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Published On 3/28/2024
The Broomfield City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to leave a board created three years ago to address growing noise concerns at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport.

City leaders and some of its residents are blasting the so-called community noise roundtable as an ineffective waste of time and money.

The airport is owned by Jefferson County and residents in neighboring communities have been raising concerns for years about the impacts of airport noise on their health and wellbeing.
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Published On 3/13/2024
The Superior Board of Trustees on Monday night expressed concern over positive lead results from homes in the Rock Creek neighborhood, and the effects lead can have on the town’s children.

Trustees fear that the source of the lead is emissions from planes taking off from Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport.
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Published On 3/13/2024
The town of Superior, Colorado and Boulder County are suing neighboring Jefferson County and Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (often call Jeffco), which is owned by Jefferson County, to force them to ban touch and goes at the busy training airport. Citing “negative and unreasonable health impacts” from noise and lead pollution, the city and county say they’ve tried for years to get their next-door neighbors to respond to their concerns but instead activity at the airport has steadily increased. Operations increased from 191,553 in 2019 to 281,806 in 2023 and the vast majority are training flights from the four flight schools on the sprawling 1,700-acre field.
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Published On 3/8/2024
DENVER — For years, many Colorado residents have called on their elected leaders at every level of government to act on the noise issues and leaded fuel related to Colorado’s local airports. Now, a group of Colorado legislators are sponsoring a bill to address the concerns.

House Bill 24-1235 has four Democratic prime sponsors and was the topic of testimony during a Transportation, Housing, & Local Government committee hearing Wednesday.
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Published On 3/5/2024
In response to a recent campaign calling for the closure of Boulder Municipal Airport, a group of residents issued a counter-petition voicing their support for the airport’s continued operation.
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Published On 3/5/2024
Brad Walker is frustrated, but resolute. A long-time GA pilot based at Jefferson County, Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (aka “Jeffco”), he has filed multiple requests under the Colorado Open Records Act (similar to the Freedom of Information Act) to obtain information related to legal action by area residents against the airport. Walker’s findings include eye-opening results of lead-pollution tests commissioned by the town of Superior, Colorado, and previously reported by AVweb.
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Published On 2/26/2024
More than 400 residents of Superior’s Rock Creek subdivision filed a lawsuit against neighboring Jefferson County, owner of the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, complaining that noise and alleged pollution from leaded aviation fuel are affecting their well-being and devaluing their homes.
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Published On 2/22/2024
For months, Colorado residents living near Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport have expressed concerns about potential lead exposure from the small piston engine airplanes taking off over their homes.

RMMA has already committed to expediting their transition to 94 unleaded fuel and moving to fully unleaded when they are able.
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Published On 2/22/2024
After a lawsuit was filed against the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, opinions from impacted residents and pilots have flooded in. Carly Moore has the latest.
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Published On 2/22/2024
A campaign to decommission Boulder Municipal Airport (KBDU) in favor of a new, mixed-use neighborhood has begun circulating online.
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Published On 2/16/2024
Community members have begun circulating a petition in support of decommissioning Boulder’s 96-year-old municipal airport and turning the area into a new, mixed-use neighborhood.

One of the petition’s organizers, Laura Kaplan, is a member of the city’s Planning Board. A mediator by trade, she said she doesn’t normally become involved in city issues as an advocate or activist, but got involved with the effort to close the airport over land use concerns — the airport sits on 179 acres of land that could be used in many other ways.
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Published On 2/15/2024
Notwithstanding the lack of detectable lead in air and surface samples taken in three Colorado communities near Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in 2023 (findings that came to light only after pilots obtained the reports via freedom of information requests), the legislature is now considering a nakedly anti-aviation bill that AOPA will vigorously oppose.
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Published On 2/14/2024
State lawmakers have introduced a bill aiming to protect residents from noise and potential lead exposure at Colorado's growing general aviation airports.

