Denver airport ordered to pay $33.5 million for noise violations
Court rules in long-running dispute between Adams County and DIA
By JOHN AGUILAR | jaguilar@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
PUBLISHED: June 22, 2020 at 2:49 p.m. | UPDATED: June 22, 2020 at 5:26 p.m.
Adams County got just what it asked for in its lengthy fight with Denver International Airport — a judge’s order that DIA pay $33.5 million for noise violations that impacted nearby neighborhoods during a three-year period starting in 2014.
The ruling from Jefferson County District Judge Christie Bachmeyer was handed down on Friday but became public Monday. The judge concluded that DIA didn’t properly monitor noise emanating from aircraft using the airport, violating an intergovernmental agreement it had with the county that goes back to the late 1980s, when the airport was built.
Adams County maintains that DIA relied on an arcane and outdated noise modeling system — rather than actual ground measurements — to gauge airport noise. Bachmeyer ruled that . . .