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Crusher plan worries residents
By Dawn Letus
Kingston Freeman Correspondent June 19, 2002
ACCORD - A significant turnout of Rochester town residents is expected tonight at a public hearing on Metro Recycling and Crushing's application for a permit to install a 400-ton-per-hour rock crusher at its Queens Highway site, according to the chairman of a local group opposed to the move.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation, the lead agency
in the permitting process, will begin hearing public comment at 7 p.m. at the
Accord Firehouse.
Currently, Metro has a permit to operate portable crushing and screening equipment
with a capacity of less than 150 tons per hour.
Zali Win, president of the Rochester Residents Association, said, "So far, people
opposed to the project have been slow in = organizing. I do not know if the
DEC is aware of the extent and scope of the opposition."
Win cited local water contamination, truck traffic and noise as being among residents' concerns.
The Worley Subdivision, just south of the mine, is a residential neighborhood made up of nearly 40 homes on one-third-acre lots in one of the most densely populated areas in the town, Win said.
Thirty-five of the subdivision's properties get their water from two wells fed by a spring that goes underground just past the mining site, he said. Those wells could be contaminated or rendered useless if Metro was issued a permit to operate its crusher, he said.
Each home has its own septic system, but the lots are too small to drill individual wells, so homeowners are dependent on the existing wells, Win said. The owner of the wells, Sylvan Glade Water Company of Accord, recently sent a letter to the state agency saying the source spring that feeds the sole-source aquifer for the wells surfaces at the eastern foot of a 100-foot ridge that runs almost parallel to the Rochester Creek.
Otto Frey, Sylvan's president, said the top of the ridge forms the eastern border of the existing Metro Recycling pit. Given the elevation of the point where the spring surfaces, he said he would estimate that it is very close to the elevation of the floor of the pit.
"The placement of any heavy equipment in the base of the pit would, therefore, jeopardize the source of the spring. Vibrations caused by a crusher could disturb the water source. Any fuels or other spills in the pit would also pose a significant threat of contamination of the Worley Subdivision's water supply," Frey wrote.
According to Frey, this matter was discussed with the state agency before it issued a permit to the previous owner of the mine, Rock Mountain Farms, in 1994. At that time, he said, the state agency neither acknowledged the water company's letter, nor inspected the site.
Proposed truck traffic along Queens Highway is also a problem, Win said. Metro is proposing to pull out 1.4 million tons of gravel, enough to fill 75,000 20-ton dump trucks, he said.
"They (Metro) only pay $3,000 per year in property taxes. We as taxpayers will have to maintain the roads and emergency services, and we will have to pay for it with dropping property values and unwanted noise," Win said. Residents have contacted sound and water experts for advice on the potential disruption in their quality of life if the crusher is installed, Win said.
Engineers hired by residents do not agree with a potential
noise and traffic impact report submitted to the state agency by Metro, he said.
"Rochester residents have asked for an issues conference (with the state Department
of Environmental Conservation) following the public hearing to discuss what
we consider to be discrepancies in Metro's account," Win said
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