Sean C. Morgan
The Linn County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 2 continued a public hearing for a month on the question of whether to expand the mining area at a quarry located off Berlin Road.
The hearing will reconvene at 10 a.m. on March 9. The record remains open for written testimony for two weeks, and the applicant will have two weeks to respond.
The quarry is owned by Kenneth and Renaye Carol Weber and operated by Liberty Rock Products, owned by Roger and Cal Emmert.
The current conditional use permit allows mining on 33 acres of the 84.11-acre property. Weber is requesting an expansion to 37.1 acres.
The conditional use permit was issued in 1981. It was modified in 1997.
The quarry has existed since 1940, said Myles Coway, an attorney representing Weber and the Emmerts. It predated the uses around it.
The aggregate it produces is recognized by county code as critical to the local economy, Coway said, especially rural areas, such as Sweet Home.
The property is bounded by a rock wall, where the aggregate is mined, to the north, Coway said. To the east is farm-forest uses. To the south is timber, and to the west is Berlin Road.
The potential impacts are noise, traffic and blasting, Coway told the commissioners.
As Liberty Rock moves into the rock face, they expect the impacts to the area to diminish, Coway said.
The Planning Commission and the Planning Department have recommended conditions for approval, Coway said, and those are acceptable to the quarry.
Weber and Liberty Rock are requesting that restrictions on ground vibrations be changed to match National Fire Protection Agency standards, taking into account not only the velocity of shockwaves but also the frequency of the shockwaves.
The frequency and velocity of the shockwaves combine to damage houses, said Ed Coulter of Northwest Energetic Services, which conducts the blasts for Liberty Rock. The existing restriction applies only to the velocity of the shockwaves.
Blasting takes place three or four times annually in good years, Coway said. In current economic conditions, the quarry has approximately one blast per year.
The existing conditional use permit allows an asphalt batch plant at the site, Coway said, although that hasn’t happened. The applicant is requesting that the asphalt batch plant area be moved from the southwest corner to the southeast corner of the property, an area that also is buffered from neighbors and sheltered.
The Planning Commission recommended allowing four weeks of use for asphalt, Coway said. The applicant requested eight, but at the hearing, he requested that it be approved on a case-by-case basis by the Planning Department for specific road projects.
Neighbors have reported problems related to blasting at the quarry, and they told the commissioners about it during the hearing.
To the north of the property are seven dwellings within 1,500 feet of the quarry. To the west are 13 dwellings within 1,500 feet. To the south and east, there are no dwellings within 1,500 feet.
To minimize conflicts, the Planning Commission recommended hours of operation for the quarry be set for 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays. Rock crushing would be allowed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays. Blasting would be limited to 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, and drilling would be limited to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
Notice letters would be required four days prior to blasting, with blasting designed and conducted in a manner that will not cause damage to surrounding properties. The commission recommended the NFPA standards for measuring ground vibrations.
“I believe that this is destroying our neighborhood,” said Gilbert Davis, who has lived on Skyline Road for some 18 years.
Homes and wells are suffering, Davis told the commissioners. People are abandoning their homes to foreclosure because the blasting is affecting the wells.
It’s affecting property values, he said.
Water records are fouled up, he said, so he hasn’t been able to compare well records.
“Our hands are tied,” Davis said.
Richard Ball told the commissioners about structural damage to his shop following a blast in November 2004, and he got no response from the county.
After problems with a September 2005 blast, Ball said, Commissioner John Lindsey even made a trip to the quarry, Ball said. Again he had no response, but the next thing he saw in the newspaper was, “Quarry operator receives good neighbor award.
“In 2007, I noticed more structural damage to my shop,” Ball said. “I got no response when I went to the county before, so I thought this quarry (had) just about used up all their rock, and this nightmare was soon coming to an end.”
Now, the owner and operators want another four acres, he said. “I just can’t take another 15 to 20 years of blasting across the street from my house.”
The new quarry area is 400 feet from his house, he said. At 300 feet deep, it will be 25 feet below the bottom of his well.
“It doesn’t take much to figure out that water won’t run up hill,” Ball said. “It’s not a question of will I lose my well but when I will lose it.
“I think it’s now time for the Emmerts to move on to their Liberty and Crawfordsville quarries and give this neighborhood its life back.”