Will NC hold a hearing on the proposed RDU quarry? Can it during the COVID outbreak?
Opponents of a proposed quarry near Umstead State Park want a state agency to hold a public hearing to let them make their case for why it shouldn’t give the company a mining permit.
The Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources will decide soon whether to hold a hearing on Wake Stone Corp.’s request to operate an open pit mine on 105 acres owned by Raleigh-Durham International Airport. By law, the hearing would have to be held within 60 days of May 8, when the written comment period on the mining application closes, according to division spokesman Robert Johnson.
When and how that hearing would take place during the COVID-19 outbreak remains unclear. As of Friday at 5 p.m., the state will be under an executive order that still bans “mass gatherings” of more than 10 people to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Wake Stone has operated a quarry next to Umstead State Park since 1981 and has been interested in expanding to what’s known as the Odd Fellows property for years. The RDU Airport Authority agreed in March 2019 to lease the land to the company for about $24 million, mostly in the form of royalties.
RDU approved the lease over the objections of people who believe the wooded land should become part of Umstead or otherwise preserved for recreation. The Umstead Coalition, Triangle Off-Road Cyclists or TORC and three individuals sued to try to stop the lease and have appealed a Wake County judge’s ruling that the lease is legal under state law.
The mining permit from the state provides another opportunity to stop the quarry or influence how mining takes place.
“Our objections should be heard by the state in a proper, public forum that allows for full consideration of the detailed issues we would like to raise,” Hwa Huang, who heads the local chapter of the N.C. Sierra Club, said in a written statement.
Wake Stone CEO Sam Bratton says he anticipates the state requiring a public hearing. “We ... are waiting to hear from DEMLR regarding schedule and location,” Bratton said.
An active quarry for 30 years
Wake Stone’s lease from RDU runs for 25 years, with options to extend it another decade. In its application to the state, the company estimates the mine would operate for 30 years, after which it would work with RDU to make the property available for hiking and cycling around the open pit.
Wake Stone says about 51 of the 105 acres of the Odd Fellows property would be used for the quarry, roads and other access points. The company would build a bridge over Crabtree Creek for trucks to carry stone from the new mine to the existing quarry site off North Harrison Avenue, where it would be crushed, cleaned and loaded onto trucks to market.
The company says it plans to maintain a 100-foot unexcavated buffer and build a 15-foot-high vegetated berm along Umstead State Park, the one adjoining house and Old Reedy Creek Road, which hikers and cyclists use to go between a parking area at Lake Crabtree and the park. The setbacks and berm should “minimize any visual and sound impacts” from the quarry, the company writes in its application.
“We acknowledge that some members of the public may not think the Odd Fellows tract is a suitable location for a quarry pit, and that establishment of such will have an adverse effect on their usage of the Old Reedy Creek Road Greenway and Umstead State Park,” the company writes. “We take those concerns seriously and have devised our site development plans in such a manner as to mitigate those concerns.”
But opponents say their main objection to the quarry is that it’s a missed opportunity to make 105 acres of forest next to a state park available for recreation. Cyclists had already blazed trails on the property, prompting RDU to erect No Trespassing signs and threaten to build a fence topped with barbed wire.
The Conservation Fund, a national environmental organization, offered to purchase or lease the property and make it available to Umstead. The Airport Authority rejected those offers, but opponents of the quarry continue to talk about protecting the forest for public use.
Wake Stone filed its request to expand its existing mining operation to the Odd Fellows property on April 8. The Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources will collect written comments through Friday at ncminingprogram@ncdenr.gov, then decide whether to hold a public hearing.
Cooper’s executive order that limits gatherings to 10 or less is not set to expire until May 22. He has not committed to moving into the next phase, which would allow larger gatherings but would still encourage people 65 and older and with health problems to remain at home.
Sen. Wiley Nickel, a Democrat whose district includes the quarry site and parts of surrounding Cary and Morrisville, said the agency should delay any decisions about the quarry until coronavirus restrictions have eased enough to allow a public hearing.
“I respectfully urge DEMLR to delay consideration of the mining permit until a safe, in-person public hearing can be held,” Wiley said in a statement. “The COVID-19 pandemic should not be used as a backdoor for corporations to destroy North Carolina’s natural wonders.”
This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 12:37 PM.
