The stages of a cleanup
Of 17,221 releases on file, 546 are not closed. « Not closed » covers five quite different situations, and Colorado is one of the few states that says which.
What each stage means
Closed — 16,614
the Division has signed the case off. A closed release is a case the regulator considers finished.
Closed — no impact confirmed — 37
closed after the Division found no confirmed impact.
Open — 37
reported and not yet closed, with no later stage recorded.
Site characterisation requested — 92
the Division has asked for the extent of the release to be established. It is the step before a cleanup plan exists.
Corrective action plan being implemented — 236
a cleanup plan exists and is being carried out. This is the stage where work is actually happening in the ground.
State lead — 105
the State is running the cleanup itself. That happens when the responsible party cannot or does not — it is the most telling status in the file, and it is public.
Why the distinction is the whole point
A release recorded as open and one recorded as corrective action plan being implemented are the same thing in most states’ data and very different things on the ground. The first may be a file nobody closed; the second is active work.
And state lead — 105 releases — carries a meaning the others do not: the responsible party has not done the work, so the State has. It says something about the site’s history that no other field in these files says.
The stages of releases still open
| Stage | Releases | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Corrective action plan being implemented | 236 | 43.2% |
| State lead | 105 | 19.2% |
| Site characterisation requested | 92 | 16.8% |
| Open | 37 | 6.8% |
| Scr Complete - No Cap Requested | 28 | 5.1% |
| Assessment | 10 | 1.8% |
| Scr Complete - Cap Requested | 9 | 1.6% |
| Need To Investigate | 7 | 1.3% |
| Pcrf/brownfield | 5 | 0.9% |
| Lust Trust | 4 | 0.7% |
| Implementing Cap-ooc | 4 | 0.7% |
| System Test Requested | 2 | 0.4% |
⚠️ What a stage is not
It is not a measurement. None of these files records how much was released, what reached groundwater, or how far anything travelled. A stage tells you where the paperwork has got to, which is useful and is not the same as knowing what is in the ground.
506 facilities have a release that is not closed, and 348 of them still have tanks in use. This site does not publish that list: 506 addresses under a heading like this would read as a verdict on each one. The counts are here; the individual record is one search away, with its stage and its dates.
An unfinished case on a site you are buying?
A stage tells you where the file has got to, not what remains in the ground. Tell us the address and we pass the request to environmental consultants working in Colorado.
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