Montevallo's Fight Against the Quarry 2005

Residents ready to fight quarry

"I think this is a fight we can win and justifiably so."

Those were the words of Alabaster Mayor David Frings during a May 17 meeting attended by some 400 people to oppose a proposed quarry in the vicinity of Meadow View Elementary School. The meeting, conducted by Alabaster city officials and hosted by Meadow View Elementary, was attended by elected officials and their representatives from city, county and state levels of government, a representative from the Shelby County Board of Education and a biologist from the University of Montevallo.

The quarry is proposed to be located in the vicinity of Smokey Road and Meadow View Elementary School.

According to Cam Ward, who serves as executive director of the Alabaster Industrial Development Board and as a Republican member of the state House of Representatives, a permit has been applied for with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) by Middle Tennessee Land Development Co. LLC. for a 233-acre site.

While Ward said the quarry would be surrounded by the city of Alabaster, he said it would actually be located in unincorporated Shelby County.

Representing the city of Alabaster were Mayor David Frings, council president Rick Walters, city administrator Tony Rivera and council members Mike Sherwood and Tommy Ryals. Representing Congressman Spencer Bachus was his legislative assistant Gilbert Johnston. He said Bachus is against the quarry and would be drafting a letter to ADEM stating his objection. Representing the University of Montevallo was Dr. T.M. "Mike" Hardig, associate professor of biology. Attending from the city of Montevallo were Mayor Sharon Anderson and council members Hollie Cost and Becky Cox-Rodgers.

Also in attendance were State Rep. Cam Ward, Shelby County Commissioner Jon Parker and Assistant Superintendent of Operations for Shelby County Schools Tom Ferguson. In announcing the meeting to oppose the quarry and calling upon concerned citizens from both inside and outside the corporate limits, Frings wrote, "Even though the proposed location (of the quarry) lies outside the city's jurisdiction, the mayor and city council of Alabaster have serious concerns about granting this permit due to adverse environmental impact it could cause the citizens of the area."

Frings disputed any notion the quarry represents the last reserve of limestone in Shelby County. Ryals said developer Robert Dow, whom he identified as a principal of the proposed quarry, has come before the Planning and Zoning Board of the city twice without ever mentioning a quarry or a road to a quarry. He said Dow wanted to extend the retail section for property near the location of the proposed quarry where a retail development, Lion's Gate, is also proposed.

In the proposed retail development, Ryals said, Dow shows a road with a cul-de-sac which connects to Highway 119. Ryals said it is the opinion of the city, however, that Dow wants the road for access to the quarry. Ryals said despite reported claims that Dow has access to Highway 119, the Planning and Zoning Board has not granted any such access. Ryals also said Dow was expected to come before the Planning and Zoning Board for a third time after press time last night.

Frings also said Dow had approached the Planning and Zoning Board about a shopping center near County Road 80, but action was delayed because it "did not seem right."
Frings told those gathered for the opposition meeting last week that to quarry limestone, water must be pumped from under the ground, which over a period of years will produce sinkholes in the surrounding areas.

He also spoke of the dire affects a quarry would have on surrounding wetlands. Frings stressed that the quarry cannot be defeated on feelings, or emotions, but on geologic hazards and environmental damage to the wetlands and species of life that exist there.

Ward stressed that keys to success include everyone who is opposed to the quarry sticking together. Jon Parker said he is opposed to the quarry but could not speak for the entire County Commission. He said he did not want a quarry in the middle of his district. 

Hardig said the quarry would mean the death of Ebenezer Swamp which includes a 65-acre preserve conserved by the University of Montevallo. But Hardig had even more concerns. "As a local botanist with a familiarity of the region, I can assure you that a limestone quarry at this site will have widespread and profound effects on the ecology of the region. It will adversely impact the local flora and fauna as well as the people that live in the area. "These effects will likely include: extirpation (destruction) of local plant and animal species due to loss of wetland habitat, higher average stream flow with more-frequent and more severe downstream flooding, increased downstream sedimentation, contamination of aquifer-supplied drinking water, loss of aquifer-supplied drinking water and accelerated sinkhole development in the surrounding highlands."

