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Through a Colorado Open Records Act request, Boulder Weekly learned that Carr found 18 alleged air-pollution-control violations, seven of which involve issues related to fugitive dust emissions. Other alleged compliance violations include failure to calculate a variety of emissions correctly from a number of different sources and the failure to report four incidents of "upset condition" in the plant's Semi-Annual Deviation Report. "Upsets" are unpredictable failures of air pollution controls that result in the violation of emissions regulations and are not the resuN of poor management, poor maintenance or carelessness. Boulder Weekly asked to speak directly with Carr, but was not allowed the opportunity. Christopher Dann, spokesman for the state health department, explained that no one in the department would be able to comment on Cam's findings or the oument negotiation with Cemex until negotiations are completed. "All I can tell you is this policy of not discussing matters of negotiation until they're resolved is not something unique to our interaction with Cemex," Dann says. "It's been our policy in the eight and a half years that I've worked here, so it's not anything new. And once negotiations are completed we have never refused to talk to any member of the media-chapter and verse-so I wouldn't expect that it would be any different this time." For other issues, such as enforcement in general, the paper was referred to Perkins, who sits three rungs up the ladder from Carr. County officials likewise declined to comment on the current allegations against the company or the county inspection results that were forwarded on to the state in October 2002. Representatives from the state attorney general's office, which has been working with the health department on the current negotiations, also declined comment, going so far as to say the attorney general was not the expert on state statute when it came to air-quality regulations. Mine Safety and Health Administration officials, who have oversight over worker health and safety issues at the plant, said they are investigating a complaint filed on Nov. 14. "Right now we have an inspector there, along with an assistant, who are investigating the complaint," says Rodney Brown, MSHA spokesman. "We have an inspector (and an assistant] there now, looking into all of this." The complaint includes 11 allegations, Brown says. The specifics of the complaint mirror the allegations made by the insider to Boulder Weekly-poor maintenance, worker intimidation and an unhealthy work environment. "[The inspector's] got a lot of stuff to check out;' Brown says. "He's going to be looking into each of these allegations, [at least] the ones that can be check out." Brown says the agency gets about 100 complaints a year that require a response. "Certainly a good number of them turn out to be frivolous," he says.