Colorado’s U.S. lawmakers want to block Glenwood Springs mine

Colorado’s Western Slope federal delegates want to stop the Bureau of Land Management from approving a controversial gravel mine expansion above Glenwood Springs. 

The Glenwood Springs Protection Act — proposed this week by U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, a Republican, and Democratic U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper — lands a few weeks after the BLM deemed the Mid-Continent Limestone Quarry expansion proposal could move to the next phase of review. 

The owner of the quarry mine — Rocky Mountain Industrials, which paid $2.8 million for the 16-acre mine in 2016 — first proposed the expansion to more than 56 acres in 2018. The plan has galvanized local governments, tribal groups and locals who fear the tripling of the gravel quarry operation could hurt the region’s robust tourist economy, which includes a hot springs resort that ranks as one of Colorado’s first tourist attractions. The proposal would increase the number of trucks carrying gravel through town to around 400, up from 20.

Hurd, in a press call on Thursday, said his legislation “should not be very controversial at all.”

“I am pro-mining. I am pro-energy. I am pro-resource development,” said the first-term congressman who grew up in Grand Junction and whose first job as a politician is representing Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. “But responsible resource development means recognizing that not every location is the right place for every project.”

Hurd said this is not a question of whether mining is important, but whether this mine above Glenwood Springs was worth risking impacts to the hot springs and local economy. 

“One of Colorado’s most iconic natural resources should not be put at unnecessary risk for materials that can be found somewhere else,” said Hurd, calling the legislation “pro-common sense and pro-local control. From my perspective when there is a broad local consensus, Congress ought to listen. Local communities deserve a seat at the table. They need a seat at the table.”

In this March 2018 file photo, a truck leaves the Rocky Mountain Industrials limestone quarry on lower Transfer Trail north of Glenwood Springs. (Chelsea Self / Glenwood Springs Post Independent)

The unified opposition against the Rocky Mountain Industrials plan has included a publicly funded $1.2 million public affairs campaign, several lawsuits involving the town of Glenwood Springs and Garfield County, permit issues, a rockslide that closed operations and a BLM review that has now stretched across three federal administrations. 

Rocky Mountain Industrials was founded in 2014 by Chad Brownstein, the son of Norm Brownstein, the chairman of Denver’s influential law and lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. In 2019, as the BLM studied the mine’s expansion plan, the Interior Department was helmed by David Bernhardt, who had spent years as a lobbyist for Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s oil and mining clients.

A photo of Rocky Mountain Industrials’ limestone quarry above Glenwood Springs after the January 18, 2023 rockslide. (Courtesy Glenwood Springs Citizens’ Alliance)

Rocky Mountain Industrials has spent nearly $70 million on its growth plan in the last decade. In May 2024, the company reported it had secured a $26 million loan for its 620-acre Rocky Mountain Rail Park in Adams County, bringing the total financing for that Front Range project to $127 million. The railroad park outside Watkins is next to the Colorado Air and Space Port with access to Union Pacific rail. The company also owns a small rail yard in Glenwood Springs, less than 3 miles from its quarry, and has spent close to a decade on a plan to distribute Garfield County gravel to paving projects across the Front Range. 

The mining and resource transportation company has argued that its expansion plan should be expedited under the 1872 Mining Act, which reduces regulatory hurdles for mining of “uncommon” materials that are particularly valuable. Under the Biden administration, the BLM determined the company was mining “common variety” limestone, which meant it owed the government more royalties and faced stiffer environmental regulation. That decision forced the mine to stop operations and the owner filed for a new mining permit as part of its expansion plan.

The fight in Garfield County — led by the Glenwood Springs Citizens Alliance — has been fierce as the natural resources rollercoaster in Washington, D.C., in the last eight years shifted from a focus on more domestic mining and energy to more conservation and protection and back again to increasing extraction from public lands. 

The proposed expansion of the Mid-Continent Limestone Quarry above Glenwood Springs by the politically connected Rocky Mountain Industrials spurred the city to create a taxpayer funded campaign against the plan. The mine’s existing footprint of roughly 16 acres is in yellow and the proposed expansion is in red. (Courtesy, City of Glenwood Springs)

Marvin Pinnecoose, the chairman of the Southern Ute Tribal Council, said his tribe is not averse to mining and energy development but Colorado’s hot springs from Durango and Pagosa Springs north to Glenwood Springs are “sacred sites” and places of “healing, renewal and deep cultural significance.” He worries about “the butterfly effect” and unintended consequences of mining above a hot springs aquifer. 

“It’s humanity’s cause and it’s our responsibility to make sure that when we are looking at these instances, that we take everything into consideration,” Pinnecoose said in the press call. “And after everyone is heard, I just hope that a sane and responsible decision is made that will protect … cultural resources, that will preserve the land, the culture and the people in that area.”