{"id":76977,"date":"2026-03-30T21:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T21:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/169-2\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T18:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:30:13","slug":"cortez-to-host-airport-cleanup-open-house-to-address-asbestos-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-to-host-airport-cleanup-open-house-to-address-asbestos-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez to host airport cleanup open house to address asbestos project"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Following
Following a well attended meet and greet for airport director candidates, City Council approved on first reading an ordinance to reestablish the defunct airport advisory board. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

City officials will host a public outreach event to discuss and answer questions about large-scale cleanup efforts at Cortez Municipal Airport.<\/p>\n

The airport has seen a flurry of recent activity, with new leadership in place, plans to reestablish an advisory board and a more than quarter-million dollar asbestos project underway focused on asbestos abatement.<\/p>\n

The open house is scheduled for April 9 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers at City Hall, 123 E. Roger Smith Ave. It will focus on the planned cleanup and allow attendees to ask questions or share input with project leaders. Helen West, the city\u2019s economic development specialist, said all residents are encouraged to attend, especially those who use or frequent the airport regularly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just a chance for the public to hear about what is going on with the project, specific to the abatement work,\u201d West said. \u201cI would certainly encourage anyone involved with our airport, our pilots, or our Young Eagles out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The project will remove peeling paint and asbestos at 1950s-era buildings using funds from a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant totaling $221,540. The grant covers the full cost of the work and requires no local match.<\/p>\n

The cleanup applies to parts of the airport terminal, the former and unoccupied Hertz rental car facility and the airport\u2019s fixed-base operator and maintenance hangar building. Each facility was built in 1951. The vacated Hertz facility has peeling orange paint where lead was found. The 5,200-square-foot building, which once had a booth for repainting vehicles, is now used for storage.<\/p>\n

No timeline has been designated for the work yet, West said, and the contract still needs to be put out for bid.<\/p>\n

\"Cortez
Cortez Municipal Airport properties were assessed for environmental contamination in 2024 as part of a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment statewide brownfields grant. The 5,000-square-foot former Hertz rental car building at 23378 County Road G is vacant and used for storage. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The grant work does not fund a separate environmental cleanup. Fuel used for refueling and cleaning planes at the airport\u2019s fixed-base operator building leaked into the ground over time, causing minor soil and groundwater contamination.<\/p>\n

The city applied for EPA funding to clean this up as well but was denied because the agency determined the contamination occurred while the city owned the airport, making it a \u201cresponsible party\u201d under federal guidelines.<\/p>\n

City officials are still exploring other funding avenues to address the fuel leak, working alongside the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to identify additional sources. The city has said contamination levels are low and pose no risk to people, animals or drinking water.<\/p>\n

awatson@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following a well attended meet and greet for airport director candidates, City Council approved on first reading an ordinance to reestablish the defunct airport advisory board. (Courtesy photo) City officials will host a public outreach event to discuss and answer questions about large-scale cleanup efforts at Cortez Municipal Airport. The airport has seen a flurry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":53876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5737,5736,5735,5741],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-76977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-local-news","category-news","category-newsletter","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76977"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93410,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76977\/revisions\/93410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76977"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=76977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}