AUDIENCE: The picture that you have up here shows a white area on that. Is that to scale; 23
acres?
MR. REDDY: Yeah. This is -- I don't know where those houses are that somebody said was
missing because this is an actual picture. This is the view shed that you would get as you're
standing there looking at it. This is supposed to represent as near as the visual architect or
whatever we called that consultant that the typical person would see standing back by -- is this
Tinmouth Road? This is Tinmouth Road. A typical view. And the quarry is drawn in exactly --
the quarry picture was generated by computer exactly where it will lie. This is exactly the size,
the typical view that you would see from Tinmouth Road looking -- what we didn't get is the full
-- you'd actually see more of the sky and more of the land. But we got the typical person, this is
what you'd see. It's not the full peripheral vision. That's a typical person's view.
AUDIENCE: It looks like a drive-in theater to me.
MR. McNEIL: I just want to add one thing. We also offered an opportunity to all the groups to
make a presentation like this so it's not one-sided. We're not at that point of taking people from
outside of Danby. Sir?
AUDIENCE: I live in Danby.
MR. McNEIL: And your name?
AUDIENCE: Chris (inaudible.) I live on Colvin Hill Road. At what -- you're proposing
crushers. Are those at going to be visible from anywhere, or are they going to be below that
proposed berm site? I live at a relatively high elevation on Colvin Hill Road. My house looks
directly across to your proposed site. Am I going to see rock crushers? Am I going to see --
MR. McNEIL: So your question, Chris is: Are the crushers going to be visible from the road?
AUDIENCE: Yeah.
MR. REDDY: Don? I don't know so I can't answer. We got someone who knows.
MR. BURNS: I'm not sure where you live.
AUDIENCE: If you're up on the hill, look straight ahead is my house.
MR. BURNS: I don't know. That view there, the crusher, the stockpile and the quarry were in
place computer generated and that's what you would see. I think if you look carefully at that
photograph, there is a little white speck that represents the crusher. Higher up on the hill,
perhaps, we get a better view of the crusher. We are going to do a view shed analysis of, you
know, where the operation will be seen throughout the valley, and, you know, once that is done,
we will have a better understanding of who is going to see what.
AUDIENCE: What is the elevation on your berm?
MR. BURNS: What we call the berm east of the quarry, the elevation is about 1550, the top of
it.
MR. McNEIL: Just so we get an idea of time, how many people from Danby who have not
asked a question before wish to ask a question? Okay. That gives us about seven I think. Sir?
AUDIENCE: My name is Brian Drum. I'm a Danby resident on Danby Mountain Road. My
concerns are health concerns. The name of the disease is calcicosis and it comes from the
prolonged inhalation of calcium carbonate. It's also known as "marble cutter's pneumonia." And
to research this I went to the in-road to the Florence treatment plant or whatever you do there
and watched the dust. And there was a line of white dust on either side of the road. There was
no dust control whatsoever. Every time a truck went by, an enormous tunnel of a dust cloud
persisted and just about the time it settled, another truck goes by. And so I'm wondering what
the compan will do to guarantee the long-term health of those most affected namely juveniles
who now has the numbe one of cause of school absenteeism, the elderly suffering from
emphysema and why has dust control failed on the in-road to the Florence site?
MR. McNEIL: So your question is: What will OMYA do to mitigate the health concerns
regarding dust. Am I right?
MR. REDDY: Okay. Fortunately, we have an expert here with us today, Neil Jordan, who is
our environmental expert, and I think he's the best one to answer that question as far as what the
regulations are. Neil actually used to work for the Department of Natural Resources. He was an
enforcer. So I think Neil is the best one to answer how the permitting process applies to your
exact question. Neil?
