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The Zink Dam, Pedestrian Bridge and white-water flume are no longer a priority.

In March, the city provided construction contractors a bid document requiring them to devise the wording for a sign intended to keep celebrants and children out of the white-water flume and the city out of court.

The city’s comment on sign wording: “Sign wording/placement for this area is tricky because it is allowing recreational access adjacent to the dam where access is prohibited.”

Pathogens are an additional hazard that will require Zink Lake signs. Like almost every urban river in America, E. coli standards will not allow the city to endorse children playing or water uses where one’s head might go under.

In 1977, Texaco and the River Parks Authority entered a 50-year lease of the west bank for recreational purposes. A new lease is needed, and, prudently, HollyFrontier provided project instructions and use conditions to protect its shareholders because the soil is contaminated.

Contaminated is an understatement. One hundred years of spills float on the groundwater under the refineries and continuously escape to Zink Lake.