Task force honors Lyons cement plant for cleanup
By Chris Barge
Camera Staff Writer


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LYONS — A cement plant once singled out by environmentalists as a major polluter has been recognized for cleaning up its act.
Members of the North Boulder County Environmental Health Community Task Force delivered a letter of appreciation to the employees of Southdown Corp.'s cement plant near Lyons on Tuesday. The letter thanked the company for cutting down its "fugitive dust emissions" by 80 percent in the past two years.
The company has spent $300,000 on sprinkler systems, a water truck, a street sweeper and an additional environmental employee to cut back its dust emissions in the past two years. The company has reclaimed 300 acres used for lime extraction and has added an environmental component to each of its 90 employees' job descriptions.
Now, residents say their views are better and they can breathe easier.
"We no longer have to keep our windows shut but can enjoy the country breeze that blows in," said Darla Shupe, a St. Vrain Valley resident.
Richard Cargill, director of the St. Vrain Valley Watchdogs, played an influential role in forming the consortium and bringing about the change. He said the community encouraged cleanup using a model for civil action he brought from Chicago three years ago.
"This is a success story," Cargill said. "We worked in a cooperative way."
Cargill, a retired high school and college environmental educator, moved to Hygiene from Chicago three years ago. There he found a tight-knit community whose residents, ironically, were afraid to open their windows for all the dust that could settle on their furniture and in their lungs.
The dust had been coming from the Southdown plant, a couple miles north of Hygiene, for about 30 years.
When Cargill moved to town, he saw an opportunity to employ the model he had used in Chicago to convince Amoco Corp. to stop using ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbon in its production operations.
"We emphasized the positive, and we put our heads together to find solutions to this problem," Cargill said.
Cargill helped form the St. Vrain Watchdogs more than two years ago. Then he marched them through a three-step model for cooperative problem-solving he had developed through years of environmental advocacy: Pick an issue; educate the public; take action.
"That's it," Cargill said. "Simple."
Southdown plant manager John Lohr thanked Cargill for working toward a positive solution.
"The problem just festers if you try to sweep it under the rug and forget about it," Lohr said. "I believe people will try to do the right thing if you communicate what you need."
Lohr said his employees deserve all credit for the cleanup, and he was happy to see them recognized Tuesday.
He offered a word to other industries.
"If they have issues dealing with the community, I think it's much better to engage them in conversation, do creative problem solving to identify a solution and get on with fixing the problem," Lohr said.
Contact Chris Barge at (303) 466-3636, ext. 128, or bargec@thedailycamera.com.
September 21, 2000

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