Publish Date: 9/21/2005

Commissioners agree to CEMEX hearing

By Brad Turner

The Daily Times-Call

LYONS — Boulder County commissioners vowed to hold a public hearing so residents living near a cement factory could question the plant’s environmental impacts during a standing- room-only meeting at Lyons Town Hall on Tuesday.

“I drive by it every day,” Commissioner Ben Pearlman, a Lyons resident, said of the nearby CEMEX plant east of town. “It’s a significant problem.”

But commissioners have limited power to address the plant’s proposal to burn tires, and no input on a pending judicial ruling that will decide if a 16-year-old permit allowing CEMEX to fuel its kiln by torching tires is still active, the leaders stressed.

As a rule, the county board has avoided complaints from CEMEX’s neighbors while the lawsuit, involving the county’s handling of the tire-burning permit, is pending.

About 50 angry residents packed Tuesday’s stuffy meeting hall, which was part of the commissioners’ annual visit to Lyons hear residents’ concerns.

In addition to questions about proposed tire burning, residents are sick of dust clouds and noise from the plant, resident Ric Breese said.

Richard Cargill, a vocal critic of CEMEX, said he was tired of hearing that judges or health officials have jurisdiction over tire burning while commissioners do little to help.

“We have a voice with you tonight and we expect some action,” Cargill said. “I’m upset that you’re not doing anything. The county’s not taking a stance for the people.”

In response, several audience members heckled the three commissioners by shouting, “It’s your job!”

One woman passed around a patch of rubbery playground turf made from recycled tires, and urged the commissioners to support environmentally friendly methods for disposing of tires.

The commissioners ultimately agreed to a public hearing, and said they will ask county attorneys to clarify the county board’s legal powers in the matter.

The audience responded with loud applause.

No CEMEX representatives spoke at the meeting.

The Sierra Club sued county officials in 2002 after they ruled that CEMEX’s 1989 tire-burning permit was still active, even though the company had not used it since natural gas and coal prices dropped in 1993.

A county ordinance voids certain permits if they are inactive for five years, but the county’s board of adjustment and land-use officials said that rule did not apply to CEMEX’s permit.

Boulder County District Court Judge Roxanne Bailin upheld that decision in April, clearing the way for CEMEX to burn as many as 1 million tires each year. In her decision, Bailin called parts of the Sierra Club’s arguments “strained and illogical.”

But she prefaced her ruling with an unusual disclaimer that her decision involved only the validity of CEMEX’s permit and had nothing to do with the debate over whether tires are a suitable fuel source.

Bailin recently agreed to reconsider evidence in the case. Her new ruling is pending.

Brad Turner can be reached at 720-494-5420, or by e-mail at bturner@times-call.com.