landfill.

Ribbon-cutting at a ceremony to officially
open the landfill gas-to-energy plant.

Inside of the landfill gas-to-energy plant.

Supported Site Uses: The site is in public service reuse supporting a landfill gas-to-
energy plant.

Restricted Use: Institutional controls restrict installation of wells, certain land uses both
on and off site, and prohibit most on-site construction and excavation. Use of the site for day care
centers, schools, nursing homes, hospitals or residential purposes is also prohibited.

Setting:

•	The 507-acre site is located 15 miles southeast of Denver.

•	The site landfill operated from the mid-1960s until 1990,
accepting liquid and solid industrial wastes, as well as
municipal wastes, including tires.

•	The Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site (DADS), an operating
municipal solid waste landfill, is located immediately
adjacent to the site.

•	Both the site and DAD S produce landfi 11 gas from biological
decomposition of landfill materials. The gas mixture is 50
percent methane and 45 percent carbon dioxide.

•	In 2008, following the site's cleanup, the City of Denver,
Waste Management Inc. and local utility Xcel Energy
partnered to open a landfill gas-to-energy plant at the site.

•	Four combustion engines at the plant convert 630 million
cubic feet of methane gas from the site and DADS into 3.2
megawatts of electrical power annually, enough power to
provide electricity to about 3,000 households.

•	Surrounding population: 0.5 mile, 0 people; 2.5 miles,
23,280 people; 4 miles, 88,967 people.

Disclaimer: EPA does not warrant that the property is suitable for

any particular use. Any prospective purchaser must contact the

property owner for sale potential.

Remedial Status:

•	Groundwater cleanup at the site included constructing an
8,800-foot-long groundwater barrier wall on the south,
east and west sides of the landfill; a groundwater removal
system; and an on-site water treatment plant.

•	Other cleanup activities included placing covers over the
landfill, installing a landfill gas collection system and
monitoring wells, and removing contaminated soil and
wastes from the Former Tire Pile Area.

•	Initially, the landfill gas collection system, installed in
1997, collected and burned landfill gases through flaring.
Today, the landfill gases are converted to energy as part of
an alternative energy project.

•	Operation and maintenance activities are ongoing.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Fran Costanzi

Superfund Redevelopment
Coordinator
(303) 312-6571
costanzi. france s @ep a. go v
Site Summary:

http: / / www2.epa.gov/region 8 /lowrv-landfill

Les Sims

Site Project Manager
(303) 312-6224
sims.leslie@epa.gov

EPA Region 8 Reuse Fact Sheets

August 2013


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