Boulder County, Superior sue over airport noise, lead

BOULDER COUNTY — Officials in Boulder County and Superior are suing their counterparts in Jefferson County over their alleged inaction to limit the impacts of noise and lead pollution from operations at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield.

The lawsuit, which notably does not seek monetary damages, was filed Tuesday in Boulder County District Court in an effort by Boulder County and Superior leaders to “protect their residents from negative and unreasonable health impacts,” the plaintiffs said in a news release. 

The legal move comes, the plaintiffs said, after several years of work by Community Noise Roundtable, which includes stakeholders in both counties, failed to deliver satisfactory results for neighbors who live in close proximity to the Jefferson County-owned RMMA. 

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“We have not made this decision lightly, but after a lack of action from RMMA and its owner Jefferson County, we are moving forward with a lawsuit,” Boulder County Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann said in a prepared statement. “We have spent countless hours trying to work through solutions with Jefferson County and the airport, but we aren’t seeing progress and our residents are still suffering from the negative impact of aviation fuel and piston-engine aircraft. We are hopeful that today’s action brings about much-needed change that improves the quality of life for our community.”

Jefferson County officials, in a statement emailed to BizWest on Tuesday, said, “Federally-funded airports such as RMMA are subject to federal laws that require the airport to be available to aircraft operations, including those using leaded fuel, those that make noise, and those engaged in touch-and-go and similar operations. It is not a legal option for the airport to mandate a reduction in those operations. The county believes that the Community Noise Roundtable is a valuable venue for these discussions and will continue to work with community members to address their concerns where viable and legal options exist.”

Rather than monetary damages, the “plaintiffs seek preliminary and permanent injunctions requiring Jefferson County to abate the public nuisance caused by piston-engine aircraft performing ‘touch and go’ operations on Runway 30L and Runway 30R at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport,” according to the complaint. “These operations deposit unsafe levels of lead particulates on plaintiffs and expose plaintiffs’ residents to repeated and excessive noise and thus create unreasonable health and safety hazards for their residents, constitute a public nuisance, and must be enjoined.”

Touch-and-goes are a common maneuver performed by piston-engine aircraft, which, according to Superior and Boulder County, are “the only type of aircraft still using fuel containing lead,” during pilot-training flights.

“There are four flight schools located at the airport and they utilize (or lease on an

hourly basis) approximately 60 aircraft,” the complaint said. “Nearly all of these aircraft are piston-engine training aircraft.”

During touch-and-goes, the “combination of low altitude, low speed, and maximum power creates maximum lead and noise exposure for an extended time over plaintiffs’ residents,” the lawsuit said. “Because of the nature of touch-and-go operations, the same aircraft will overfly

plaintiffs’ residents several times during a single flight, leading to additional and unreasonable

exposure to lead particulates and noise.”

By “meaningfully reducing the number of overflights performed by piston-engine aircraft,” Jefferson County could “mitigate some or all of the unreasonable health concerns caused by airborne lead exposure,” according to the complaint. 

Medical “researchers have concluded that noise not only causes annoyance, sleep disturbance, and reductions in quality of life, but also contributes to a higher prevalence of the most important cardiovascular risk factor arterial hypertension and the incidence of cardiovascular diseases,” the lawsuit said, while lead exposure “has been linked to decreased cognitive performance.”

The dispute between RMMA leadership and residents in nearby communities has been a source of conflict around the Broomfield airport for years. 

Westminster officials considered abandoning the Community Noise Roundtable this year before a slim 4-3 majority of the Westminster City Council members voted to remain part of the regional body, whose voting members include representatives from Westminster, Louisville, Lafayette, Superior, Broomfield, Arvada, Boulder County and Jefferson County.

That vote came after KUNC published transcripts of private conversation during which former RMMA director Paul Anslow, who left his position in late 2023, belittled the work of the roundtable and referred to those who complain about noise as “nut jobs.”

While Anslow had his defenders — six members of an RMMA advisory board resigned in protest after he left his job, according to KUNC — those comments appear to have struck a nerve.

“For years, we have asked Superior residents to be patient while we worked with Jefferson County to address the noise and lead pollution coming from RMMA. But now we know that Jefferson County did not take this issue seriously and went so far as to mock our residents’ legitimate concerns. Our residents have had enough,” Superior Mayor Mark Lacis said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “Jefferson County knows there is a problem and it could solve it immediately by eliminating touch-and-go operations by piston-engine aircraft. If Jefferson County won’t abate this nuisance voluntarily, we’ll have the courts require it.”

The lawsuit is Town of Superior et al v. Jefferson County Board of Commissioners et at. Case number 2024CV030221, filed Mar 12, 2024 in Boulder County District Court.