# Sewer and Water Line Services in Stapleton (Central Park), Colorado Stapleton, now generally known as Central Park, sits on the site of the former Stapleton International Airport and was built almost entirely from the early 2000s forward as a planned redevelopment. That makes its underground infrastructure fundamentally different from nearly every other neighborhood inside Denver, since it was engineered as new construction on a filled and graded site rather than layered over a century of prior development. Sewer laterals throughout Central Park are almost uniformly PVC, installed to modern standards, and the water services are typically copper or PEX. When a failure does happen here, the cause is far more often settlement of the engineered fill beneath the old airport footprint than deterioration of the pipe material itself, which is the opposite of what drives most calls in Denver's century-old neighborhoods. It is worth being direct about the boundary here: the neighborhoods immediately surrounding Central Park, including Park Hill and older sections of northeast Denver, were built in an entirely different era with entirely different pipe. A property just a few blocks outside the old airport footprint can have clay laterals and galvanized water service that have nothing in common with the new construction inside Central Park itself. Because this is new infrastructure, we are less often called out here for root intrusion or corroding cast iron and more often called for a settled sewer connection, a shifted foundation penetration, or a drainage issue tied to how the site was graded during redevelopment. ## Permits and Authority in Stapleton and Central Park Central Park is inside the City and County of Denver, so the same authority structure applies here as in the rest of the city. Denver Water owns the water main and the tap, Denver's wastewater review handles sanitary sewer connections, and Denver's transportation and infrastructure department controls any street or sidewalk opening. Because this neighborhood was built under a coordinated master development plan, utility as-built records here tend to be more complete and more recent than in Denver's older neighborhoods, which generally makes locating a specific connection more straightforward. - Water main and tap authority: Denver Water. - Sanitary sewer review and inspection: City and County of Denver. - Street and sidewalk opening: Denver right-of-way permitting. - As-built utility records are generally more complete here given the recent construction. ## Tap and permit notes - New taps and resizes in Central Park go through Denver Water and are sized by meter and fixture load, the same as anywhere else in Denver. - Sanitary connections must be inspected before backfill, and locating the connection is usually faster here given more complete as-built records. - Settlement-related repairs sometimes require confirming the depth and orientation of the original connection before deciding whether a spot repair or a full replacement is appropriate. ## Typical pipe era - Early 2000s through today: PVC sewer laterals throughout Central Park. - Copper and PEX water services in nearly all homes built during the redevelopment. - Engineered fill beneath much of the site, distinct from the native soil profile of surrounding older Denver neighborhoods. ## Common failure modes - Settlement of engineered fill causing a lateral to lose slope at a specific point rather than fail along its length. - Foundation penetration shifts from ground settlement rather than pipe corrosion. - Site-grading related drainage issues near property lines. - Isolated installation defects rather than the age-related deterioration seen in older Denver neighborhoods. ## Areas served - Central Park East - Central Park West - Beeler Park - Bluff Lake area - Stanley Marketplace vicinity ## Response time Central Park is on the opposite side of Denver from our southwest yard, so it is a longer drive than our closer-in neighborhoods, and we plan the visit around that distance. ## Frequently asked questions **Is Central Park served by Denver Water directly, since it used to be an airport?** Yes, Central Park is inside the City and County of Denver, so Denver Water owns the water main and tap here just as it does in the rest of the city. We are not Denver Water. We are a private contractor who works on the portion of the line that belongs to the property. **Does Central Park have the same old clay sewer pipe as the rest of Denver?** No. Central Park was built almost entirely from the early 2000s forward on the former airport site, so the sewer laterals here are modern PVC rather than the vitrified clay found in Denver's century-old neighborhoods nearby. **Why would a newly built house in Central Park have a sewer problem at all?** The most common cause here is settlement of the engineered fill placed during redevelopment of the old airport site, not deterioration of the pipe itself. A lateral can lose its slope at one point due to ground movement even though the pipe material is sound. **Is Park Hill's plumbing the same as Central Park's since they are next to each other?** No, and it is a common misconception given how close they sit. Park Hill and the older sections of northeast Denver were built decades before the airport redevelopment and generally have clay laterals and older water services, a completely different profile than the new PVC and copper found throughout Central Park. **Do you need different permits to work in Central Park than in older parts of Denver?** The permitting authority is the same, since Central Park is part of the City and County of Denver. What is usually different is how quickly we can locate the existing connection, since Central Park's utility records tend to be more recent and complete. ## Nearby service areas - [Washington Park](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/washington-park-co) - [Denver Tech Center](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/denver-tech-center-co) - [Commerce City](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/commerce-city-co) - [Denver](https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/denver-co) --- Denver Sewer and Water is a privately owned, licensed and insured plumbing contractor. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Denver Water, the municipal water utility, or any government entity. To pay a municipal water bill or reach the public utility, visit denverwater.org. Source: https://www.denversewerandwater.com/locations/stapleton-co