Geryville Materials desire to build a quarry on West Mill Hill Rd in Lower Milford Township is based on two arguments according to their testimony at various hearings.

• They deserve to make a profit from their land; a quarry is the way they want to do it.
• They would lower the cost of stone to the Pennsylavia Department of Transportation.

The first reason begs the question as to whether their desire to maximize profit at the cost of millions of dollars to residents surrounding the site is justified. Their greed to get as money much money as possible because "they can" will be the subject of a future article.

The second reason presumes that the location of a quarry will provide stone that cannot be obtained from existing quarries and transported to the worksite at a competitive price. That would imply that there are insufficient quarries to bid on stone delivery contracts in our area. Otherwise, "what the market will bear" is what the cost will be. The difference between the winning bid price cost of miing, preparing, and delivery determines their profit;. In addition, Geryville Materials will be contracting with a quarry operator, almost certainly with Haines & Kibblehouse, to operate the property. Thus, added cost will be incurred to pay to pay thm to run the facility. Qualitatively, the issue is whether there are sufficient quarries to provide stone in our area so that bids can't be sole sourced and not cost advantage should be the criteria to determine the need fo another quarry.

How Many Active Quarries Are there in Pennsylvania?

There are currently 3182 active quarry sites in Pennsylania. These are catagorized by DEP as

• Specialty stone and short term mining--- 115  of these active mines.
• Smaller facilities up to 2000 tons per day -- 1611 sites
• Intermediate facilities up to 10000 tons/day -- 517 sites
• Large surface mines that can produce greater that 10000 tons per day -- 937 mines

 

 

 The does not seem to be a great need for more quarries with over 3000 to choose from today! Furthermore, there are over 100 large surface quarries within 25 miles of the site Geryville Materials wants to build on. How much money in transportation can you save DEP for the few roads in communities surrounding an in Lower Milford Township? Haines and Kibblehouse have 5-6 large surface quarries within 25 miles of the West Mill Road site. A new quarry does not seem to even fit into the need to expand the area of influence for them.

Are Quarries Disappearing at a High Rate?

There does not seem to be a need for a new quarry today. However, if mines are closing at a high rate, then one might argue that new mines are needed to maintain the status quo. The following figure shows the status of ALL surface mines ever since statistics were kept by the state of Pennsylvania.

The data does not support that premise. There are 4050 surface mines that have been proposed or built  in Pennsylvania. Active mines today number 3182. One hundred three (103) are inactive, where unsed dangerous mines scar the landscape. Of the remaining mines, 168 have been proposed but not built, 17 were abandoned, and 580 were reclaimed.  Less than 15% of mines have ceased operation and had vegetation grown on the site to provide a hole that is stabilized but still dangerous. The mines abandoned give up performance bonds and leave the taxpayers to pay whatever excess cost needed to reclain the land.  The fact is that mines last a long time-- we do not need another mine in Pennsylvania or in Lehigh Valley and counties surrounding it.

Many countries have used rock for much longer periods of time. They still have mining operations suffiecient for future needs. But they also are taking steps to recycle the stone. Technology is being developed and currently being used to take stone that is removed when roads are rebuilt, and reclaiming to use at the same site or nearby sites. Canada is using similar technology. The cost today are similar to mining but environmental damage is so much less.

The conclusion one can reach is that we do not need new quarries. We need a sane policy that provides stone for the future construction projects, preserves what we have through effective technology, and selection of mining sites that minimize the loss in quality of live and property value of residents.