Hardig continued, "A quarry operation in southern Cahaba Valley will not only devastate the ecology of Spring Creek but will also affect the people living in the region. The southern Cahaba Valley is already home to many people, and new developments are going in almost daily; this is an area of explosive population growth. 
Quarry-associated sinkhole development will place financial burdens on homeowners and their insurers. Noise and dust produced by quarry operation will have a high nuisance value. Many homes are situated on the adjacent ridge lines, locations that will provide homeowners with unobstructed views of daily quarry operations. 
Downstream residents should expect more frequent flooding and higher flood levels during peak rain events. Three municipalities draw portions of their drinking water from the underlying aquifer by wells. 
Drinking water supplies could become contaminated during the quarry operations by spillage or dumping of petroleum products and chemicals." 

Hardig said those problems would increase the cost of water purification. "Further, if the groundwater level is lowered to a point below the well bottoms they will go dry," he warned.
When asked if the city could restrict access to the property such as denying an access road, Sherwood said, "You bet we are going to do that."

Frings said the proposed quarry expects to be in operation for 42 years and he said that means several hundred acres being involved as opposed to a reported initial proposal to use 44 acres. Frings said of the public meeting, "All we're doing is letting you know where we are. We haven't done anything yet. But we're getting ready to. We need your support ... your help."

Landowners understood the potential damage the quarry could bring. "I don't want my property value to go down or fall into a hole," one woman said. And she asked, "Who's going to be responsible?"

Frings said that is the reason city officials were working with county and most state officials to get the information to homeowners in the area. Frings said the fact that various levels of government are involved in the fight will have an affect. And he said of voiced public concern, "I think it will definitely help make (ADEM) hold a public hearing."

As Meadow View Elementary School is also located on Smokey Road, Ferguson said, "We (the school board) have concerns." He said blasting at existing quarries is already shaking the foundations of a school in Alabaster.

In addition to the shaking and the noise, Ferguson expressed concern about traffic in the area and air quality. Sherwood said if the quarry is approved, it could be in operation "as early as next year." Dow was contacted for comment but did not return telephone calls.
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The contrast between Montevallo and Vincent is shocking.
What you are mostly reading are the opinions of elected officials, school board officials and experts (Mayor Frings is a biologist himself).
Even Senator Bachus was involved in this resistance and wrote a letter to ADEM.
49 miles away from Vincent, in the same county and what a tremendous difference in thinking and action.

Senator Bachus, The Shelby County Board of Education and County Commissioner Jon Parker have ignored the pleas of Vincent parents to help their school children.

Why have they done this?

Their fight is not over yet.....


According to Kristine Goddard, Shelby County Planner II, who admitted to one of the "higher ups" in the No Quarry group in the presence of two other witnesses: "They are still trying to work that out, it is not resolved yet."

What she meant was (and she was pressed to define her words) was that Shelby County was still pushing for the quarry.

It is a great deal for Columbiana's coffers; all of the money and none of the hassle such as lawsuits, liability for damage, water treatment facilities (the cities must construct and maintain those), etc.


All the tax revenue and none of the hassles. These cities assume all the risks and are solely responsible for what happens (Calera and Alabaster are prime examples) and the "Godfathers in Columbiana" get paid on the backs of these communities.

Sounds exactly like the Mafia; you got problems, tough, you pay me no matter what.

Environmental Group Places Coosa River Among Nation's Endangered, June 2010

#10 Coosa River Alabama

 Threat: Hydropower dams

 The Coosa River is a cultural icon of the South and home to an astounding variety of rare and unique fish, snails, and mussels. The construction of seven large hydropower dams in the mid 1900’s turned the river into a series of reservoirs and caused the largest mass extinction of aquatic species in U.S. history.

