MR. McNEIL: The gentleman in the red shirt that had his hand up quite a while.

AUDIENCE: My name is Bill Beckerman Lyes. I'm from Pawlet. If you need a consultant to

answer this, I understand, but I'd like to know whom from OMYA of your panel of experts who

is a private homeowner who lives closest to the edge of one of your quarries or mines. I'd like to talk to that person directly.

MR. McNEIL: I'm not sure I understand the question.

AUDIENCE: I'd like to know who among the panel of experts lives closest to one of your

operations. If you live within one mile, raise your hand, two miles, three? A show of hands.

MR. NOLAND: (Indicating.)

AUDIENCE: Are you a private owner?

MR. NOLAND: Yes, a private homeowner.

AUDIENCE: And what can you tell us about probably the most significant quality of life that

you have living close to the operation.

MR. NOLAND: My name is Brian Noland.

AUDIENCE: Microphone.

MR. NOLAND: My name is Brian Noland and I'm employed at OMYA for over ten years.

AUDIENCE: We can't hear you.

MR. NOLAND: My name is Brian Noland and I've been employed with OMYA for over ten

years. I do live right in the Village of Pittsford probably two miles maybe as the crow flies. I

have not noticed any impact from the site to be honest. I do live near Route 7. There is, you

know, I have never heard of any blasting noise at all from the quarry. Does that answer your

question?

AUDIENCE: It does, but are there any

repercussions that you see living in the area?

MR. NOLAND: I have not experienced any repercussions from my proximity to the quarry or

the plant at my location.

AUDIENCE: Have your property values gone down or up?

MR. McNEIL: Do you want to ask a question? Go ahead.

AUDIENCE: The gentleman that lives near the plant and the quarry there, has your assessment

gone down since you moved in?

MR. NOLAND: The quarry was in operation before I purchased the property. I've lived there

for one year.

MR. McNEIL: Lady -- gentleman in the back.

AUDIENCE: I'm a selectman in the Town of Pawlet. And I guess I've heard from -- I delivered

mail up here in Danby and I hear a lot of people saying. I have heard from a lot of people who

live near ear shout of where the quarry is going and from what I'm not hearing is very few people

that live down in the borough or likewise that would be affected by this because if the property

values do go down up here, it takes X number of dollars to run your town, the property values

go down here, the property values in the borough stay the same. Those people's taxes are going

to go that percentage to make up. Whatever you get into, OMYA will not pay the 23 million

dollars or whatever it's going to cost to put in a rail spur. They are going to truck with tractor

trailer. That's a fact. If they do, one of the options is to come through Pawlet. Of all the experts

up there on the panel can any one of you give me a dollar figure of, one, the damage dollar figures

to the Town of Pawlet highways you're going to do with the Town of Pawlet will not be

reimbursed; two, that dollar figure of the amount of property values that will go down because of

retired people and working class families that live on the Danby Road and on 133 in the Town of

Pawlet. If 80 trucks go back and forth a day, obviously the property values will go down.

Where is Pawlet going to benefit?

MR. McNEIL: The question you're asking is: Does anyone here have a dollar value for the

damage, if any, to the property, to the highways and the reduction in property values, a dollar

figure on that would be and what mitigations are going to be for the Town of Pawlet.

AUDIENCE: I mean, they're telling us up there --

MR. McNEIL: Is that your question?

AUDIENCE: Well, what I'm saying is they can't get an answer if they don't have a result from

any studies. The fact is that this idea of putting a quarry or starting a quarry here didn't just

come about and obviously, I mean, we have answers to our things and they didn't just hire

consultants to come up with these ideas. I'm sure this has been going on.

MR. McNEIL: I need to cut you down because we've got a lot of other questions too, but I'm

going to ask the question. Is there a dollar figure that you have done in a study to the roads to

mitigate the damage to the roads and to mitigate the amount of money that may be lost in

property values.

MR. REDDY: Real quick answer is no. And we haven't done the work. I disagree somewhat

with your premise. You said we're going to do truck. I didn't come to Vermont until May 1. I

don't know that we're going to do trucks. I'm new to the area. I've told the consultants, Keep

your mind open. See what you can do. I'm new to the area. I'd like to see what we can do. I

don't think anything is cast in concrete yet. They're looking at the studies. I can't tell you, well,

we haven't done any study in Pawlet yet. The first thing we have to do is figure out what's the

way to transport it; truck or other method. If it's truck, then, you know, we need to figure out

the route and figure out the impact where it's going through. It's a progressive process. That's

why we don't have all the answers today. I sort of have to take the blame for that doing some of

this stuff. Going back to square one. I'm new.

MR. McNEIL: Bob?

AUDIENCE: I'm Bob Schoenemann from Pawlet and I just have a question and I want to just

give. Pawlet has quarries. Significant slate quarries. And our property values near the slate

quarries are about half to one-third the value of generally the rest of the properties in Pawlet. So

quarries do have a definite impact on property values. And one of the big questions here is

property values. How they will be affected by the quarry. Has OMYA done any studies on

what the property value will be decreased, you know, in a, say in the valley around the proposed

quarry?

