Rutland Herald Commentary
August 11, 2000

Danby must pay attention

I would like to comment on a recent article in the Rutland Herald reporting on the Aug. 3 Danby Select Board meeting and the discussions of OMYA's January 13 proposal to the town of Danby for an open-pit calcium carbonate ore mine.

No one is disputing that some of Danby's history is in mining, and no one is discounting the world-famous Imperial Marble Quarry, owned by OMYA Inc. and leased to Vermont Quarries Corp. These are both important parts of Danby. However, what many people are asking are some simple questions: Is this new OMYA proposal an appropriate project for the town of Danby, for this valley? How do the impacts of this project balance out? We are merely trying to get our town officials interested in this project and its possible effects on their, our, town of Danby.

Since OMYA's proposal to the town was made public, many of us have been very busy getting as much information as possible about this. When we discovered OMYA's proposal, we approached the town Select Board in February 2000 and asked them not to respond favorably to the proposal without studying the impacts.

We have consistently been returning to Select Board meetings to request them to study and discuss what we feel are very important impacts. It has been very frustrating. Neighboring towns have shown interest in gathering information about this proposal. Wallingford's web site even has a copy of OMYA's proposal to the town of Danby.

There is talk this mine would increase the tax base; my understanding of OMYA's South Wallingford site is that they are assessed an additional $52,500 for the crusher and generator housing. OMYA presently pays almost $27,000 ('99 grand list figures) for Dutch Hill properties in Danby. The increased assessment similar to Wallingford's would bring in perhaps another $1,000 to the Danby tax base. This is hardly enough to offset the diminished grand list from the numerous property value reductions which even OMYA's public relations girls admitted to a neighbor were inevitable.

I would now like to address some of the comments quoted from Brad Bender, a town lister and chairman of the Danby Planning Commission. Mr. Bender uses property sales since August 1999 to apparently show that people are buying property and homes here with no concern.

First, OMYA's proposal is dated Jan. 13, 2000, and was initially officially discussed at the February 2000 Select Board meeting. So sales before then are basically irrelevant to this discussion. Second, Mr. Bender does not say how many of the people making property purchases since this proposed mine was public knowledge were informed of the mine. Nor does he mention that presently some Realtors are still not disclosing this information.

Mr. Bender offers a description of the proposed mine that certainly is not the description in OMYA's own proposal to the town of Danby nor the one I was given by OMYA's geologist during our Middlebury tour. In a discussion with neighboring town officials, OMYA's geologist said, "We took a number of neighbors from Danby up to Middlebury quarry … and I think that was probably a little misleading and we probably should've shown them a quarry like Hogback. That's the scale we're talking about."

Well, I have seen Middlebury and Hogback quarries close up, and they are not simple little holes in the ground. Besides the actual excavation area where the rock is taken from, there are areas with large, very high stockpiles of various stones, the crusher, and generator area that also includes room for dumping and loading, the huge waste area where there are piles of rejected material, and, of course, there are the numerous necessary roads to get to and from all these sections.

According to OMYA's proposal, the base of the initial quarry site is at 1,540 feet elevation. Most of Tinmouth road in the area near the site is around 1,400 feet elevation. When they did the clear-cutting of the site in 1992-1993, they removed any trees that may have provided screening for their operations. How is this not going to be visible? I have not heard that OMYA has changed their plans for this proposed mine. Does Mr. Bender have access to information that has not been made available to the public?

OMYA does indeed own property all the way to the Tinmouth line and while this proposal does not mention mining to that distance, one OMYA geologist said, "The material runs that way, and there certainly is that potential." When questioned further on that subject, they do not and will not rule out future expansion. Therefore, that possibility must be taken into consideration.

In conclusion, I would like to say that this proposed open-pit strip mine for calcium carbonate ore is expected to last at least 50 to 100 years. Wouldn't anyone in their right mind facing such long-lasting changes want to study all possible impacts, present and future?

DONNA HERRICK

Danby