But there is still an opportunity to save some of the Coosa’s remaining natural heritage for future generations. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must insist on strong protections for the river’s endangered wildlife in the license that will allow Alabama Power to operate these dams for the next 50 years. The Coosa will serve as a test as to whether federal agencies are committed to environmentally sustainable hydropower operations.

PDF file link:

AmericanRivers2010MostEndangeredRivers

Contact Information:

American Rivers: Matt Rice,

(803) 771-7206,

mrice@americanrivers.org

Alabama Rivers Alliance:

Mitch Reid, (205) 322-6395

mreid@alabamarivers.org

World Wildlife Fund: Judy Takats

(615) 279-1814,

judy.takats@wwfus.org

**Thanks to the June 2, 2010 edition of the Birmingham News for publishing this. 

“The threats facing this year’s rivers are more pressing than ever, from gas drilling that could pollute the drinking water of millions of people, to the construction of costly and unnecessary new dams, to outdated flood management that threatens public safety,” said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers.

Rivers are chosen based on several factors, including a pending major decision on proposed action, the significance of the threat to communities and the degree the proposed action would exacerbate or alleviate stresses, said the release:

 Coosa named on endangered river list - Birmingham Business Journal

We would like to add quarries, pipelines, waste water treatment plants and heavy industry in Shelby County to the list of threats to the Coosa.

Shelby County is in NON COMPLIANCE STATUS on their SWM (Storm Water Management, link to the right) by EPA federal audit 2009. This has NOT BEEN RESOLVED YET according to Senior Enforcement Officer, EPA Region 4, Chris Plymale.

That should trigger an automatic moratorium on all new permits until it is remedied.

The county performs their "model of cost effective Storm Water Management" as quoted by Stephen Bradley (WRQ PR Rep) on an "annual budget of 45,000 and two part-time employees." The population of the county is over 175,000 and their are 167 heavy industries in Shelby County.

(This from BARD, who gutted the Jefferson County SWMA now also under federal scrutiny)

There are five quarries in the county, numerous cement, asphalt, lime production, building materials, etc. industries in this county. All of them have numerous violations according to the ADEM files, and some of these violations occur under storm flooding conditions. From those sites they make it into the Coosa River, it's tributaries (Buxahatchee Creek has been hit extremely hard) and into our ground water.

Our drinking water.

But let's go ahead and force a massive quarry on the residents of Vincent, less than a mile from this river. Let's give them a SWM permit (even though we cannot handle what we have) and allow more pollutants into the Coosa. While we are at it, allow the quarry to establish parameters and access to their monitoring wells.

This is not at all a "fine idea for Alabamians." 

This river cannot endure another massive assault, Governor Riley.

Neither can Vincent, lest we forget the Alabama Plating Company Superfund cleanup.

Quarry History Lessons from Dr. Jack Bridges 2009

An excellent column by Dr. Bridges that deserves to be seen again, lest we forget....

By Jack Bridges / Guest Columnist
Published Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Vincent residents curious about limestone quarries as neighbors could take a tour of Central Alabama’s limestone quarries trail. Most of it is right here in Shelby County. A quick look around would answer many questions about living alongside a quarry.

Begin the tour just east of Montevallo on Alabama Highway 25. Drive west past the limestone operations.

You can’t miss the piles of spoil and the puffs of smoke from the chimneys. Head back on 25 toward Calera. Pause or drive slowly (but watch out for the rock- hauling trucks; a sight-seer could get overrun.

Check out the chimneys and the landscape, as well as the finish on the cars parked along the way.

Go on to Calera, then take U.S. 31 north toward Birmingham. You are right in the midst of the best part of the trail. All along the way you pass quarries and crusher plants and cement plants. Watch out for the tankers carrying cement and 22- wheel dump truck trailer rigs carrying various sizes of crushed stone.