MR. JORDAN: As Jim mentioned my name is Neil Jordan. I've been with OMYA for eight
years. Prior to coming to OMYA, I spent eleven years with the Vermont Agency of Natural
Resources. About six of those with the air pollution control division, about a year with Act 250
and three years with the waste management division. As far as dust control at the Verpol plant,
I'm not personally aware that we are not doing a good job of controlling dust on the trucks
coming from the quarries. The plant itself is subject to very extensive air pollution control
permit. The quarry operation down here would also be subject to an air pollution control permit
and those permits contain conditions relative to control of nuisance dust. One of the things we d
do as necessary and as dictated by the moisture content of the material that we're handling in the
trucks is we have spray bars that the trucks drive under as they leave the quarry. We have
experimented with using covers, retractable covers over the tops of the trucks. They are not
always that effective because of they're subject to considerable wear and tear from wind. Just if I
can comment for a second on OMYA's reputation for air quality control. A couple of weeks ago
I was called by Dick Valentinetti , the director of the air pollution control division for Vermont
and he has for a number of years participated in the exchange program with the country of
Romania. Dick went over there this summer and he has a delegation of Romanian officials coming
in October to visit Vermont and they have asked to see some of the industries that we have in
Vermont so that they can learn about control technology and see how things are done here. And
Dick called me a couple weeks ago asking if we would host a delegation from Romania to tour our
Florence processing facility, and I agreed and, as a matter of fact, I asked Dick if they would like
to see a quarry operation as well. And I gave him the option of seeing either Middlebury or the
Hogback quarry. Middlebury, because it's on the way from Waterbury where his office is, or
Hogback because of its close proximity to the Verpol plant. And I took it as a compliment that
Dick had asked to bring those people down here because they are interested in seeing state of the
art control technology. The best way that things can be done to control this type of dust. And I
firmly believe that Dick asked to bring them down is that he believes that OMYA does a very
good job at controlling its emissions. As a matter of fact, we have, starting tomorrow morning,
we have a compliance test being conducted and observed by the State of Vermont at the Verpol
plant for the last dryer that we added to the facility, and we always do very, very well with our
compliance testing. Very, very low compared to the emission standards that are imposed by
both the Environmental Protection Agency and adopted by the State of Vermont.
MR. McNEIL: Jennifer, did you have a question?
AUDIENCE: You just quoted tonight quite a bit about tests that are going to be done or are not
completed yet or whatever. When they are completed, is the Town of Danby going to have
access to these results, and if we find that these results show that Danby is not going to benefit
from this or it's going to be detrimental to us, will OMYA choose not to open the mine?
MR. McNEIL: The question is: When the tests that have been talked about here tonight are
completed, will they be available to Danby, and if they show that it's not beneficial to the
people of Danby, will OMYA open the -- what was the last one? That was right.
AUDIENCE: Not open.
MR. McNEIL: Will not open the mine. Okay.
MR. REDDY: As part of the Act 250 process, all of the studies would be included in the permit
application and those would become public documents and they will be submitted, I believe
every town gets a copy of it, so you'll have a copy of the application. So, yes, you will see all
the studies. The results will be shown. Well, this is an important quarry for our operation. I
think it's an important quarry for the economy of Vermont. All of us.
MR. McNEIL: Hold it, please. Courtesy.
MR. REDDY: You came here in an automobile. You probably live in a house, you probably
paint your house. You use paper. You use all the things that are made with the products of this
quarry. You need calcium to eat. You need calcium in your bones. The balance I believe is going
to show this is a positive impact on the entire area. The studies will bear that out I believe.
That's our premise.
AUDIENCE: But what if the Town of Danby votes that we don't want you here? I know it's
your land, but it's our home.
MR. McNEIL: The follow up to the question, which I'm going to allow, is that if the town votes
that we would prefer not to have the mine open, will they open the mine.
MR. REDDY: One of the reasons that I wanted to -- we wanted to have people come out and
ask questions and we're coming to meetings like this. Another alternative in this process is we
could just ignore everybody and submit our permit and see where the chips lie. I'd like to -- I've
found in my prior history it's better to talk to people. We sent people out to ask a lot of
questions. Many of you, I want to thank everybody that answered the questions and gave us the
concerns, expressed what the concerns were so we knew what to try to address. I think it's much
better to try to keep open a dialogue and find out what the concerns are to see if we can mitigate
the impacts in a way that's acceptable to you. There are benefits from opening an operation like
this. There are impacts. We would like to make the impacts work in the community to the best
of our ability. I'm trying to hear what the concerns are. We've got people up here taking notes.
We know what we're trying to address the questions as best I can now. A lot of them, I got to
admit, I can't answer yet because the studies aren't in. But I'd rather answer a question when I
knew a fact and if I don't know something, I'll tell you I don't know it. So we're trying to ask the
questions, see if we can work with you to see what we can do.
AUDIENCE: The question was: If we vote we don't want you here, are you still going to
proceed?
MR. REDDY: We are proceeding to try to get an Act 250 permit and proceeding with the
studies. If we don't get the permit, then it's a moot question. If we do get the permit, then we
open the quarry.
MR. McNEIL: The gentleman way in the back of the room. Thank you. Your name?
AUDIENCE: My name is Sydney Whalen. I'm a taxpayer in Danby. The buffers, the so-called
buffer zone that you described which is in excess of 33 acres, has the geology been done on that
property? Do you know what's underneath there? Do you have a sense of what's there?
MR. McNEIL: The question is: The buffer zone around the quarry, has the geology been done
and does OMYA know what is under there.
AUDIENCE: In other words, all the way up to of the Tinmouth town line do you know what is
underneath your property.
MR. REDDY: I don't. Don, I hope you do.
