Even as new studies show no detectable lead in the air or the ground near one of Colorado’s busiest general aviation airports—Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport, also known as "Jeffco"—the state legislature is advancing a bill (HB-1235) that would add a 50-cent-per-gallon “impact remediation fee” on the sale of leaded avgas. It would also cut off funding for airports proximate to high-density populations (defined as 3,000 people per sq m) that did not have plans in place to phase out leaded fuels by Jan. 1, 2026—a full four years before general aviation groups have voluntarily agreed to switch to unleaded fuel.
The “Reduce Aviation Impacts on Communities” bill contains other provisions viewed as hostile to general aviation, including the expansion of the state’s aeronautical board from seven to nine members, with the new seats designated for non-pilots who live “directly in the predominant flight path of a high-traffic” airport. However, it does include various impact-mitigating incentives, such as a tax credit for aircraft operators paying the new fuel fee and the designation of airport grant money for new unleaded fuel tanks and other related infrastructure. The legislation comes after community groups in the area filed suit against the airport and hyperbolically proclaimed Jeffco “our Flint, Michigan,” a reference to the lead pipe contamination that shut down that city’s water supply in 2014.
The legislation is based “on perception more than reality,” according to Brad Schuster, regional manager for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), which opposes it along with other aviation groups including the NBAA. It comes after at least four lead pollution studies were conducted last year in three communities proximate to Jeffco in the Denver suburb of Broomfield.
Those studies showed no measurable lead in the air or on the ground in three surrounding communities—Superior, Lafayette, and Louisville. They were commissioned by the town of Superior and conducted by Pinyon Environmental. Superior reportedly suppressed the study’s results, only releasing them after a Freedom of Information Act request was filed by a volunteer in the AOPA Air Support Network.