MR. McNEIL: Did everybody hear that question?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

MR. REDDY: The studies are ongoing now. What I'd suggest we'll do, I wasn't aware there was

a site quarry in Pawlet or what the difference on the property values are, but I see people taking

notes that we'll add, make sure that the consultant is looking at the difference in the values. Why

don't we include that quarry in the study. Is that a fair enough answer? I wasn't aware of the

property value. The consultants here for other areas figure out what the difference is. You

pointed that one out. I think we ought to add that.

AUDIENCE: (Inaudible.)

MR. REDDY: Pardon me?

AUDIENCE: You don't need an expert for that. You just come to the town.

MR. REDDY: All right. We'll tell the experts to include that in the study.

MR. McNEIL: The gentleman here.

AUDIENCE: My name is Adam Ihasz. I just had a question. Two members of the panel --

AUDIENCE: We can't hear.

AUDIENCE: Two members of the panel eluded to the fact earlier that there was absolutely no

heath risks associated with the mine. If there were to be an independent study conducted by the

Town of Danby that proved otherwise, what steps would OMYA take to take care of that? You

know, have you even thought about that?

MR. McNEIL: The question is: If there was an independent study done to look at the health

hazard risk, what, whether it was good or bad?

AUDIENCE: Yeah. We heard that there was no risks. What if we did an independent study

that said --

MR. McNEIL: How would OMYA react to that?

MR. REDDY: As part of the Act 250 process, it's not our word that you have to take. We have

to hire proved experts from the outside that does the study. It's not our word against somebody

else's word. It's the independent outside expert and that is attached. And these are experts that

have to be approved by the State of Vermont in the Act 250 process. These are reputable

people. We're hiring reputable people that are recognized as authority. They will do the

independent study. And that's part of the process. If they find something in there, it has to be

addressed, and if it's a significant adverse effect, it could jeopardize the permit. We have to hire.

I think we have some of the best experts in the industry. But then they do it that in Vermont

because there are employees and we have to have some outsiders.

MR. McNEIL: Lisa?

AUDIENCE: (Inaudible.) Are you trying to tell us that you will not be trucking your products

out of Danby? And if that is what you want us to believe, could you please tell us how you plan

on getting it out of here? And specifics, not we're brainstorming on how we're going to get it out

of here. How would you get it out of here without truck?

MR. McNEIL: The question you want them to answer, which has been asked three times, is

how would they get their core out of Danby.

AUDIENCE: Without a truck?

MR. McNEIL: Without a truck.

AUDIENCE: I keep hearing "if we truck."

MR. McNEIL: How would you get it out without truck?

MR. REDDY: I don't know. Perhaps there are -- well, I don't know. We have been asking

people to look at. There are engineering solutions, but I can give you a trivial example. Belt

conveyor.

AUDIENCE: All the way to Florence?

MR. REDDY: In a previous life I worked as an engineer and I worked on a belt conveyor that

was 50 miles long. It was in Brazil. It's not -- that's probably not -- I'm giving you an example

just to show you it's technologically possible. There's a lot of safety considerations with belt

conveyor, but I told -- I've been out of engineering for quite a few years. We didn't ask them.

I'm going to be a hundred percent honest. I didn't ask the consultants until May to look at

alternate technologies. Early May we sent the people around to ask. We started sending people

around to ask the questions in the community. What was the concerns. We heard trucking was a

big concern. I was new here in May. You know, I've been out of technology for a long time. I

don't know what's available. I said, Take a look at what's available. I knew trivially that a belt

conveyor would work. Probably a safety hazard, but I don't know. Maybe there's something

else. I don't know.

AUDIENCE: You have no -- you're telling me you have no other -- from your experts you

haven't heard anything else back from the experts other than truck?

MR. REDDY: I didn't hear anything back from the experts yet. They're doing the study. When

they have the report finished, they'll give it back to you. I know Harry doesn't like to hear that.

I specifically said, See if you can find something that addresses this issue.

MR. McNEIL: Mr. Nippen?

AUDIENCE: Thank you. Can everyone hear me? Thank you for letting me speak. I live two

towns up. My name is Randy Kniffen. I had a quick question for Neil. Give me a minute to

answer it. In your role in the Department of Natural Resources could you think back upon

maybe two instances where substantial fines were ever levied because pollution violated state

codes? And while you're thinking about that, I would like to dream for a second and ask

everyone connected with OMYA. I know that for a couple of years you've been trying to

facilitate more raw material going to the Florence operation from the Middlebury mine. And if

you woke up tomorrow morning and a railway spur connecting those two entities were a reality

allowing you that extra 100, 150 trucks every day you would like to bring in some fashion, would

this cause you to recalculate the desire to mine here in Danby?

MR. McNEIL: That's a two-part question. The second part is easier. Do you want to go first?

The first question is: Does Neil in his past life know of any significant fines due to air pollution

and -- air pollution. Okay.

MR. JORDAN: The best of my ability I'll answer both from my previous life and my present

life because part of my responsibility is staying in touch with what happens in Vermont in an

environmental area. And to my knowledge there have never been -- I don't know what you

would call significant, but.

