Riding my bike on the new Crabtree Creek Greenway, I go past the Odd Fellows Tract just before entering Umstead State Park. I travel safely and protected, sharing the greenway with hikers, bikers, dog walkers, and the occasional horseback rider. My experience is completely different as I leave Umstead State Park to ride home, where I experience conflicts with large mining trucks hauling aggregate. Large haul trucks also re-suspend the dust from the quarry at Starr Lane and Harrison Avenue and I breath all of that dust and particulate matter (PM2.5) and it goes deep into my lungs.
Wake Stone is now proposing to build a bridge over Crabtree Creek and place a new mining pit on the other side of Crabtree Creek which will put logging trucks on what is now a fully protected stretch of the East Coast Greenway.
Shouldn’t there be a multi-jurisdicational review of this quarry expansion project, as it is on the border of Cary, Raleigh, within Wake County, and on land leased by RDU Airport Authority?
Cary has provided no planning, zoning and engineering analysis of the compatibility, or the risks and hazards of the new quarry pit to their citizens. These citizens who live in the new high rise apartments along the greenway rely on the safety of this recreational corridor to maintain their health. This expertise would be available if the quarry were being developed in Cary or it’s ETJ, but not when it is being developed across the border on RDU Airport managed & leased land.
The Odd Fellows Tract and several properties along the gravel Old Reedy Creek Road used to be in the Town of Cary’s ETJ. How did these properties get moved out of Cary, and therefore afforded less protection (zoning, buffer requirements etc) and services (Fire, Emergency, etc.) than what they once had? Doesn’t Cary’s uniform development ordinance require a gradual transition and adequate buffers between neighboring parcels? A 400 ft deep quarry pit within 200 feet of a single family home wouldn’t be allowed in Cary. Why is it allowed next door? How did these impacted homes get transferred out of the Cary ETJ and into the RDU Airport Authority Jurisdiction? What is the remedy for errors of omission or incorrect data in the online GIS sytems used by our local municipalities? What if these errors leave a property or homeowner vulnerable to an incompatible development as big as a 104 acre 400 feet deep open pit mining quarry?
Riding in William B. Umstead State Park, I see all the people who use the trail, and worry about the impacts of the quarry to this beautiful park located in the City of Raleigh. Yet, Raleigh has provided no planning, zoning and engineering analysis of the impacts of the proposed quarry expansion on their park and greenway system or to the downstream properties along Crabtree Creek. Will Raleigh designate the proposed quarry as a special study area in order to engage the public on this issue, as per policy in their Comprehensive Plan?
The A-1 and A-2 Special Study Areas listed in the above plot were created to determine the impacts of quarries located within those areas. Why doesn’t the City of Raleigh designate the area surrounding the Odd Fellows Tract as a Special Study area that includes Umstead State Park, Lake Crabtree County Park, East Coast Greenway, Crabtree Creek and the two single family homes along Old Reedy Creek Road?
In 1981 Wake County rezoned the land used for the existing quarry from Residential to Industrial, and required a special use permit for the existing quarry. Will they request an engineering analysis of the risks and hazards of extending the life of the existing quarry by another 50 years? Does this proposal to extend the life of the quarry comply with the 39 year old special use permit? It seems reasonable to require an update of the special use permit for the proposed quarry expansion if the duration of the quarry operation is doubling in it’s longevity, and likely quadrupling it’s impact to Umstead State Park and Crabtree Creek. Will Wake County request that Wake Stone to do stormwater modeling studies on the cumulative impact of building a bridge over Crabtree Creek and deforesting and removing the overburden on 105 acres on downstream flooding risks? How much impact will the new quarry pit have on the East Coast Greenway and our wildlife corridor between Umstead State Park and Lake Crabtree? Do Wake County’s Unified Development Ordinance Policies afford the same zoning and land use protections to all properties within it, or are parcels located along a jurisdictional border exposed to more risk?
Will the State of NC request that Wake Stone provide expert analysis of whether the existing mining permit has been sufficiently protective of Umstead State Park over the past 39 years of its operation? Will they request water quality, air quality, flood risk and wildlife studies that scientifically demonstrate that the existing quarry has not caused long term irreversible damage to the environment? Do we know if Wake Stone can successfully reclaim it’s existing quarry pit? Have they made any progress on doing that over the past 39 years? Is Wake Stone required to follow updated guidelines on how to successfully reclaim quarries? What is the typical cost to reclaim a 100 acre 400 feet deep mining pit? Will the State of NC require Wake Stone to reclaim it’s existing pit before creating a new one? The State of NC requires a reclamation bond of 1 million dollars from all quarry operators, but that covers all of the current and future mining operations (all quarries) owned by that operator in NC. Will the State of North Carolina put the burden of proof on the applicant to scientifically evaluate streams after they received complaints and video recordings provided by the public showing that they are white with sediment after heavy rains at the NPDES discharge point? Otherwise, the Department of Environmental Quality can not determine that the original permit conditions, and the permit modifications requested by Wake Stone (each modification further weakening the original mining permit conditions) during the 39 years of operation have been sufficiently protective to Umstead State Park and Crabtree Creek.
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” Requiring environmental studies to document evidence of damage of this kind is distinct from a lack of evidence or ignorance of that which should have been found already, had it existed.
Will DEQ examine if the proposed quarry development is consistent with new policies of NC such as Governor Cooper’s Climate Risk Assessment and Resilience Plan?
The jurisdiction of the proposed quarry pit is held by the RDU Airport Authority. Why is the RDU Airport Authority not required to publish zoning ordinances, have public hearings, or create a board of adjustment to hear zoning appeals by neighboring property owners who are harmed by it’s land-use zoning decisions.
To further compound the problem, the Federal Aviation Administration is unable to review the proposed development under a new 2018 law.
2018 FAA Reauthorization Act Section 163. Limited regulation of non-federally sponsored property.This section prohibits the DOT from regulating, directly or indirectly, the acquisition, use, lease, transfer, or disposal of airport property by an airport owner or operator if the land was not purchased with Federal funds, except to ensure airport safety and efficiency is maintained and that fair market value is received.
How many state and city agencies do we have in NC? How many of them have reviewed the proposed quarry expansion?
Will other agencies also be reviewing the proposed development?
Why, in a region with a metropolitan planning organization and multiple comprehensive plans are there no efforts by our municipalities to engage the public or experts on this issue? Title IV of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 4231) proclaimed a national policy of inter-governmental coordination and cooperation. The objectives of this act rest on the premise that the economic and social development of the Nation and the achievement of a satisfactory level of living depend upon the sound and orderly development of all areas, both urban and rural. Does this requirement for cross-jurisdictional cooperation no longer apply?
Why is there no comprehensive environmental impact analysis of this MAJOR land use change from 105 acres of forested land to a new 400 ft quarry pit? Will DEQ invoke the State Environmental Protection Act to require a review given that the proposed development will result in Crabtree Creek suspended as an aqueduct, with the quarry walls vulnerable to collapse, our wildlife and greenway corridors disrupted, and the tranquility and ecological viability of Umstead State Park irreparably compromised?
This critical question of the safety of expanding this quarry in our rapidly growing urban megalopolis should not be made without applying all of the skill and expertise available to us. Without careful study of the risk and required mitigations including adequate buffers and state-of-the-art pollution controls, this new quarry pit will create irreversible damage to an area that should be preserved and protected.
Luckily, the community has rallied to the occasion. Community science will help answer these questions. Will our government agencies will review and heed the accumulated weight of evidence against the quarry expansion?
