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Comes Inc. and fines of $282,000.00. Mike Oatley, editor of The Old Lyons Recorder, <br />reports that "the fines are among the largest fines ever levied for air quality violations in <br />Colorado." (March 4, 2004) <br />• "Three-Foot-deep piles of dust" <br />In 2003, a Comex employee came forth with three hours of video footage taken inside the <br />facility which not only confirm citizens'complaints, but shows the problem is much <br />worse than even the neighbors realized. The following is quoted from editor Pamela <br />White's investigative report: "Concrete Evidence: Whistle-blower Gives Boulder Weeklv <br />an Inside Look at Conditions at Comex:" <br />The 3 video tapes show "images of fool-deep piles of dust beneath conveyor belts; <br />conveyor belt covers leaking plumes of dust; foot-deep dust on walkways; dust-covered <br />cables crossing walkways; open transformer and breaker boxes; ceiling beams buried <br />beneath six-inch-high piles of cement dust; oil-soaked rags tied around leaking machines; <br />pipes swathed in duct tape; three-foot-deep piles of cement dust on roofs, particularly the <br />A-Frame. (`If that much built up on the roof, think how much went into the air,' the <br />insider says in the tape narration.')" (Boulder Weekly,lVovember 2Q 2003, p. 11) <br />Mike Oatley, editor of The Old Lyons Recorder writes that "the plant operated an A- <br />frame used to store clinker-a predecessor to finished PoRland cement without any <br />pollution control devices in place at all between April 2001 and August 2003 while <br />reporting that it was using a baghouse of 99% efficiency on the A-frame. The order <br />states, `At the time [the company reported that a baghouse was in place), there was no <br />baghouse on the A-Fran:e... and had not been such a baghouse for at least two years. "' <br />(March 4, 2004) <br />Margie Perkins, the Director of the Colorado Air Pollution Control Division, advised the <br />Boulder Weeklv on February 26, 2004 that, "the real issue at Comex is one of overall <br />management ofenvironmental compliance." <br />• Legacy Burden: <br />In 2003, Mary Lou Dobbs, Executive Director of the Environmental Justice Project, <br />requested an inquiry into recently uncovered inter-office memos in a Boulder County <br />Land Use Department docket written by inspectors from the Colorado Department of <br />Public Health and Environment. The inspectors wrote that it was discovered in <br />December of 1990 that personnel at the facility "were burning waste or used oil in <br />addition to other fuels." The inspectors determined that the facility had been burning <br />waste oil and other solvents since about 1975 and, <br />"a rough estimate of quantities burned, based on three tanker trucks per day and <br />6700 gallons/load is 20,100 gallons/day x 5 day/week x 52 week/year resulting in <br />an annual quantity of 5,226,000 gallons." (Inter-Office Communication from Tom <br />Tistinic, APCD, Stationary Sources Program, dated February 28, 1991) <br />