'Save Our Quarry Jobs' is an effort to keep the employees and suppliers of Small Mountain Quarry, as well as the residents of Dorrance Township and Luzerne County, informed of the company’s effort to keep the quarry from closing. Time is of the essence, because the quarry is scheduled to exhaust its materials in the next three years. In addition to local permits, Small Mountain Quarry has to go through a rigorous permitting application with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), as well as meet federal mining regulations.

Small Mountain Quarry has an excellent compliance record with both DEP and the Federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. Slusser Brothers, which has operated the quarry for the past 20 years, wants to continue that excellent record and has included actions in its application to protect the environment, including:

• Installing enclosures to reduce sound. Portions of the necessary crushing and screening equipment will be contained within enclosures so that the noise levels from the quarry will be less than the noise produced by nearby Interstate 81 and therefore essentially unnoticeable to any nearby residents.The nearest residences are almost 1/4 mile from the proposed quarry.
• Maintaining dust control measures. In addition to the dust reduction from the enclosure of certain equipment, during operations employees will use dust suppression methods to ensure it complies with DEP air quality requirements at all times.
• Maintaining wetlands on the bordering hillside. All wetlands will be preserved and DEP will monitor the condition of the wetlands to ensure that there is no adverse impact.
• Mine without impact to ground water levels. A hyrdro-geologist conducted extensive analysis, using DEP-approved methods, and showed that there would be no impact on wells in the surrounding area.