DENVER -
It's the last chapter in a long legal battle to clean up a polluted Denver neighborhood.
Residents in Globeville fought for years against a smelting plant they believed was making them sick.
Many here claimed that family members came down with diseases caused by the pollution.
Contractors began removing the last of polluted soil on 32 properties in Globeville, contaminates like arsenic and lead released from the nearby Asarco smelting plant for more than a century.
Residents like Lorraine Granado fought for years for the clean-up.
"Is it the end of it? I can't say 'yes it's the end of it'," said Granado, "I mean they could continue to test out and still find more. We don't know that it's the end we only know what we have discovered to this point. "
The site was added to the federal Superfund cleanup list in the 1990s, but most residents now have little memory of the long fight for cleanup.
"We didn't understand why they were taking the grass out," said Connie Costollas, whose yard is being dug up, "But I knew a couple years ago that the dirt was contaminated."
A lawsuit 12 years ago required this final cleanup, which Asarco is now funding after coming out of bankruptcy.
But Environment Colorado says this and 12-hundred Superfund sites nationwide should have been paid for years ago by the polluters, instead of waiting on federal taxpayer dollars.
"It's fantastic that the company is coming out of bankruptcy," said Environment Colorado's Matt Garrington, "That we're going to hopefully see some finish up on the cleanup of this site here in Globeville but again this isn't an isolated incidence."
Residents claimed many people were sickened by the soils but could never prove it.
"I kind of think of them as the lost ones," said Granado, "Because probably it was true that that caused their disease."
The attorney who handled this lawsuit says it's a long overdue victory for residents and the last step toward getting their neighborhood cleaned up.
Some of those same residents wonder if the full extent of damage will ever be known.
Residents in Globeville fought for years against a smelting plant they believed was making them sick.
Many here claimed that family members came down with diseases caused by the pollution.
Contractors began removing the last of polluted soil on 32 properties in Globeville, contaminates like arsenic and lead released from the nearby Asarco smelting plant for more than a century.
Residents like Lorraine Granado fought for years for the clean-up.
"Is it the end of it? I can't say 'yes it's the end of it'," said Granado, "I mean they could continue to test out and still find more. We don't know that it's the end we only know what we have discovered to this point. "
The site was added to the federal Superfund cleanup list in the 1990s, but most residents now have little memory of the long fight for cleanup.
"We didn't understand why they were taking the grass out," said Connie Costollas, whose yard is being dug up, "But I knew a couple years ago that the dirt was contaminated."
A lawsuit 12 years ago required this final cleanup, which Asarco is now funding after coming out of bankruptcy.
But Environment Colorado says this and 12-hundred Superfund sites nationwide should have been paid for years ago by the polluters, instead of waiting on federal taxpayer dollars.
"It's fantastic that the company is coming out of bankruptcy," said Environment Colorado's Matt Garrington, "That we're going to hopefully see some finish up on the cleanup of this site here in Globeville but again this isn't an isolated incidence."
Residents claimed many people were sickened by the soils but could never prove it.
"I kind of think of them as the lost ones," said Granado, "Because probably it was true that that caused their disease."
The attorney who handled this lawsuit says it's a long overdue victory for residents and the last step toward getting their neighborhood cleaned up.
Some of those same residents wonder if the full extent of damage will ever be known.
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