Englewood selects remediation contractor for meth cleanup

Estimates over $40,000

BY TAYLER SHAW TSHAW@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

After the City of Englewood received data showing meth contamination in more areas of its civic center, the city selected a remediation contractor.

“We have made a decision based on time and cost, and we are moving forward with a company called CES, Custom Environmental Services,” said Englewood Director of Public Works Victor Rachael.

Custom Environmental Services is a Colorado-based environmental contractor that o ers meth abatement services. Rachael said the company is state certi ed and on the approved Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment list. e cleaning process is expected to start within ve business days and roughly estimated to take 15-25 days to complete, Rachael said.

“ at could vary a little bit. e additional testing that was just done are not included in the quote from the contractor, so we’ll be adding that to their scope — so the days could extend,” Rachael said.

City’s additional testing revealed more contamination in civic center e original testing the city did in early January revealed levels of meth contamination that exceeded the state’s threshold in the Englewood Public Library, the restrooms on the second oor of the civic center and the north entrance lobby of the civic center. ose areas temporarily closed Jan. 11.

“Our initial testing was based on two-fold, kind of, information that we learned from Boulder coupled with input from city sta on where they may have seen or had concerns there might have been some activity,” Rachael said.

In late December, Boulder Public Library temporarily closed after testing found levels of meth contamination in its restroom exhaust vents.

Chris Harguth, the city’s director of communications, previously told Colorado Community Media that there has been a recent increase in sta and patron reports of drug use at the Englewood library. e additional testing revealed more areas in the city’s civic center that had meth contamination. e museum has been closed for quite some time in the civic center, Rachael said. According to a 2019 study published in the National Library of Medicine, residues of meth can “remain embedded in surfaces for years.” e third oor restrooms are for employees only, Rachael said. Harguth noted in a Jan. 23 email that these restrooms “were public until a few years ago” and byproducts from contamination can remain for years.

“I would say within just a few days of the initial results coming back, we elected to do additional testing, you know, thinking that it’s better to be safe than sorry and, again, trying to look out for employees’ — and citizens’ for that matter — health and safety,” Rachael said.

Rachael said the city received data Jan. 23 from the lab that showed there was meth contamination above the state’s threshold in the south lobby on the rst oor of the civic center, in the exhaust vents of the civic center’s third oor restrooms, and in the exhaust vents of the Museum of Outdoor Arts (MOA) restrooms.

Deciding to test the restrooms was partly based on input from the city’s testing consultant, Rachael said. QUEST Environmental did both rounds of testing for the city.

“Our rst test results came back and did show the exhaust fans had the highest concentrations. So when we did our additional testing, we made sure to conduct all exhaust vents in any of the other bathrooms, including the MOA space as well as the third oor employee bathrooms.”

After receiving the results, the city temporarily closed the south lobby, but the third oor restrooms remained open, Rachael said, adding, “And that was based on discussions with the county and the state.”

“What’s been conveyed to me is that — because we did test the walls and stu in the bathrooms, not just the exhaust vents, they came in under the threshold and the exhaust vents were the only thing that came