AUDIENCE: 5,000, 10,000

MR. JORDAN: Certainly there have been many penalties in the $1,000-$5,000 range. I think

for the most part we don't have the type of industry in Vermont that has ever produced any kind

of a major air pollution control permit violation and had any kind of a significant impact on

health. And the way fines are assigned in Vermont, there's a matrix that is followed. It has to do

with environmental impact, it has to do with the company's history. There are a whole number

of elements that go into the assignment of the proposed penalty. And to my knowledge there

has never been anything in the course of magnitude greater than that, but there certainly have

been enforcement cases in Vermont. Thank you.

MR. McNEIL: The second part of the question was: If there was a rail spur connecting

OMYA's plant in Florence with the Pittsford or Middlebury mine, would they not mine here.

AUDIENCE: Essentially.

MR. REDDY: We would still want to mine here. It isn't just the issue of transportation. The

quality -- our customers are getting tougher and tougher. They want extremely pure products.

They want environmentally good products. Our product is calcium carbonate. The reason it's

used in so many things, it's basically environmentally the safest mineral you can use. It's the best

you can put in anything. It's safe. In fact, you can eat it and if we have to eat it. They not only

want pure, they not only want good calcium carbonate, they want extreme purity. People want

less and less contaminants in it and they want extremely high brightness. It's going more and

more into paper and people want high grade paper and it's replacing -- because of the calcium

carbonate industry, as I mentioned earlier, we no longer have to chlorine bleach the wood pulp

because they're adding so it's benefiting the environment. But then the paper companies, one

company gets a little bit brighter, the next one wants to get brighter still. This stuff down here is

very, very good. It's very high quality. It's very good brightness. We need this stuff.

AUDIENCE: I hear what you're saying. But if you still want the additional product from the

Middlebury quarry to come to Florence, it sounds as if that would build up capacity at the

Florence plant. I mean, you're still hoping to get additional permits for trucking or moving it in

some fashion. So it leaves me confused. And I hear what you're saying about wanting the purer

material here. But it sounds like you may have a capacity in Florence that could be filled if you

could get the additional raw material.

MR. REDDY: One of the quarries that we do mine isn't the best quality right now. That's the

Hogback Quarry which is near the plant. It's not as bright and it's not as good. The Middlebury

Quarry is also a pretty good quarry. We would like to -- we are thinking in terms of a 50-year

life. We would like to have more material out of the quarry and we would like to have the

material out of here to be honest. Both are good quality and this is better. We would like to have

the material out of here. Both are very good quality. This is better than Middlebury to be

honest. It's a very nice deposit down here. This is the stuff I would like to have.

MR. McNEIL: The gentleman in the white hat, then the lady here and then I'll ask if there's

anyone that hasn't asked a question.

AUDIENCE: I ask this question of Jim. I'm John (inaudible) from Pittsford. I work for a

contractor that does business with OMYA. Jim, with all this product that you can possibly get,

wouldn't that mean more expansion in Pittsford and more jobs for Vermonters?

MR. REDDY: Absolutely. That's part of what I said earlier. The plant is -- you've done some

work up there. You know the last expansion we had, we're getting pretty well near capacity. We

get this permit, let's be optimistic here. Obviously we have a big expansion to put in the plant.

This would increase the size of the plant in Florence by 30 percent which means a lot of jobs for

a lot of people in Vermont. We pay high wages. They're well higher than the average wage in

Vermont. It's not only our job. It's the, as I mentioned earlier, it's the multiplier effect. We got

to build a new quarry here, we got to hire a lot of contractors to come in and haul and we have to

buy the equipment and we have contractors. We're always trying to expand.

MR. McNEIL: I said we would take one more question. Yes, ma'am, you.

AUDIENCE: Ann Miller from Wallingford. You will have an impact on Route 140 and Route 7

and the major intersection in Tinmouth and I don't know whether you have anything to offer

because the community to alleviate the problems there and that's my question. The other

question is: Do you have calcium carbonate quarries in Switzerland?

AUDIENCE: I'm going to go with the one question and then call it a night, okay? The impact

that happens here is important. Do you have any impact alleviation for Wallingford?

MR. REDDY: Again, trucks have not been definitively decided as the mode of transportation.

And the first thing is to definitively decide that. And the second thing is to definitively decide

the route assuming it is trucks. Obviously, we have already presented, in fact, earlier this year

the first proposal which was done internal. We were looking at the safest way to go. And the

safest way we thought is that we thought internally, without the outsiders at the time was the

route that you just suggested; 140 to 7. Assuming, let's we'll assume for the minute that we

would go by truck and let's assume that this is the route. Every town that a truck would go

through we would have to do an economic impact statement on and address all those issues in the

study. But we have to wait to see which towns we're going to go through assuming we go

through by trucks, and then that will be by the permitting process. We will have those answers

at that time.

MR. McNEIL: I'm going to call it a night. We've been at this for three hours, and I want to

thank you all for coming. Your input is much appreciated.

AUDIENCE: (Applause.)

(Whereupon, the town meeting was concluded.)