New Hanover to Appeal Quarry Zoning Decision

Photo by Evan Brandt

ALMOST  AN EAGLE: Kevin Jackmore, from Boy Scout Troop 

367, was recognized last night for the work he did in Hickory Park 

and at the Township Recreation Center for his Eagle Scout project.

He is expected to be officially awarded the rank shortly.

What do you get when the New Hanover Township Zoning Board makes a decision?

Appeals, potentially lots of them.

With the clock ticking on the deadline to appeal the decision earlier this month to allow the expansion of the Gibraltar Rock Quarry, the supervisors had a decision to make.

And the decision they made, unanimously, was to appeal the decision by the zoning board.

Robert Brant, the township's special counsel on all things quarry, also said that Gibraltar Rock may appeal because of the conditions that the zoning board attached to its approval.

And finally, the friendly folks over at Ban the Quarry, as parties to the whole matter, also have an opportunity to appeal the decision.

In other word, more lawyers.

In the meantime, here are the Tweets from the meeting.

New Hanover Zoning Board OKs Quarry Expansion

This map, from a previous zoning hearing, shows the proximity
of the quarry expansion approved last night to the pollution site
at Good's Oil, identified inside the red circle.

The township’s zoning hearing board unanimously approved the expansion of the Gibraltar Rock quarry into a parcel adjacent to a groundwater pollution site Thursday night.

The 4-0 vote came with more than 15 conditions that will be imposed on the expansion, which is not likely to begin actual operations for four to five more years, according to an estimate by Stephen Harris, Gibraltar’s long-time attorney.

“We can’t vote how we feel about this application. We are bound by the constraints of the law,” said Zoning Chairman Mark Wylie in announcing the decision.

Ultimately, the question came down to the threat posed by polluted groundwater pollution at the former Good’s Oil site off Route 663, and what impact the expanded quarry operation would have on its movement underground, said Wylie.

He said the testimony offered over about two years of testimony by experts for Gibraltar, the township and Paradise Watchdogs/Ban the Quarry was all credible.

Because the pollution plume is moving slowly southwest underground, away from the quarry expansion site, Wylie it would have been legally difficult to deny permission to expand based on any potential risk.

Rowan Keenan, attorney for the Ban the Quarry group said he understood why the zoning board made the choice it did — because it allow them to impose numerous conditions, such as screening, replacing well water and complying with a federal limit on the suspected carcinogen 1,4 dioxane should the Environmental Protection Agency ever get around to imposing one.

Had they denied the “special exception” required, Gibraltar could have appealed that decision and over-turned it, and there would be no conditions at all.

Celeste Bish, president of Paradise Watchdogs/Ban the Quarry — a citizens group which has opposed every stage of the quarry for nearly 20 years — agreed with Keenan’s analysis.

“We’re certainly disappointed, but we understand why the zoning hearing board made the decision it did, to be able to impose conditions,” she said.

Although, Keenan pointed out, not only can he or the township’s special solicitor Robert Brant appeal the decision, but they or Gibraltar can also appeal the conditions.

Harris said he had been “cautiously optimistic” about the decision coming into the final lap, adding “although it wouldn’t surprise me if Ban the Qaurry filed an appeal.”

These maps show Hoffmansville Road running between the quarry pits.

In addition to the next requirement being to amend the quarry’s state mining permit to include the expansion, the quarry will also have to go through the land development process.

Earlier this week, Gibraltar submitted its final site plan for the original parcel south of Hoffmansville Road, known as GB-1, over which many legal battles and public hearings have been fought.

In 2007, the township’s zoning board of appeals granted the company permission to open the quarry on 163 acres bounded by Route 73, Hoffmansville Road and Church Road, but with a number of restrictions to which the company objected.

The company went to court, arguing among other things, the state’s non-coal mining law pre-empted the necessity of going through the township’s land development process, but lost that fight.

The preliminary site plan approval for the first quarry site dates back to 2015.

The quarry has a second digging site north of Hoffmansville Road and a tunnel will be dug beneath the road to move rock from this second site to the crushing machine on the first.

What the zoning hearing board approved Thursday is a third site, also north of Hoffmansville Road and adjacent to the second on one side, and to the former Good’s Oil property on the other.

It is located on 18 acres Gibraltar purchased for $800,000 in November, 2014 from a trust owned by the Good family.

New Hanover Zoning Hearing Board Chairman Mark Wylie

Next to it is the Good’s Oil site, where contamination from the former operation there infiltrated the groundwater, polluting numerous household wells and ultimately necessitating the installation of a $2 million public water system in 2013.

