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After the tour, Boulder Weekly again contacted John Lohr to try to understand the difference between the Cemex we <br />toured and the Cemex documented in three hours of video. <br />"This is the first I've heard of videos,' Lohr says. "I would have to see them. If you would be willing to bring them out we <br />could take a look at them and I could offer you comments. But without having seen them I guess it would be difficult for <br />me to comment, and I would have to see, too, if there were other tasks going on." <br />Boulder Weekly explained we could not take the videos to Cemex for fear of divulging the identity of the insider and <br />instead described scenes from the footage: high piles of dust blocking walkways and a door, oil filters floating in oily <br />water, rags tied around dripping oil leaks and so on. <br />Lohr says he is unaware of any plant employees dumping oil or oil filters into water on the site. <br />"We go to great pains [with oil)," he says. "We hire a company to haul used oil away. Many of our oil filters, especially on <br />the big equipment, are taken away, cleaned and returned for re-use. So I don't know where those came from-whether <br />they were from the plant, whether they were from a tenant who is leasing the [agricultural) land. I simply do not know." <br />If employees were discovered to be dumping oil or oil products, they would be disciplined, he says. <br />"That's a very clear plant policy," he says. <br />As for the piles of dust, Lohr says large piles of dust sometimes occur but are cleaned up. <br />"There are certainly times where there are piles of dust in the plant and we have to have our employees clean those up, <br />and they happen on a regular basis, but it usually has to do with equipment malfunction, equipment breakdown-that type <br />of thing;' he says. <br />But Lohr says he cannot truly comment without seeing the videos firsthand. <br />"I would have to see a little more, understand more," he says. <br />So what's the bottom line at Cemex? Is the plant awell-managed facility that contributes not only jobs and a valuable <br />product to our economy, but also does its best to be gentle on the environment? Or is it an embattled facility with safety, <br />maintenance and cleanliness problems that impact its neighbors? <br />The evidence is contradictory, and with county, state and federal officials declining to comment and final reports from the <br />state and MSHA weeks away, the final answer is not immediately forthcoming. <br />But neighbors are delighted that their concerns are apparently being taken seriously. <br />"Paul Carr is a man who takes his job very seriously, and he's witnessed the problem of poor housekeeping," says Cargill. <br />"His environmental ethic and his social conscience and his expertise have made him a hero in this community. He's <br />identified the problem, and he wants to correct it." <br />15 <br />