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development does no~cur as it has on the top of t~quarry. Without a <br />species to aid in the development of the organic soil component, vegetation <br />development will be severely retarded for many decades to come. <br />The study also shoved that seeding can be highly successful. The problem <br />lies in survival beyond the first growing season. It appears from the pattern <br />revealed in the quantitative analysis of the vegetation, that a drought effect <br />is hindering the vegetation survival. <br />We believe the limestone is somewhat hydrophobic as a result of a higher <br />concentration of fines than is appropriate for the site. We feel that <br />rainfall, rather than soaking directly into the soil as occurs in the <br />sandstone, runs off the surface. Furthermore, the wetting time for the <br />limestone is too great and this results in a waste of moisture. Even more <br />significant appears to be a problem with moisture held too strongly in the soil <br />so the plants cannot gain access to the moisture in suitable amounts to sustain <br />good growth. All of these aspects are now being further investigated, but it <br />appears that until the veneer of limestone which was left on the surface is <br />removed, growth may never reach the quality which was produced on the sandstone <br />areas. It appears the only good solution to the problem is to remove the <br />limestone veneer and develop some kind of medium in the material under the <br />limestone. Unfortunately, such a process is prohibitively expensive and would <br />easily cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement. Without some <br />way to make this removal more economically palatable it will be impossible for <br />the company to implement. <br />In effect, everything would probably have worked out fine if Castle <br />Concrete had politely ignored the suggestion of SPABA and proceeded with what <br />they had done previously. Now not only is there a revegetation problem but a <br />visual problem of stupendous proportions. We are sure the suggestion was well <br />intended, but now 300,000 people must look at a problem caused by following a <br />suggestion made by a group that was designed to look out for the interests of <br />the citizens. Blame can be spread very thickly across the board. What was <br />done was done and what has happened has happened. The problem now is to stop <br />pointing fingers and find a solution to a serious, unintentional error in <br />judgment on the part of many people on all sides. Laying blame is easy, but <br />finding a sensible, economically feasible solution is far more difficult. <br />10 <br />