New lawsuit filed by neighbors of Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport

Community members who call Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport their neighbor, have long shared their frustration with noise.

"They are flying low they are flying slow, and they are looping and that's the biggest issue," said a neighbor. 

Residents of the Rock Creek neighborhood spoke with CBS News Colorado nearly a year ago about their experience.

Before sounding an alarm last spring about health concerns related to the leaded fuel used by most planes flying repeatedly over their homes.

"As a first-time mom to live in this fear, I don't want to cry but it's been really bad for my mental health just worrying about my daughter all the time," one mother told CBS News Colorado in May as the discussion around leaded fuel took center stage.

Now, after years of fighting the airport, a new battle.

After initially filing suit in 2020, a judge voided several of the airport's avigation easements -- or the right to fly in the airspace above certain properties they've filed a new lawsuit.

Roughly 400 residents who live in the areas where the easement no longer exist residents are involved in the suit.

They claim the airport is ignoring those changes and instead increasing flight operations.

The result they say is impacting property value and exposing those community members to lead.

An issue the suit says the airport acknowledged is an issue when they announced in October, they would speed up the timeline for phasing out leaded fuel.

"There's nobody saying we want to stick with the leaded fuel, everybody wants to switch over," Former airport director Paul Anslow said at the time.

CBS News Colorado reached out to Jefferson County for comment, a spokesperson said it is their policy not to comment on any pending litigation.

The lawsuit comes shortly after the sudden departure of that airport director and several of the airport advisory board members as well.