New disposal site secured for Penrose funeral home demolition, date announced
PENROSE, Colo. (KRDO) - The Fremont County Commissioners announced that the final plans are underway for the demolition of the Penrose funeral home where 191 bodies were found in various stages of decomposition last October.
Following a building assessment last November, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) determined complete demolition of the building is necessary to safely remove all medical, biological, and hazardous materials.
Minor preparation for the demolition will begin the week of April 8 and demolition is scheduled to begin on April 16, with final disposal of all debris in an Otero County landfill.
“We are grateful to our partners in Otero County for accepting this material,” said Kevin Grantham, Fremont County Commissioner and Chairman of the Fremont County Board of Public Health and Environment. “Unfortunately, we were unable to come to a disposal agreement with either Pueblo County or the Twin Enviro landfill here in Fremont County."
The EPA’s emergency response personnel and trained hazardous materials contractors will conduct the cleanup. To initiate the process, EPA is finalizing a work plan for mobilization to the site. The demolition is expected to take 10 days, weather permitting.
To prepare the site for demolition, EPA will continue to work with Fremont County, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and the local utility companies to ensure safety control measures are established at the site.
Before and during demolition, EPA’s contractors will spray a disinfectant and odor suppressant into the interior of the building. Staging areas for loading trucks with demolition materials will be located next to the building.
Once demolition begins, excavators will start to break up the building from the top down and remove large pieces of the structure, while working to keep it within the foundation footprint.
During this process, EPA will use water and other liquid solutions for dust suppression, but not in quantities that would cause runoff of contamination from the interior of the building to the ground surface outside.
Ground crews will manage demolition materials to ensure the loading process into the dump trucks is efficient and protective. These materials will be prepared and loaded into trucks in accordance with applicable regulations and landfill requirements.
Once the building and concrete foundation slab have been removed, EPA will conduct a shallow surface scrape of soils on the footprint of the building. The soils will be transported to the landfill through the same process as the building materials.
You can read a breakdown done by KRDO13, on the potential outcomes of the property's future, here.
