By GRETCHEN KNAPP, Mountaintop Eagle

Correspondent

Small Mountain Quarry in Dorrance persevered in its quest to remain in operation at a hearing held last Thursday at Rice Elementary before the township supervisors, attended by about thirty concerned residents and quarry workers. Quarry owner Slusser Brothers, a locallyowned company affiliated under Pennsy Supply, is requesting a continued use application from the township, the hearing a requirement in procuring this under township zoning code.

The quarry, located near the Dorrance exit of I-81, is hoping to expand its mining operations on the 189 acres of its southern boundary, the proposed area of excavation to encompass approximately 132 acres. The expansion will allow the quarry to be viable for the next forty or more years. Without it, the existing stone on the north side will be exhausted within a few years and the quarry would be forced to shut down. Expansion in the south will include the same as that currently undertaken in the north - quarry excavation, stone and equipment storage, concrete and asphalt manufacturing, stone crushing, processing and conveyance.

This hearing before the township supervisors constitutes a separate track the quarry is pursuing after a setback to its expansion plans in late summer. After months of hearings before the Dorrance zoning board, the quarry's application for a special exception permit to continue operations was denied. The quarry had spent those months defending itself against the accusations of a group of Dorrance residents, close quarry neighbors, objecting to the expansion plans.

After the permit was denied, the quarry went on the offensive, launching a public relations campaign to win over hearts and minds, in particular those of the Dorrance Board of Supervisors, emphasizing in ads the 150 workers who will lose their jobs if the quarry were forced to close, and the millions in goods and services the quarry has pumped into northeast Pennsylvania's economy. Their website, saveourquarryjobs.com, was also created to further its cause.

In keeping with the roller-coaster ride of ups and downs the quarry has experienced over the last year, after a defeat came a victory when the Dorrance Township Planning Commission recommended that the Board of Supevisors approve its application for continued use, with fifteen recommendations in place regarding, among others, hours of crushing and blasting, noise level, dust control and detention ponds.

The meeting, over three-and-a-half hours long, began with a two-hour question and answer period between George Asimos, attorney for Slusser's, and Rick Caranfa, project manager for the design and permit process for the quarry. The detailed application consists of site plans, aerial photos, cross/section plans, equipment location plans, environmental impact study, project narrative, hydro-geological and wetland delineative, and rattlesnake study.

Caranfa noted that the closest business, the Blue Ridge Truck Stop, is 800 feet from the limit of mining, while the closest residential structure is 1100 feet away. The mining will be conducted in an east to west direction, reaching the western edge of the property in thirty years, with only sections being cleared during the winter that will be mined that following year, over an expected total time of operations of forty years.

Caranfa also stressed that all phases of development will be as per Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) guidelines. When fully excavated, the site plans call for 100 acres of flat usable ground, now zoned for industrial use, with a bond paid by the quarry instituted by DEP to reclaim the land once it is mined. In regard to the equipment, Caranfa noted that the nearest commercial structure is 1000 feet away, and the nearest residence, 1500 feet. The primary crusher will be enclosed in an earthen berm of forty to sixty-five feet in height.

To reduce dust and noise, extra measures undertaken by the company, which could receive DEP approval without them. Such measures for dust mitigation as water suppression, and spray nozzles and enclosures for the conveyance belt are also and will also be implemented, as per an air quality permit and regular inspections from DEP. Caranfa noted that Small Mountain Road, a township road, is paved and maintained where the quarry uses it.

Another point of contention with quarry neighbors, Caranfa discussed Balliets Run, the stream which runs through company property. He noted that the closest mining operations to Balliets Run is the required 100 foot setback, with an average 200 feet setback. He explained that the quarry, again per DEP guidelines, operates controlled outflow devices to capture sediment run-off such as sediment traps, basins, swails, and silt barriers. Detention ponds hold the water to allow the sediment to fall out of the water before it flows into the stream. Caranfa emphasized that samples of the water in the past for sediment have been above average in compliance with regulations.

In his cross of Caranfa, William Higgs, attorney for Lenahan's Restaurant, a close commercial neighbor of the quarry, noted that Balliets Run was given the designation by the Fish and Boat Commission in October as a Class A Trout stream, defining it as a cold water fishery of high quality and special value waters, thereby according it special protection. This declaration came after the environmental impact study was conducted by the quarry. Higgs also brought up the possibility of the mountain to be excavated containing a perched water table creating the existing wetlands, to which Caranfa replied if one was discovered while mining, the quarry would cease operations in that area until it could be investigated by DEP.