Grass-Roots
Community Powered
Environmental Action
Help Us Finish the Fight
For over 55 years, a coal-fired cement plant has operated in the heart of the Saint Vrain Valley — Boulder County's single largest source of CO₂ emissions, responsible for approximately 7% of local greenhouse gas output, and the subject of four consecutive state enforcement actions totaling nearly $3.5 million in fines.
In April 2024, Boulder County made a landmark decision: CEMEX had violated its grandfathered operating status by more than doubling truck traffic on Hwy66, and that status was terminated by Land Use’s Cease and Desit letter. It was a victory years in the making.
Then, on May 19, 2026 — eight days after the state of Colorado fined CEMEX $855,000 for air quality violations — Boulder County reversed its decision. The Director's entire merit finding was a single sentence: "The evidence shows that there was no significant increase in truck traffic to and from the property since the closure of the Dowe Flats quarry [Sept. 2021], compared with 1994 traffic." The actual 1994 truck count was 37 daily trips. By CEMEX's own traffic study — which our legal team believes significantly undercounts reality —
that number has exploded to 303 daily gondola trucks in 2026!
Save Our Saint Vrain Valley and Good Neighbors of Lyons filed an appeal to Dale Case’s latest rescission, with the Boulder County Board of Adjustment, BOA. A public hearing will be held on October 7, 2026. We request your presence at this historic event. Details to follow.
The Saint Vrain Valley deserves better than this — & we intend to prove it once again.
How You Can Help
Your contribution to SOSVV will directly support our ongoing legal and advocacy efforts to appeal Boulder County’s rescission, and reinstate the termination of CEMEX’s right to operate as they are now.
Our ask: Just $26 a month for the remainder of 2026. That's one coffee a week. Can end the No.1 CO2 polluter’s operations.
Your donation goes directly to legal fees to decommission the CEMEX cement plant, ensure Boulder County upholds its 2024 Cease & Desist letter for the No.1 CO2 polluter in Boulder County. Your donations to Save Our Saint Vrain Valley, a Colorado 501(c)3 nonprofit, is tax deductible. Every dollar kepps us in this fight.
We’re Grass-Roots, Community-Powered, Environmental Action. With your support, we will keep protecting air quality, wildlife, open space public land and the St. Vrain Watershed from industrialization. Stand up by signing up $26 for 2026 campaign– the cost of a cup of coffee can help end 60 years of pollution from the Lyon’s plant. Thank you!
Please Donate
SOSVV is a 501c3 and 100% volunteer led. All funds go towards legal expenses to protect and conserve the geologically unique and historic St. Vrain Valley.
Every dollar means so much (and boosts our morale too!).
Change begins at the local level. We’ve done it before.
Over the last 9+ years we have secured key campaign victories, and protected the Valley from an onslaught of industrial uses, and de-facto rezoning / spot zoning; campaigns holding Boulder County Land Use Dept, BCPOS, Aggregate Industries, Martin Marietta Materials, and CEMEX accountable to Special Use permit expirations, accountable to the residents, visitors, wildlife, and existing uses of the St. Vrain Valley.