Rapid growth at several airports, including Rocky Mountain Metropolitan in northern Colorado, has sparked lawsuits, thousands of noise complaints and health concerns about airborne lead pollution in neighboring communities.
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Published On 2/14/2024
A series of studies commissioned by the town of Superior, Colorado, found virtually no evidence of airborne and surface lead contamination in three towns nearby Jefferson County’s Rocky Mountain Metro Airport (KBJC – also known as Jeffco Airport). But it took a Freedom of Information request to bring the test results to light. In all but one case, the levels found at the sites were too low to register. Air and surface swab samples were taken from indoor and outdoor locations in Superior, Louisville, and Lafayette, Colorado, between May and November last year.
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Published On 2/9/2024
Denver, Colo. – The Colorado Aviation Business Association (CABA) and Colorado Pilots Association (CPA) released the following statement welcoming the findings of no lead contamination in communities near Rocky Mountain Metro Airport, and reaffirming the commitment of the aviation industry to safely replace leaded aviation gas by 2030:
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Published On 1/30/2024
The Colorado Aviation Business Association (CABA), Colorado Pilots Association and Colorado Airport Operators Association – along with NBAA – are planning to increase advocacy efforts in the new year to promote business aviation in the state.
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Published On 1/22/2024
As we take a look back at 2023 in our Division’s Annual Report, the continued growth and success of aviation across Colorado has been truly remarkable Strong levels of activity statewide resulted in another year of record revenues for our Division, allowing us to further increase our investments in airport infrastructure, aviation safety, and aviation education and workforce development We expect our industry to remain strong into 2024, and we look forward to continuing our momentum!
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Published On 1/11/2024
A lawsuit organized by disgruntled homeowners who live near Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Colorado pits neighbors against the national aviation system and their local airport.
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Published On 1/8/2024
Last week, I published a news brief on the lawsuit a group of homeowners is filing in Colorado claiming the local airport, Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport—also known as Jeffco (KBJC)—is financially responsible for lowering their property values. The issue of “avigation easements” came up in my research on the lawsuit, and some readers asked for clarification on exactly what the term means and how it applies in the real world. So, as promised, here it is. Buckle up.
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Published On 10/5/2023
BROOMFIELD – Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (RMMA) officials and Jefferson County Commissioners Wednesday announced the airport’s accelerated timeline to transition to unleaded fuel three years ahead of the FAA deadline.

RMMA, the fastest growing airport in the state, is already in the process of switching over to UL94 unleaded aviation gasoline, which is compatible with two-thirds of RMMA’s fleet. The airport’s purchase of a new fuel truck and tank for transport and storage of the unleaded fuel has paved the way for the transition to be completed by fall of 2024.

Critically, the infrastructure for UL94 unleaded fuel is entirely compatible with 100UL, an unleaded gasoline suitable for all piston aircraft engines but was only FAA-approved in the last quarter of 2022. As the fuel becomes more widely available, RMMA will proactively and fully transition to 100UL unleaded fuel in the next two to three years
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NOTAM

Published On 8/3/2023
Over the past few years, air traffic flying over Superior neighborhoods has increased dramatically, mostly from single-engine propeller planes operated by flight schools based at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (RMMA). These flights are polluting Superior -- with noise from their near-constant operations and by lead particulates emitted from the combustion of leaded fuel used by the flight school aircraft. While Superior has patiently waited for the RMMA Community Noise Roundtable (CNR) to offer solutions to this increasing problem, the problem is getting worse. Consequently, we are requesting that you take immediate steps to protect the health, safety, and welfare of our residents by implementing the following reasonable solutions. Many of these solutions provide a common sense approach to reducing the number of touch- and-go operations from the flight schools and are highly unlikely to impact growing commercial and private jet operations at the airport.
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Safety

Published On 10/3/2023
An editorial earlier this summer (“Don’t let children near Colorado’s airports

suffer the same fate as kids in Flint, Mich.” July 11, 2023) focused on an important issue, but grossly oversimplified the solution. The concern over the use of lead in aviation gas is understandable and shared by the general aviation industry,
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Published On 10/2/2023
Airport Operations has witnessed airport-tenant pedestrian traffic interfering with JSX operations in their leasehold area on the west end of the Terminal. Unrelated pedestrians in the vicinity of JSX operations creates security concerns with JSX and ultimately the TSA inspectors who audit their internal security procedures. Unauthorized pedestrians have also been found walking through the US Customs Inspection Area during use, a violation of federal law. The Airport is required to take any appropriate action to eliminate these occurrences.
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Member News

Published On 2/16/2024
BROOMFIELD, Colo. — Two pilots from Colorado are preparing to compete in the 2024 Air Race Classic, an all-women air race.

Alaina Bravo and Amanda Wilson, also known as The Blonde Bombers, will fly their Cessna 172 in the race from Carbondale, Illinois, to Loveland Colorado, beginning on June 18.
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