Judge refuses The Source’s request to cut dust emissions in RiNo

The Source Market Hall, 3330 Brighton Blvd., is in the foreground and Mountain Cement Company’s silos are behind it. (BusinessDen file)

A Denver judge has refused to limit concrete dust emissions in RiNo, even as The Source Hotel has warned the grit is wrecking its air conditioning and threatening its business.

“While it is undisputed there is some release of fugitive dust from Mountain Cement’s facility, those releases have likely been happening for the last 40 years,” Judge Sarah Wallace ruled on Tuesday. “There is no evidence before the court that the releases are new.”

Last month, The Source sued Mountain Cement Co., its next door neighbor to the east, seeking $3 million in damages as a result of supposed upticks in dust emissions from the plant in 2023 and again in late 2024. Mountain Cement, which has moved Portland cement through its facility since 1987, claims to be fixing problems that The Source is complaining about.

In addition to its quest for damages, which is ongoing, The Source also sought a preliminary injunction to limit dust emissions from its neighbor. At a two-day hearing in Wallace’s courtroom on March 10-11, hotel lawyers and executives warned of imminent consequences.

“Our consultants are now advising us that due to the continued and expedited degradation of its HVAC unit, come summer of this year, we will no longer be able to cool the interior of Market Hall 1 to the temperature that is stipulated in leases with tenants,” Thomas Robles, project manager at The Source, testified of the hotel’s detached retail and restaurant space.

“What the hotel wants is for the effects of Mountain Cement’s business activities to no longer cause damage, both to HVAC units and the interior of Market Hall 1,” Robles added.

But Wallace vocalized her doubt during the hearing that she is the best person to regulate dust emissions from Mountain Cement, which is already working with state and city environmental regulators to cut its output. She expanded on those doubts in Tuesday’s order.

A tanker truck leaving Mountain Cement Company’s plant in Denver on Monday, March 3, 2025. (BusinessDen file)

“Public interest is best served by allowing CDPHE and DDPHE to continue overseeing and regulating Mountain Cement’s operations rather than having the court order that specific changes be made to the facility or operations where there is no evidence before the court on the efficacy of the proposed solution — or that CDPHE or DDPHE would even permit it,” she wrote.

The judge also cast doubt on Robles’ testimony about increased dust emissions in the fall of 2024, noting that no one from The Source brought it to Mountain Cement’s attention before suing. And she took issue with The Source’s proposed injunction, which would have required Mountain Cement to enclose its truck bays, at unknown cost to that company.

“While there is obviously a public interest in the health and safety of citizens of the state, that does not translate into…mandating injunctive relief that has not been tested as a reasonable alternative to what Mountain Cement has been doing for the last 40 years,” she wrote.

With that, she imposed no new restrictions on Mountain Cement’s operations in RiNo. 

Attorneys for both The Source and Mountain Cement declined to comment on her decision.