Natasha Koslop scooped up some hot, black “asphalt,” squished it flat like a roller on a highway would and proceeded to take a bite of the gooey mixture.  

Rice Elementary School fourth-grader Kyle Dotzel is not as tall as a wheel on a large truck used at the quarry.   Fourth-grade students from Rice Elementary School in Mountain Top pose near a wheel from a giant truck used to move stone from the Small Mountain Quarry. The students were touring the quarry as part of their studies about rock.  

Rolling out Rice Krispies treats modified with black food coloring was one of five hands-on workshops in which Natasha and about 120 other fourth-graders from Rice Elementary School participated on Monday during a tour of Small Mountain Quarry.  

The tour was a field trip finale to a week’s worth of classes taught by quarry employees at their school.   Fourth-grade teacher Mark Bensavage said this is the third year that Slusser Brothers – a subsidiary of quarry owner/operator Pennsy Supply – has supplemented the fourth-grade science, reading and math curricula with state-certified quarry-based teaching materials and provided tours to the students.  

“One of the important things is that they get an understanding of natural resources. They learn about things they see all around them – they get to see what roads are made of. And it’s key for them to see the recycling aspect of the plant,” Bensavage said.  

Wearing hard hats, safety vests and goggles that they could take home with them, the students were divided into three groups and rode school buses from one area of the quarry to another for the workshops.  

One of the workshops took place in the belt press building, where Slusser Brothers Sales Manager Vic Bogetti reminded the students they learned about conservation and reclamation last week.  

“This building is all about those concepts. …We need to every day use water to clean the rock at the main plant. That water gets filthy, and this building is how we actually take that little bit of mucky material out of it and recycle it – send it back up to the plant so it can clean more stone,” Bogetti said.  

Maintenance Manager Todd Smith showed the students what the dirty water looks like and explained how it is cleaned using a clarifying solution. He said a “mud squeezer” presses the water out of the dirt, which will be used later for reclamation of the quarry land, and he let them touch a sheet of the dried mud.  

Smith also showed the students photos of former quarry sites that were reclaimed and became recreational areas.  

Another recycled material the students learned about was asphalt, which employees told them was the most recycled material in the United States.  

Employees explained the process through which larger rocks are ground down into smaller stones of various types, including the aggregate used as a base for roads and highways. The students had the opportunity to feel the different types of stones and they passed around cross-sections of layered asphalt taken from area roads.   The students also traveled to an overlook, where they looked down on sedimentary rock formations they learned about last week.  

One of the more fun activities was climbing up into some of the large loaders and trucks used in quarry operations. And they talked with equipment operators who explained their jobs.  

About 150 of those employees could lose their jobs if state or local governments deny the quarry permission to expand onto about 120 adjacent acres, Slusser Brothers General Manager Patrick Bartarillo told a reporter. The 60 acres on which the quarry currently operates is nearly depleted of resources, he said.  

Some township residents oppose the quarry expansion, citing environmental concerns.  

Slusser Brothers is waiting on permit approval from the state Department of Environmental Protection before giving township officials new expansion plans that they believe address concerns of both residents and officials.   Down at the bottom of a quarry pit, Bartarillo told students the most important thing they need to remember about quarries. “Unfortunately, every year, about 30 people lose their lives by coming onto abandoned quarries and active quarries when they’re not invited,” he said.  

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration created the “Stay Out, Stay Alive” education program to teach people about the dangers of quarries, Bartarillo said, urging the students not to give in to peer pressure to go swimming in quarry pits. Some of the pits have dangerous rock walls and water that is so cold, “you won’t last long in it,” he said.  

While Natasha Koslop’s favorite part of the tour was trying the “edible asphalt,” her friend Kaitlyn Roberts said she liked learning about the geodes the students were given.  

Asked if she would like to work at a quarry some day, Kaitlyn said she wants to work “down in the quarry and take out the rock.” When Bensavage reminded her that she previously wanted to be a teacher, Kaitlyn said she could be a teacher at the quarry, like the Slusser Brothers employees who taught her and her classmates.  

Bensavage said Slusser Brothers “really go out of their way” for the students. “They shut down the whole quarry for us. They provide something for the kids to take away – this year, the geode stones with the quartz inside; last year, they made sand sculptures. And they provided the students with lunch,” he said.  

“They’re trying to educate the community and the students who are part of the community. I think they do a good job.”  

From the Times Leader