Englewood Herald 061622

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Week of June 16, 2022

ARAPAHOE COUNTY, COLORADO

A publication of

EnglewoodHerald.net

VOLUME 102 | ISSUE 18

City of Englewood receives $38M in federal loan for water infrastructure Past water quality issues have plagued city BY ROBERT TANN RTANN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Water rushes through Little Dry Creek west of Broadway in central Englewood following a severe storm that caused flooding FILE PHOTO BY JERRY HEALEY through many parts of the city on July 24, 2018.

‘I don’t feel very safe’ Deal was driving home with her grandson after his gymnastics lesson July 24, 2018 when the rain began to pour down. Curious, Deal stopped by Rotolo Park near her house off West Radcliff Drive to see how much water the park had collected. She couldn’t believe it when she saw water begin to break the park’s crest and, panicked. She drove home to find herself cutting through feet of water with her car. Once inside, she joined her husband and grandson to stuff trash bags, towels and whatever else they could find into cracks beneath their floors to keep the water from rushing in. “You really don’t have a whole lot of time to think about what you’re supposed to do,” Deal said. “It started rising quick.” It took about three months to

The City of Englewood will invest $38 million to improve the quality of its drinking water after securing a federal loan June 7 from the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA. Englewood Mayor Othoniel Sierra, in a statement, said the money will be “critical to modernizing our water treatment plant, addressing lead service lines and making our water system safer and more resilient.” Water quality issues have plagued Englewood in the past. In early August, an E. coli contamination of the city’s water supply forced many residents to boil their water before using it to drink, bathe or clean. The city had also been in past violations of state and federal water policy before the E. coli contamination, though city officials said those issues were not related. In July 2021, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment flagged the city for not testing enough devices that prevent backflow problems, such as check valves. According to CBS Denver, the city was issued a bacteria contamination violation from the EPA in 2012. Pieter Van Ry, who oversees the city’s utilities department and its wastewater sewage treatment plant, said he hopes the new funds will make water contamination less likely. “Modernizing a water system increases protection against events like that,” he said.

SEE FLOOD, P4

SEE WATER, P6

Four years after fatal flood, Englewood closes in on mitigation plan Leaders look to avoid a 2018 repeat BY ROBERT TANN RTANN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Becky Deal is scared when it rains. For her, it’s a reminder of a not-too-distant time when her Englewood home of more than 30 years began to fill with water. There was about 36 inches in the backyard and 18 inches in the garage. Inside the house, Deal measured 10 inches. Along with ruined carpet, furniture and drywall, she lost a lifetime of memories stored in photos and other keepsakes. “It was awful, it was awful,” said Deal, who was living with her husband and 7-year-old grandson at the time. “Four years later, the impact is just devastating.” The City of Englewood is still

healing from a July 2018 flashflood that caused chaos for residents, displaced households and led to the death of a 32-year-old woman. Now, nearly four years on, city leaders are closing in on a plan to pour millions into infrastructure for flood mitigation to “prevent anything like that from happening again,” said Deputy Director of Public Works Tim Hoos. The plan, known as the South Englewood Flood Reduction Project, calls for $23 million to build new stormwater detention ponds and replace and repair several pipes near Santa Fe Drive and Quincy Avenue. Construction could begin as soon as this fall and will take about a year to complete. The area is considered to be one with the least amount of flood infrastructure in the city, Hoos said. It was there where residents suffered some of the most damage to their homes in 2018.

INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 17 | SPORTS: PAGE 20

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July 29, 30 & 31


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