Rutland Herald/Times Argus

Sheffield quarry wins Act 250 approval

December 11, 2000
By DAVID DELCORE and JOHN DILLON
Staff Writers

The state Environental Board after months of deliberation has awarded a land use permit to operators of a controversial granite quarry located in the tiny Northeast Kingdom town of Sheffield.

The board flatly rejected neighbors' arguments that the quarry will damage water supplies, trigger unsafe truck traffic and disturb nearby residents with its noise. Instead, the board - which hears appeals of Act 250 land use decisions - issued almost the same permit the quarry operators obtained 18 months ago from the District 7 Environmental Commission.

The permit allows the quarry to operate eight months of the year, to extract 400,000 cubic feet of marketable stone per year and to remove up to 800,000 cubic feet of waste rock per year. The permit allows the quarry operator, Barre Granite Quarries LLC, to make 20 truck trips per day hauling up to 99,000 pounds on the steep dirt roads leading to Vermont Route 16.

The 104-page decision effectively ends an appeal filed by neighboring landowners and other Sheffield residents. The opponents, under the banner of Residents for Northeast Kingdom Preservation, challenged the project under eight of Act 250's 10 criteria. Under Act 250, district commissions review major developments for their impacts on water resources, air quality, waste disposal, aesthetics, town services, and other environmental and social factors.

The opponents argued that re-opening a quarry abandoned 70 years ago would turn a rural, near-wilderness area of the Northeast Kingdom into a noisy industrial zone marred by dust, blasting and heavy truck traffic. The Environmental Board sided completely with the quarry operators and noted that the new business would bring about 20 jobs and was a permitted use of a valuable "earth resource."

Residents for Northeast Kingdom Preservation had essentially asked the board to deny Barre Granite Quarries LLC permission to extract and haul gray granite from a 12-acre quarry located on a 147-acre tract. The stone will be sold to Barre companies as well as to national and international markets, according to Environmental Board testimony.

The residents' group said the region's tranquility and scenic beauty would be among the first casualties of the quarrying operation. The group's legal battle, waged first before the district commission and then before the board, ranged from raising alleged permit violations by the quarry operator to questioning the impact of the blasting and mining on nearby water supplies, wetlands and wildlife habitat.

In their decision board members acknowledged the concerns the group raised, but said none of the issues rose to a level that would prompt them to overturn the permit.

"The board notes the concerns and interests of those residing near the quarry and along Sheffield's roads," the board said. The board's decision suggested that some of the residents' concerns would have been addressed if Sheffield had local zoning.

"The board points out that when a purchaser of land acquires or otherwise invests in land in an area lacking a town plan and local zoning the purchaser lacks any protections ensuring that the property will not be adversely affected or compromised by ensuing development or land use activities," the board said.

Stephanie Kaplan, the lawyer for Residents for Northeast Kingdom Preservation, said the Environmental Board virtually ignored the expert testimony and evidence presented by opponents.

"Reading the decision doesn't give anybody the flavor of what happened," she said. "We put on an enormous case. We had a number of expert witnesses. We did a lot of cross-examination; we filed voluminous testimony and argument as did the applicant. And if you read the decision, it's hard to even know we were there. That to me is the most discouraging thing. ... It's clear they had no regard for the neighbors."

Kaplan predicted that the decision could affect citizens' efforts to fight mining projects proposed by OMYA Inc., based in Proctor. OMYA uses calcium carbonate derived from marble to make a host of industrial products.

"OMYA owns a huge amount of land in Vermont. They buy up land where they know there are 'earth resources' available for extraction," she said. "Thousands of people live where OMYA owns land. So beware, Vermonters, if you live near some earth resource, you could wake up one day and be living near an industrial area. That's what this decision says."

Barre Granite Quarries LLC has a Vermont office but is financed by Frederick Keeley, a South African investor who has developed quarries in several countries around the world.

The quarry project was opposed by some Sheffield residents, including Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Galway Kinnell. Yet the project was supported by many others in town, including the selectboard, whose members negotiated a contract with the company that requires the firm to pay a 20 cents per cubic foot annual royalty payment to the town.

