Commerce City’s main water utility has taken Denver to federal court, accusing the city’s fire‑training site of repeatedly leaking PFAS, the notorious “forever chemicals,” into the soil and groundwater that feed the district’s wells. The South Adams County Water and Sanitation District says the contamination has already forced costly stopgap measures and wants Denver to help foot the bill for both past fixes and a permanent filtration plant.
What the complaint says
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, targets Denver’s fire‑training complex at 5440 Roslyn St. and alleges that foam used during training burns seeped PFAS into surrounding soil, surface water, and groundwater. As reported by Denverite, the complaint says Denver itself documented contamination at the site as recently as 2024 and that the district has spent “tens of millions” of dollars to treat and import water in the meantime.
How the contamination was discovered
South Adams County Water and Sanitation District first picked up PFAS in its raw groundwater in 2018 and quickly shut down the affected wells, according to reporting by Fresh Water News. Since then, the district has ramped up on‑site testing, installed granular activated carbon treatment, and started buying treated water from Denver Water to keep what comes out of customers’ taps within health advisory levels while it works on a long‑term solution.
A big and expensive fix
That long‑term fix is the Klein Enhancement Project, an ion‑exchange treatment plant designed to strip PFAS from the district’s drinking water for good. The district estimates the project will cost about $80 million. According to a press release from PCL, roughly $61 million of that price tag is covered by federal grants, and the plant is slated to come online in late 2026.
What the district is asking the court to do
The complaint asks a federal judge to order Denver to reimburse the district for the money it has already spent, and to pick up future costs tied to treatment, imported water, and the new plant, according to Denverite. Denver’s City Attorney declined to comment to reporters, the outlet notes, so for now the city is letting the court filings do the talking.
Local stakes and community concerns
People living in the north‑metro industrial corridor have long given their tap water some serious side‑eye, and the district says this contamination episode has put fresh strain on both its budget and residents’ trust, Fresh Water News reports. State regulators have been tracing a PFAS plume near the fire academy and overseeing mitigation work, but the full scale of the cleanup, and who ultimately pays to make it right, are still open questions.
Legal outlook
The case is poised to test how far legal responsibility stretches when municipal training practices end up driving long‑term PFAS treatment costs for local water systems. At the same time, the Colorado Department of Law is pursuing separate lawsuits against PFAS manufacturers and coordinating statewide responses, efforts that could influence how judges apportion blame and financial liability, according to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office.
