State agency urged to block a proposed new quarry near Umstead State Park
About 80 people urged a state agency to prevent the Wake Stone Corp. from expanding its quarry operation near Umstead State Park onto forested land owned by Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
They spoke over phone lines and computers during a digital public hearing held Tuesday night by the state Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources, which must decide whether to permit a new quarry on the RDU land. After four hours and with dozens more still waiting to speak, the agency decided to resume the hearing on July 7.
The agency can deny a mining permit for one of seven reasons outlined in state law, and many opponents referred to one or more lines in the statute when they spoke Tuesday. One reason they often cited is that they think the new Wake Stone quarry would have “a significantly adverse effect on the purposes of a publicly owned park, forest or recreation area.”
Several people said the noise and dust created by blasting, excavating and trucking stone from the open pit mine would intrude on the adjacent park and on Old Reedy Creek Road, which cyclists and hikers use to reach Umstead. Some noted that the problems will be worse than at the existing quarry off North Harrison Avenue because in the early years the mining work will be done near the surface, rather than hundreds of feet down.
“The new quarry would be equally bad if not worse,” said cyclist Deborah Hage.
Opponents also cited the potential impact on groundwater and the movement of wildlife in and out of the park, as well as the risk of pollution to Crabtree Creek. The creek runs between the existing quarry and the RDU property, and Wake Stone proposes a bridge for trucks to carry stone from the new quarry to the company’s property to be crushed, cleaned and loaded onto trucks to market.
Cyclists and advocates for Umstead have for years been trying to preserve the 105 acres known as the Odd Fellows property for recreation. RDU purchased the property in the 1970s for a planned runway that was never built, and Wake Stone has long had its eye on the land for expansion. In 2016 RDU adopted a master plan for the airport that designated the Odd Fellows tract for “industrial/quarry.”
RDU received two offers when it put the land up for lease in 2017 — one from Wake Stone and another from The Conservation Fund, a national environmental group that wanted to buy or lease the property and make it available to Umstead. The RDU Airport Authority rejected both offers, then in March 2019, with two day’s public notice, approved the mineral lease with Wake Stone.
RDU expects to receive $20 million to $25 million from Wake Stone, mostly in royalty payments, over the next 25 to 35 years of mining.
The Umstead Coalition, Triangle Off-Road Cyclists (TORC) and three individuals sued RDU, alleging the Airport Authority exceeded its authority when it approved the lease. They have appealed a Wake County judge’s decision siding with the airport.
Meanwhile, opponents have thrown their energy into trying to prevent the quarry by stopping the mining permit. More than 250 people registered to speak at Tuesday night’s hearing. With technical difficulties that prevented some from being heard right away, about 80 people used their allotted two minutes to urge denial of the permit.
Sam Bratton, Wake Stone’s president and CEO, was given two minutes to speak as well. Bratton said people who live near its quarry in Knightdale have reported little disruption and that the company has been a good neighbor to Umstead over the past 38 years.
Bratton also read a letter written in 1999 by Jean Spooner, head of the Umstead Coalition, saying she had never heard a complaint about Wake Stone’s operations next to the park.
Dispute over ‘sunset clause’ surfaces
Several speakers also urged the state agency to restore the original “sunset clause” included in Wake Stone’s mining permit issued in 1981.
The permit gave the state the right to acquire the quarry site at no cost “at the end of 50 years from the date quarrying commences or 10 years after quarrying operations have ceased without having been resumed, whichever is sooner.” Spooner and others say the clause meant the state would be able to acquire the site in 2031 and add it to Umstead.
But two years ago, state mining division staff changed the word “sooner” to “later,” postponing the state’s ability to acquire the property until 10 years after Wake Stone is finished mining. Several speakers said that simple change allows Wake Stone to operate next to Umstead indefinitely and makes the expansion to the Odd Fellows property possible.
The Umstead Coalition first objected to the change in 2018, but the state agency has let it stand. It says the Mining Commission’s decision allowing the quarry in April 1981 used the word “later,” and that an “administrative error” resulted in the change to “sooner” in the written permit a month later.
Hwa Huang, who heads the Capital Group of the Sierra Club, noted that the 2031 sunset clause persisted for years, through several revisions of the mining permit. Huang said it should not have been changed without consulting the public.
Tom Oxholm, Wake Stone’s executive vice president, said Wednesday that it’s not clear why the error went unaddressed for so long. Oxholm said the company first pointed it out in 2011 and pressed for a change two years ago. He said the Attorney General’s Office reviewed the Mining Commission’s original decision and signed off on the change.
Oxholm said under the permit the state would be entitled to Wake Stone’s 400-foot-deep quarry, plus a 50-foot buffer around the pit and a corridor to connect it to park property.
“We don’t even understand why the park would want it, because of the liability issues,” he said.
The public hearing over the mining permit will resume at 9 a.m. on July 7. Only those who registered for Tuesday’s hearing will be allowed to speak. The hearing is being held digitally to avoid creating a large gathering during the coronavirus pandemic.
The public can also submit written comments through July 17 by email to ncminingprogram@ncdenr.gov or by U.S. mail to Judy Wehner, assistant state mining specialist, Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources, 1612 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C., 27699-1612.
This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 2:59 PM with the headline "State agency urged to block a proposed new quarry near Umstead State Park."
