Lyons Colorado Air Quality (Denver, Boulder: 2014, house prices, neighborhoods)

[Cartographer]

Hi,
I'm hoping that someone living near Lyons can provide some recent information on the air quality and level of dust and omissions from the CEMEX plant. I know CEMEX has made a lot changes and the buzz around the topic seems to have subsided since 2005-2009. Most of the information on the clean-up of the plant stops around 2011. Is there any recent data available on air quality and omissions? In most state reports they report air quality in very general terms at the county level, but since Lyons is so close to the CEMEX plant, I'm not sure that level of generalization is appropriate or useful. I'd love to hear from someone with asthma or other respiratory issues living in town. My wife and I have wanted to move there for many years but the plant has always been a concern. We spend every weekend there and I've never had an issue, but with lung issues it can take a steady exposure before you really start to experience any effects.

Any recent information or someone willing to share their experience would be great

Thanks in advance
John

[Good Red Road]

CEMEX wouldn't be a large concern for me. We looked seriously into moving to Lyons during 2011 - 2013, but ultimately settled on Evergreen since the commute to Denver was shorter.

I know CEMEX settled with the EPA in 2013 and believe that was pretty much the end of the story.CEMEX Lyons Plant Settlement | Enforcement | US EPA

We liked the neighborhoods up on Steamboat Mountain, but our bigger concern was the noise and dust from the quarry. Some of those homes backed right up to it. Also, some of the higher and more scenic neighborhoods that we liked were off the city water grid. From what we researched, digging a well in that area was fairly sketchy.

I still love the town though, I think living there would be a blast. Good Luck.

[Cartographer]

Thanks for the reply and for the information. I appreciate it. I suspected that it's been a closed issue since 2013 but you know how it goes. Better to check than to be sorry!

Thanks again,
John

[InterCeptor]

Originally Posted by Cartographer

Thanks for the reply and for the information. I appreciate it. I suspected that it's been a closed issue since 2013 but you know how it goes. Better to check than to be sorry!

Thanks again,
John

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Hi John (Cartographer),

Lived in Lyons for many years and moved away in the past two years, after the floods of '13. Yes, you can smell the acid smell of the CEMEX plant in Lyons (we were in the subdivision originally platted in the 1890s).

Yet, be aware that once you know how to identify the smell that emanates from the CEMEX plant, you will be able to identify it all over Boulder County and further away, as well. I have smelled CEMEX smutty air in Lafayette, Louisville, Superior, and as far south as the northern reaches of Broomfield, over 35 road miles away.

I don't know if you ended up buying there in 2010, but if you did, you might have bought when prices were better (lower). Back in the day, many people purchased properties near the St. Vrain River, and considered themselves lucky. Now, their tunes have changed. (Just do a simple search in YouTube for Floods in Lyons, 2013). The only town in Boulder County that was hit worse than Lyons was Jamestown.

The infrastructure of the town was ripped to pieces. No water, sewage service, no electricity, natural gas pipes were torn out, and the town's water treatment plant was half washed away. They had no idea how long it would take to restore those services. The saddest part? When repairs were carried out, they put everything back in the same place(s) that they had been before!

If a flood happens again, things will be in the same situation all over again. If you buy a house there, buy it on a hillside, and put in your own sewer system, solar electricity, back up power, & etc. Make sure that the road to your place has no bridges. (Be aware that again in June of 2014 there were significant rains in Boulder County, the waters rose to near flood levels and there were flood warnings in Lyons and other places in Boulder County. It CAN happen again!)

I guess that by now you can tell that CEMEX is not my biggest worry about Lyons.

Because 20% of the dwellings in town were destroyed, never to return, house prices in Lyons have climbed since then. Two trailer parks that had been situated right next to the river were washed out and the county (or maybe it was FEMA) will not allow them to be restored. Those parks were where the lower-income folks had lived, the artists, musicians, the folks who gave much of the 'artsy' character to the town. Now they can't afford to live there any more.

Looks like the average price for a house in town, just 2 bedrooms and 1 bath even, is over 400K. The town has character, but some of its charactistics are not appealing to me personally.