By: Ralph Nardone, Northeast PA Business Journal

On Jan. 22, Slusser filed a 38-page brief in Luzerne County Court, asking the court to overturn a previous decision by the Dorrance Township Zoning Hearing Board denying the quarry's expansion.

The quarry is a major local provider of the high-grade road-making materials and the main supplier of a skid resistant aggregate required by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT). It also provides about 150 workers with family-sustaining jobs, according to company officials.

The quarry says it needs to expand in order to keep its operations going, according to Sean Connolly, spokesman for Pennsy Supply. The company's current location will run out of materials within three years, he says, which will force the quarry to close after 20 years of operations.

Dorrance Township zoning officials denied the company's request in July and the township's board of supervisors voted it down again in December. The denials have resulted in the company petitioning the Luzerne County Court.

The denials were based on environmental concerns, including noise, dust, heavy equipment traffic and other issues. The expansion, if approved, will triple the size of the quarry, according to the township planning commission.

Connolly says when Pennsy reapplied for the zoning ordinance in December, it had received unanimous approval from the planning commission, who then recommended that the township board of supervisors approve the expansion. When the vote came up on Dec. 18, however, the board voted "nay."

Connolly says the negative impact on the local economy from the quarry closing will be significant.
"Slusser Brothers' Small Mountain Quarry purchased $11 million in goods and services in Luzerne County in 2006," Connolly says. "Local vendors can't afford to lose the business."

In addition, local contractors using the quarry materials will most likely have to go outside northeast Pennsylvania to get what they need, raising costs for the industry and taxpayers, as well as sending business outside the area.

Connolly says that Pennsy Supply already owns the property where they wish to expand and it is a heavy industrial zoning district. The company is totally committed to working with the local community to assuage their environmental concerns, he says.

The expansion can be confusing to local residents, says Patrick Bartorillo, general manager of Slusser Brothers in Hazleton.

"It is not a case about the location getting bigger," Bartorillo says. "It is a relocation to the other side of Small Mountain Road."

The company will not add any more equipment and will still use the same access routes directly off the Dorrance exit of I-81.

"Our location is unique," Bartorillo says. "Vehicles don't pass any residences, they just load and leave."
The planning commission gave the company a list of 15 conditions to follow, Bartorillo says, including retaining an independent expert to monitor operations and their impact; to keep an eye on erosion control; to test groundwater, and to assess noise control. The conditions also limit the hours of quarry operations, he says.

Bartorillo estimates the entire process - to obtain a variance and permits, if the court action is successful - will take most of 2008 and successful resolution will keep the quarry operational at its current level for another 50 years.

Bartorillo emphasizes that the employees of the company, averaging 10 years and $40,000 per year in wages, will be the biggest losers if the quarry closes.

Connolly points out that the employees set up a Web site, www.saveourquarryjobs.com, to make a public appeal to keep the quarry open. The site asks supporters to contact the Dorrance Township Supervisors or the Luzerne County Commissioners.

Bartorillo says that the quarry has a "good record of compliance with local, state, and federal agencies," including continual inspections by DEP.

Mark Carmon, spokesman for the DEP office in Wilkes-Barre, says there are no compliance issues at the quarry.

In the latest zoning application made in December, the company agreed to install enclosures to reduce sound, use dust suppression methods to comply with DEP air quality standards, preserve wetlands monitored by DEP, and mine without impacting groundwater in any way based on research.