Pueblo Ice House Site Submitted For Asbestos Clean-Up Permit

Pueblo – A huge pile of rubble in downtown Pueblohas the Health Department demanding that it be cleaned up. The old Ice House burned about six weeks ago…but a potentially hazardous pile of debris remains at 6th and Elizabeth.

The fire happened in the early morning hours of October 23rd, 2007, just a week after inspectors had determined that the building contained asbestos.

The fire made the whole situation more complicated, and now, more costly.Heather Maio is Director of Environmental Health at the Pueblo City/County Health Department. She told NEWSchannel 13: “These things take time and I believe cost is going to be an issue for the property owner to get this removed so I can understand that it might take some time to get this moving.But if the owner can act on this and get this removed; the sooner the better. That’s all that much better for public health.”

The fire happened after it was already determined that the old building had a lot of potentially dangerous asbestos.

It had been empty for years;firefighters had been called to the address more than once.

Says Woody Percival, a Public Information Officer with the Pueblo Fire Department:”Over the years, since it’s been abandoned, we have been called here on multiple occasions for various things. We’ve had several small fires, they tended to be transient in nature, mostly people trying to keep warm, things like that. It was known to have people in and out of it.. It was secured at times and unsecured at times.”

The State Health Department received the project plan from the owner Thursday. That clears the way for the State to issue a permit to clean up the asbestos. The potential cost could be up to a half a million dollars.