Boulder County is investigating CEMEX for an alleged increase in truck activity at its cement plant after its mining operation was shut down.
Richard Hackett, communications specialist for Boulder County Community Planning and Permitting, confirmed that the department sent a letter to CEMEX Feb. 7 requesting information related to complaints at the Lyons Quarry cement plant.
Complaints issued Jan. 20 and Feb. 2 allege that there has been a “mass increase” in the amount of truck activity along Colo. Highway 66 and Highway 36 in connection with the CEMEX facility. Hackett said the investigation is currently ongoing.
A representative of CEMEX could not be reached for comment.
In September, Boulder County commissioners denied CEMEX’s application for a 15-year extension to mine the Dowe Flats, which sits north of Hwy. 66 just east of Lyons. The Dowe Flats mine closed at the end of 2022, and reclamation is underway.
Just south of Hwy. 66 is the Lyons Quarry, where CEMEX also conducts cement processing. That plant operates under the land use code as legal nonconforming, meaning the owner can continue to operate the cement plant for an indefinite time.
Bart Lorang is a founding member of Good Neighbors of Lyons, a group opposed to the CEMEX operations. He said in an online webinar on Jan. 26 that neighbors had observed a direct increase in truck traffic and material stockpiling following the closure of the Dowe Flats mine.
“These changes now provide Boulder County the legal ability and obligation to terminate CEMEX’s grandfathered use status in accordance with the Land Use Code,” he said in the recorded video.
Lorang argued that triggers in the Land Use Code allows the county to terminate a nonconforming use if there is any alteration of the nonconforming use that threatens public health and safety, creates a nuisance or intensifies the use of the land or services. He said that CEMEX now trucking in all of its raw materials, stockpiling material and changing its source of materials are enough to meet the criteria to terminate the nonconforming status.
According to Lorang, the trucking changes were so substantial that they caused the Colorado Department of Transportation to require a new access permit after the Good Neighbors of Lyons filed a complaint.
The group has a petition to the county to terminate the nonconforming use, with 653 signatures collected as of Feb. 10.
The letter sent to CEMEX by the county’s planning and permitting department requests documentation of truck traffic, material storage and material transportation before and after mining ceased at the Dowe Flats quarry. CEMEX must respond within 30 days to the letter.
