Following a seven hour hearing and the input from roughly 60 community members, the Boulder County commissioners tabled a hearing on extending CEMEX’s special use permit to mine at the Dowe Flats.
Commissioners plan to discuss and come to a decision about whether to extend the permit for 15 years at 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 29.
Open mining at Dowe Flats was approved for 25 years of operation and the permit is set to expire at the end of this month. CEMEX requested a 15 year extension of the mining activities north of Colo. Hwy. 66 near Lyons.
Separate from the mining activities, CEMEX also conducts cement processing, considered a mining activity, just south of Hwy. 66 at the Lyons Quarry. That plant operates under the land use code as legal nonconforming, meaning the owner has a right to continue operating the cement plant for an indefinite time.
As part of the extension at the Dowe Flats, CEMEX offered to permanently close the Lyons Quarry cement plant within the same 15-year period.
The extension was negotiated with Boulder County Parks and Open Space, which includes promises for inexpensive land purchase deals, and Boulder County staff recommended approval based on special use permit guidelines. However, the Boulder County planning commission unanimously recommended against the extension, citing the level of uncertainty about this project’s impacts and a desire to reduce the timeframe of the extension.
Members of the public were overwhelmingly against approving this extension, pointing to a lack of environmental development strategy and a need to bring in more stakeholders.
“This application was presented to the public with two options, 15 years or forever,” said Sarah Lorang, founding member of Good Neighbors of Lyons, a community group focused solely on this application. “I am 100% confident there are other options where all stakeholders in the community will receive benefits, not just parks and open space.”
The town of Lyons recommended denial as well for environmental and public health reasons along with a desire to be a part of negotiations with their neighbor.
According to Boulder County’s Office of Sustainability, Climate Action and Resilience, CEMEX is the largest single contributor of CO2 in Boulder County.
CEMEX Executive Vice President of Strategic Planning Trpimir Reni agreed that this was the case, but pointed out that if the operation were to shut down those emissions would just move to another location and Boulder County’s cement — a primary construction material — would just come from further away.
Reni also said CEMEX plans to continue operations at the Lyons Quarry with or without the Dowe Flats Quarry in operation.
At the end of the hearing, the commissioners did not comment on their positions related to the extension. The county will not be taking any additional public comments, whether verbal or in written form, in the lead up to the Sept. 29 meeting.