One of the trail highlights comes at Saginaw. Take a quick side trip on Shelby County 26 toward Columbiana. That will take you past the new and expanded quarry of the old Longview Lime operations.

Go slow and you can see. The company has put up fencing and a big berm along the road with shrubs and trees to hide the works. Then you cross a bridge over the quarry’s sunken road for the rock haulers, and that gives a quick view to the left of the vast old hole in the ground, evidently with pumps still running, and a very informative look at the current digging operations.

Back on U.S. 31, turn toward Birmingham. In another mile or so, you’ll come to the manufacturing end of the limestone operation at the edge of the quarry. There is a good view of the kilns and furnaces for making cement, and the loading areas and the puffing smoke stacks and the lime dust on the trees and cars.

Stay on U.S. 31 for a while. Traffic gets a bit congested, but in a growing part of Alabaster, there is another quarry plant puffing out grey lime dust.

You can end your old- fashioned Sunday drive experience by retracing the route there and heading on home. But if you make the trip, you will know better what quarries are like. And you might stop along the way and ask some folks what sort of neighbors quarries make.

Dr. Jack Bridges, who lives near Shelby, spent years living near a quarry in his youth.

We spent some time going through the newspaper archives and found that in almost every instance, these quarry and lime plants bribe their way in.

One place they didn't get their way was Montevallo, but that did not stop ADEM from permitting the proposed quarry while a lawsuit was pending. They even went so far as to say' "Even if the quarry isn't operating, we won't withdraw their permits."

If the schools in this county are in such dire need, why the hell isn't Columbiana doing more to help them? Why do they insist on sentencing these kids to living with these behemoths that pollute everything nearby, especially our children?

Google maps will show you how close the schools are to these polluters.

EPA records will show what they do.

What irony.

No Benefit For Vincent & Why

We live in unique geology in most of Shelby County, karst terrain that is made up of limestone, dolomite and shale that is intertwined with underground springs and rivers.

Vincent relies on ground wells, literally Mother Earth, for its city water supply.

Our farmland is beautiful and rich as a result of this geology and is prone to sinkholes as well because of it.

The underground springs and rivers hold up our farmlands and keep our entire area from becoming one giant sinkhole, such as what happened in Dry Valley, Montevallo, Alabama in 1972 (49 miles from Vincent) as the result of massive dewatering from a nearby quarry.

The largest sinkhole in US history occurred there measuring 425 ft. across and over 150 ft. deep.

It was even named the "Golly Hole" by the man who found it and "December Giant" by geologists that came and studied it.

Withdrawing massive amounts of groundwater in this type of terrain results in increased sinkholes and greater subsidience (earth movement/collapse) because the land no longer has the support the groundwater provides.

4000 sinkholes have formed in this county from mining and massive dewatering since the 1970s according to the USGS. 1700 additional sinkholes have been recorded in the same Alabaster/Calera/Montevallo area within 2 miles of mining operations.

Shelby County is referred to as the "sinkhole capital of Alabama" for good reason.

This is a problem in an area that already has the risk of sinkholes because:
1. The Colonial pipeline running through it that supplies the eastern seaboard
2. Gas and petroleum lines running through the quarry property
3. Close proximity to the Coosa River (a major waterway), within a mile of the quarry property
4. Proximity to our schools, Elementary 4500 ft., Middle/High approx. 6000 ft.
5. A thrust fault line running slightly to the west of Vincent
6. Spring Creek an untested (by the EPA or ADEM) tributary of the Coosa River very close to the quarry property
7. Excavation to exceed 400 ft. in depth, well below our water table and the depth of the nearby river
8. Reliance of residents on the river loop and surrounding areas on wells
9. Lack of a city sewer system and the great number of septic tanks

The cone of depression (COD) will widen as the quarry goes deeper during operations and will cause wells to foul and or go dry as most wells in this area do not exceed 150 ft. Septic tanks are at risk of rupture from sinkholes, subsidience and perhaps blasting shock waves.