MR. BURNS: We have a fair idea. I guess perhaps what you're asking is do the marble layers
continue north, and they do. And they do continue north on our property to the Tinmouth line
and beyond In fact, the marble layers that we're quarrying run essentially north, south through
the entire State of Vermont and, in fact, discontinuously run from Newfoundland down to
Georgia. But there's only really two areas in the U.S. where the marble is of the quality suitable
for the products we make and that's in Vermont and Alabama. We do know where the marble is.
It's only on a small percentage of the property. The work we've done so far indicates that, you
know, where we propose to put the quarry is the most economic and, you know, best quality
material to develop.
MR. McNEIL: Carter, I'm going to go through everybody that hasn't asked a question first.
Ma'am? You.
AUDIENCE: My name is Dineen Squillante and I'm a resident of this town. And I'm just
wondering, you sent your proposal to this town in the beginning of January, if I understand, and
I was wondering how long it's going to take for your experts to come up with the answers to the
questions that the people of this town have. We have a list of questions that need to be
addressed before we make an informed decision and we need to know. How long is it going to
take for you to answer the questions?
MR. McNEIL: So the question is, and can I just ask a question about that? Are you taking
about the list of questions that Donna gave them earlier, or are you talking about the questions
answered in the Act 250 permit request?
AUDIENCE: Not the permit request. The questions that Donna --
MR. McNEIL: So I'll clarify. I told you earlier that there was a brief meeting of people that
we thought would be involved as leaders. Mrs. Herrick was one. She gave a list of questions to
OMYA and that's the questions we're talking about; right?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
MR. McNEIL: Okay.
MR. REDDY: In a sense it really -- if you bear with me for a second. It really doesn't matter.
AUDIENCE: It matters to us.
MR. REDDY: Well, in a sense it doesn't because we're not going to get any permit until we
answer the questions either. We're in the process -- before we can submit the Act 250 process,
we have to complete all these studies so there's no rush to get the answers. What I'd rather do is
get the best studies we can get using the best experts we can. And the longer it takes, the longer
you don't know the answers, the longer I don't know the answers, but nothing is happening
anyway. The time doesn't start until the studies are done. So what I've told the experts, you
know, we've asked, you know, we're kind of anxious too. I got the same questions you got. You
know, what's the answer. So we've asked can we get the answers by the fall. And again we're
telling the people, you know, we're telling them that if -- look at all the alternatives for everything
and make sure we're answering as much as we can in as much detail as we can and if it takes you
longer to get the answers, okay. The process will just take longer. One -- I said one of the things
I'd like to do is ask people, have meetings like this and find out what the questions are and what
the concerns are. One of the advantages of asking people what their concerns are is they'll tell
you what their concerns are and then you can try and address them. One of the disadvantages of
asking people what their concerns are is they tell you what their concerns are and now you got
more things to ask. So the more we find out, the more we go back to the consultants and we say,
Look, people are concerned about this. What can -- better make sure you get the answers to that.
You better make sure you look into this. As a result of today's meetings, we may delay the
process a little bit, but I don't think that hurts any of us. What's the difference? If it takes a little
bit longer to get the answer, what's the difference if we get a better answer and we can address
your questions? That's the process we're in. The more questions we get, the longer the process
takes. That's all I can say. But I don't see that that's a disadvantage. There's no deadline for
when this thing has to be done.
AUDIENCE: The disadvantage is you've left the people of this town hanging and our property
values are going down every day that you delay. We don't know what's going on. You've made it
public and now we're just hanging waiting.
MR. REDDY: Well, if the consultants manage to hold to their schedule, we're going to have the
reports in late this fall and we'll be ready to submit an application in the early spring. That's the
best schedule I can give you now. I don't know of any more delays on top of that. I don't know
of any delays. That's the schedule we're trying to target for.
MR. McNEIL: Of the people that raised their hand before, Danby residents who had not asked
a question, how many do we have left? A few over here. Mrs. Squillante, I'm going to move on.
Sir?
AUDIENCE: I'm Steve Haines. I live on Fisk Road. My question has to do with the trucking.
If trucks do go through whatever proposed route, will Mr. Carter have his truckers work with the
farmers that are crossing the roads?
MR. McNEIL: The question is: Will Mr. Carter, who I'm assuming is the gentleman that was
introduced, will he have his truckers work with the people who live in the area, farmers
especially, on -- do you mean on a schedule, or, well, I'll let him answer it.
MR. CARTER: The answer is yes. As a matter of fact, this is happening to us all the time going
up and down Route 7. And as a matter of fact, we have received letters from the farmers
thanking us because if it wasn't for us, we kind of make a barricade to stop and the cars can't
drive around so it works out pretty well to be honest with you.