Kaplan argued that the quarry brings little benefit to the region. "There's no credible evidence this is something that's going to help the Vermont economy very much," she said. "What it (the decision) says is we're going to help a South African granite magnate put more money into his pocket at the expense of a Vermont community and Vermont wilderness."

Daniel Hershenson, the quarry company's lawyer, said the Environmental Board carefully weighed and then ultimately rejected the opponents' arguments. "The permit reflects the board's efforts to grant the (land) use and at the same time to provide protections for neighbors and the environment," he said.

Hershenson said his client was bothered that it took months of procedural and legal wrangling to win a permit.

"I don't think anybody who goes into the process is happy when there's a well-funded, vociferous, litigated process like this one," he said. "Every conceivable technical motion that could be filed was filed by the other side in order to derail this process. That strategy is not always the best thing to do. The permittee tried to maintain its demeanor throughout this process. Our goal was to simply provide the best evidence we could without getting into any finger-pointing or name-calling. Our goal was to present the evidence. I think in this process, that's always the best strategy."

In evaluating the quarry against several review criteria, the Environmental Board found that there would be "adverse" impacts, but said that was not enough to determine the project failed to meet the environmental protection criteria set out in the law.

One of those areas involved aesthetics.

"The quarry represents a significant departure from those land uses existing in the area and it may be visible to some residents and the traveling public," the decision states, adding: "The area of the project will experience an increase in noise, traffic and dust. Accordingly the board concludes that the project will not be in harmony with its surroundings and that the quarry will create an adverse aesthetic impact."

However, the board determined the "adverse" impact would not be "undue" - a necessary finding based on past precedent.

"The board concludes that the project will not offend the sensibilities of the average person, and that the permittees have taken generally available mitigating steps which a reasonable person would take to improve the harmony of the project with its surroundings," the board found.

The board reached a similar conclusion in assessing the effect the quarry would have on the nearby Page Brook Cedar Swamp.

Although the board agreed the "high quality cedar swamp" was a "rare and irreplaceable natural area" that might be adversely affected by an active quarry located some 1,400 feet away, members said they could not find that the quarry would have an "undue" adverse impact.

"The board concludes that any potential undue adverse effect to the Page Brook Cedar Swamp will be appropriately and sufficiently mitigated," the decision states, pointing to the absence of a clearly articulated community standard intended to preserve the swamp.

"Due to the proximity of the quarry to the swamp, the project does not offend the sensibilities of the average person by significantly diminishing the scenic qualities of the swamp," the board said.

Barre Granite Quarries must maintain a 50-foot buffer between the quarry area and any wetlands and has agreed to permanently protect nearly 50 acres of deer yard in exchange for the 15 acres that was destroyed by the project. The board also required additional monitoring to gauge the impact of the operation on the cedar swamp.

The company decided to open the quarry while the appeal of its permit was pending earlier this year. According to the terms of the permit the quarry must close for the season this week.

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October 31, 2001

Sheffield granite quarry in doubt

The Associated Press

SHEFFIELD — A recently reopened Sheffield granite quarry that sparked years of debate before operations resumed might be shutting down for good.

The owner of the quarry, Mark Austin of Barre Granite Quarries, says the quality of the stone from the quarry isn’t as high as he’d hoped.

“We’ll be shutting down for the winter, and then early next year, we’ll re-evaluate whether to stay closed,” said Austin.

The quarry was the focus of a long-running dispute that goes back to 1997 when Barre Granite Quarries agreed to resume operations at the quarry, which had closed in 1930.

The decision to reopen the quarry led to three years of contentious debate.

Residents for Northeast Kingdom Preservation opposed the plan, saying the blasting and heavy truck traffic would destroy the area’s quiet and damage wildlife habitat. Supporters of the quarry said the business would bring more jobs to town and the company had pledged to pay the town a royalty on each cubic foot of granite sold.

Final approval by the state Environmental Board was given in December 2000.

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See also Rutland Herald/Times Argus Sunday Magazine Cover Story about Sheffield Quarry: Deep Divisions, May 28, 2000.