CAT Team member Kay Meyer forwarded this statement from the "Good Neighbors of Lyons":
Hello -
As you may have heard, Boulder County has rescinded its April 2024 determination that CEMEX unlawfully expanded its nonconforming use after the closure of the Dowe Flats Quarry.
We are deeply disappointed by Boulder County’s reversal. This decision reads like Boulder County treated inconvenient facts as obstacles to get around rather than evidence it had to confront.
The County’s own consultant confirmed that truck traffic increased 118% from the 2014–2018 conveyor/rail period to the 2019–2022 truck-based period, while clinker production increased only 6%. In plain English: production stayed relatively flat, but truck traffic exploded because CEMEX changed how it moved raw materials.
The only way the County gets to “no significant increase” is by defining the 1994 baseline in a way that ignores what actually happened in 1994: Boulder County approved Dowe Flats with a conveyor system designed to reduce truck hauling in June 1994, and the plant became nonconforming under the Land Use Code in October 1994. The relevant baseline should be the reduced-truck, conveyor-based operation — not a dormant, pre-Dowe Flats truck-heavy model that CEMEX stopped using for decades and now wants to revive.
By allowing CEMEX to revive and expand heavy raw-material trucking decades later, the County is treating a decades-old, long-unused operating model as though it had been preserved forever. That is not what nonconforming-use protections are for.
Good Neighbors submitted two amicus briefs when CEMEX challenged the County’s initial determination. Those briefs made several key points that the County appears to have ignored:
· CEMEX’s own data shows a dramatic increase in inbound truck traffic as the plant moved away from adjacent/conveyor-supplied raw materials.
· CEMEX stopped reporting truck traffic data in mid-2023, right when the County began asking for it.
· CEMEX’s own consultant cherry-picked years — only 4 out of the 16+ available years — when truck traffic was already elevated to make those levels look normal.
· CEMEX repeatedly warned regulators that truck traffic would increase if Dowe Flats closed, and then, when that happened, argued there was no meaningful change.
· The conveyor was not a side detail. It was the mitigation measure that made the Dowe Flats Special Use Permit approval possible.
This fight is not just about traffic. It is about whether CEMEX can operate for decades under a lower-impact configuration and then revive a heavier, more harmful industrial model without public review.
It is also about who CEMEX has shown itself to be. This is a company with a long record of air-quality violations, enforcement actions, settlements, and penalties. Again and again, CEMEX appears to choose the cheaper path: pay the fine, negotiate the settlement, and continue operating rather than address the root causes of pollution and harm to the community. That is not being a good neighbor. That is treating penalties as a cost of doing business.
We are now evaluating every available legal and administrative option, including whether the County’s rescission can be appealed. More information will follow soon.
With Gratitude,
Sarah
Good Neighbors of Lyons