As the COD widens, all water will be pulled towards the quarry and put it at real danger of pulling the river in on it. The flood plain area is contiguous to the property. If they do pull the river in on them, it could be catastrophic depending far down they have gone and how much area would flood before it could be contained to some extent.

This city is not capable of inspecting and enforcing the quarry, no one has the expertise and knowledge to know what to look for. The county is under EPA federal audit for it's non compliance in storm water management.
2009 EPA 34 page document link within article from Alabama River Alliance website and appears at the right:

In the NY Times link at right, all of Shelby Counties' water inspection reporting seems to "cease" in 2006.

The county is not doing their job, ADEM is not doing their job, the EMC who oversees ADEM has failed to supervise and the EPA is also "asleep at the wheel".

Theoretically, we feel we have no oversight with this issue.

This is a very large quarry at 886 acres and with that comes heavy machinery and trucks, diesel storage tanks (no one has mentioned them in any proposals), chemicals used in quarrying operations (also no mention if those and what they are) and the accompanying businesses that are always with quarries such as:
1. Lime production plants
2. Cement Plants
3. Asphalt plants
4. Construction and steel fabricators

In our county, these industries are located with almost every operating quarry and Chemical Lime, Carmeuse Lime and Lafarge North America are persistent and notorious violators according to the EPA records. Carmeuse and LaFarge merged earlier this year into one entity.

Carmeuse and Chemical Lime are Stephen Bradley's clients. Martin Marietta Aggregates is also a client of Mr. Bradley's and operates two quarries in this county.

White Rock Quarries is saying they will ship "95% of the product by rail". Those rail lines run within a few hundred yards of our schools, an added insult to the children of our area.

The quarry claims it will use "wet suppression systems for all operations and trucks entering and leaving the site" to control the dust. What happens when that dust dries or it rains? It runs off into our groundwater or is carried into the air by winds.

They first proposed 40 ft. berms surrounding the site, then lowered it to 20ft. on two sides. The Alabama Industrial Board mining reclamation section states; a "minimum of 50 ft. berms surrounding the site will be maintained throughout the operational period of any quarry".

Why would they "lower" the berm height on two sides? Is it an effort to make it so inhabitable for the River Loop residents that they will want to leave?

The River Loop population is predominantly black. Is this the same tactic used by the "Big Mules" in Alabama previously to take advantage of economically depressed areas comprised of mostly minority residents?

See the links at right on Black Belt "Big Mule" Coalition and "New Mules" keep kick alive in Alabama (Bard and big business carry on bad tradition in Alabama).

Alabama does not need to return to the times of yesterday, but it seems they have through BARD and corruptible politicians.

This quarry marched into town promising:
1. 125 jobs (well below the average workforce of any existing Alabama quarry)
2. Money to our schools (it will go to the county and be distributed, not directly to Vincent schools)
3. 10,000,000 in tax revenue (again to be distributed by the county, not directly to Vincent)
4. New rec center and bleachers to the Elementary school (perhaps to give them a better view of the "beautiful, modern quarry" right on top of them and get them out of the dust?)
5. A new senior center (we have a good one now, but you have got to get the older population on board don't you?)
6. Promises of being a "good neighbor" (straight out of the BARD "handbook")

Who really benefits from this quarry?
1. The county "power players" that are working behind the scenes from Columbiana
2. Alabama Power (also a BARD member and heavy polluter under EPA scrutiny) and other industries such as Chemical Lime, Bowater (Gaston) Steam Plant, etc. that rely on "scrubbers" to reduce their sulfuric emissions. Limestone and Dolomite are used in this process. The dirty little secret is the scrubbers do nothing to remove mercury and arsenic that is also a by product of their coal process.
3. Local officials that can have access to large sums of money from the quarry who already "keep" and "sporadically record" meetings and accounting.

Vincent will not benefit, it will be destroyed.

It will gain national notoriety if this quarry comes in for all the wrong reasons.

No one, it seems, is listening.....