South Jackson rock quarry headed for decisive vote

Dozens of Jackson County residents packed a planning commission meeting last week to oppose the Vulcan rock quarry project. Here’s why they want the project stopped:

The Jackson County Planning Commission recommended denial, but the Jackson County Commission will make the final decision to approve or reject the quarry on November 18.

If you want to oppose the project, you can find a petition and other steps at stopsouthjacksonrockquarry.net.

UPDATE (11/18/24): The Jackson County Commission denied the Vulcan rock quarry project in a 5-1 vote.

Transcript

I went to a meeting at the Jackson County Courthouse where the local government there is trying to decide whether or not to approve a new granite rock quarry. Dozens of local residents showed up to oppose the quarry, which would be built along the Oconee River upstream from Athens.

Randy Durham, Jackson County resident: “They want to build this on top of the largest groundwater recharge area in Jackson County which replenishes the aquifer which is used not only by Jackson County, but Athens-Clarke County and counties south. Once the aquifer is polluted, it cannot be restored. So we’re really concerned about the water quality. We’re trying to maintain the rural and agricultural identity of the land where it is right now. Really there’s just nothing good coming out of this.”

A representative from Vulcan Materials, the company proposing the quarry, was there to speak up for the project.

Jack Bonnikson, Director of Communications for Vulcan Materials Company: “Some of the benefits from this is that it is material that would go directly into the county’s and surrounding area’s infrastructure. It helps with roads, bridges, hospitals and schools. So fundamentally, the material that would be extracted from the ground would go into developing the community and the county. Beyond that, as part of our benefits agreement, which was done with a variety of stakeholders over a period of two years… a 900 acre property, only about 10 percent of that is actually going to be mining area, where we will have a pit. Over 200 acres of it is for conservation and recreation. And there’s actually many other elements to [the benefits agreement] as well, including material donations to the county and millions of dollars in investment.”

Durham: “I live about a mile away from the quarry, where they’re going to build it, and I’m worried about my well. I’m worried about having water. As far as Athens-Clarke County goes, they’re putting this on the North Oconee River about six miles upstream from the JJ Beacham Drinking Water Plant that handles and purifies all the drinking water for Clarke County. This has the potential to pollute the water for more than 100,000 people.”

I also spoke with the Conservation Director for the Oconee River Land Trust. She told me how she’s helped to preserve hundreds of acres of wildlife habitat very close to the proposed quarry.

Laura Hall, Director of Conservation for the Oconee River Land Trust: “This area of the county is designated ag[riculture] and conservation land. To have this many land owners that we already have that have protected all these properties is super exciting! This community should be so excited about this that they would in no way entertain allowing an industry to come in and disrupt this. To have unfragmented conservation land is super important. Those conservation easements that we hold adjacent to the property, they actually have heron (regrese?), wetlands, a lot of frontage on the river, we have mesic-sloped forests with diversity of wildflowers. We’ve probably, I don’t know, 500 trilliums have been documented, which is huge, I’ve never seen that many trilliums, which is a wildflower that grows only in very undisturbed sites. Last year, the Audubon Society came out and documented a rare bird, the limpkin bird, wading in the river. And so, there’s such important habitats here. I think all of these plants and animals won’t  be able to handle the dust and the contamination. A lot of different heavy metals and different things can be part of quarrying and end up in the river.”

Bonnikson: “For us, we are industry leaders when it comes to safety, health and the environment. And we don’t believe that this will pose any undue off-site impact or harm the health and the well-being of the community. In fact, very much the opposite. We’ve gone through any number of measures to ensure that what we are doing takes into account the latest in safety, health and environmental. So so much of what we try to do from the environmental side is that we have our own expert teams in-house. Right, we have expert and trained mining engineers, geologists and environmental scientists, but we also try to take it a step further, too. We work with third party, expert consulting firms, not to confirm what we’re saying but to independently study the site for itself. So our findings do not show that our mining operation would have any impact off-site.”

Hall: “The fact that the person who spoke just before me is trying to make this sound like a very responsible project is unrealistic. And, I would say that Vulcan doesn’t have a great track record. You can go online and look at the violations they have. 36 environmental-related offenses totalling over $3 million. And I don’t believe that they’re going to do what they say, because they haven’t in the past. I just don’t understand this. Jackson County has a beautiful resource and I really hope that they will choose to protect it.”

The Jackson County Commission will vote on the quarry on November 18. If you want to oppose the project, you can find a petition and other steps at stopsouthjacksonrockquarry.net.

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