The affect the most recently approved operation will have on that contamination has been the focus of most of the hearings.

Wylie noted it will be approximately 15 years before the digging there is deep enough to reach groundwater and require the pumping some fear will alter the course of the pollution plume and release it into a tributary of Swamp Creek.

With 15 years of monitoring well data in hand before the problem emerges, Wylie said the township, the state and Gibraltar can be ready.

“Of course we don’t think that de-watering will draw in the pollution, but we’ve spent years asking ourselves ‘what if,’” Harris said, noting that treatment systems exist and would be implemented for whatever type of pollution, if any, ultimately appears.

Here are what few Tweets there were from the all-too-brief meeting.

Between a Rock and a Zoning Hearing Board Ruling

The relationship between the proposed expansion of the as-yet non-operational Gibraltar Rock Quarry and groundwater contamination at the neighboring property remained the central point around which all argument revolved Thursday night as the lawyers had their final say before the Zoning Hearing Board.

Now I could try to repeat everything they said, but most of it is contained in the Tweets below.

So let me sum up:

Gibraltar Rock Quarry Attorney Stephen Harris argued that even if the water pumping at the quarry pulls in contaminants form the former Good's Oil site off North Charlotte Street, it will be treated under the conditions of the permit, so everyone should be happy.

Rowan Keenan, attorney for the Paradise Watchdogs group, said even if the contaminants that reach the quarry pits are treated, the pumping will alter the flow of water underground and may contaminate nearby wells that will not be treated with the quarry water.

In a sadly comic passage, he also told the zoning hearing board that it is "alright to vote your conscience," whereas zoning board solicitor Ed Skypala said actually, that's not the case and the zoning board only has the authority to make decisions based on the facts in evidence.

And Bob Brant, attorney for the township, said he agreed with everything Keenan said and also pointed out that while Harris is trying to convince the zoning board that the first two parts of the quarry are going to begin operations, and they were approved by the zoning board, that Gibraltar has lost in court several times.

He pointed out that when the first two quarry segments were approved by the zoning board, no one knew about the groundwater contamination and the zoners should not feel obligated to follow suit on those first two decisions.

Brant and  Keenan both argued that testimony from township and Paradise Watchdog experts gave the zoning board adequate legal standing to deny the quarry request for the third expansion, which Harris said would take at least five years to get up and running.

The zoning board will issue its decision at the next meeting on Sept. 7 In the meantime, satisfy yourself with the Tweets!

The People Get Their Say on Quarry Expansion

Photo by Evan Brandt

William 'Ross' Snook, newly appointed to New Hanover Township's Environmental Advisory Board, with some of the exhibits he was not allowed to present during Thursday's Zoning Hearing on the proposed expansion of the Gibraltar Rock Quarry.

If you're an aficionado of zoning hearing meetings, you know that is a realm of legalese, rules about when you can ask questions, and of whom, and when you can make a simple statement, and about what.

The year-plus long set of hearings regarding the proposed expansion of the Gibraltar Rock quarry to a site adjacent to the former Good's Oil Co. site, the source of groundwater contamination, has been no exception.

But Thursday night was that rare occasion when the people who have been suffering through these hearings for more than a year, got to offer (somewhat) unfettered comment on what they think of the whole idea of digging a hole and pumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of groundwater a day right next to a contamination site.

It would not be an understatement to say no one seemed to think its a good idea.

Most of those who spoke, asked the zoning hearing board to consider the health of residents, and argued it would be better (and safer) to wait until the site is cleaned, and declared clean, before allowing any blasting and pumping.

But don't let me give the impression that you could just get up there and say anything that came to mind.

For when Celeste Bish from the Ban the Quarry group tried to read the names of those people who have died in homes with contaminated wells since the contamination was first discovered, many of them of cancer, it was ruled either not relevant to the hearing or inadmissible because she didn't have personal knowledge of their death.

Of course, I would think an obituary in the newspaper is pretty certain evidence of death, but then I'm not a lawyer so I could be mistaken.

Nevertheless, when the chance finally came, 11 people who wanted to speak and were lucky enough to be there at the right time, had their say, which you can read about in the Tweets below.

But despite what you might think, we're not done. There is at least one more hearing, tentatively set for Feb. 2 with a possible postponement to March 2, at which Gibraltar attorney Stephen Harris will offer rebuttal witnesses from his expert.

And then the township's attorney, and Ban the Quarry's attorney, and so on and so on and .......

Anyway, here are the Tweets.