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Crystal Hills takes stand against quarry By lien Jordan No representative of Rocky ~+]ountain Paving, the applicant for the 28-acre Summit Pit, was present at the meeting, but the audience did hear a presentation by the opposition, describing concerns about the scenery as well as lasting effects on the land. . Mark Heifner, the en- vironmcntal consultant for Castle Concr~lgave a Slide show which he a'ai,1. portrayed effective reclamation cfforu by Castle. The mined areas will have wide, stairstcp-style "benches" to allow vegetation [o come back, and other than occasional rocks, no harm should come to adjacent Williams Canyon, he said. To cover up the impact across Williams Canyon for viewers from the .Cave oC the Winds attraction, reclamation plans include the "painting" of exposP.d areas facing that ducction with an organic stain. The past dtrector of the state Mined Land Reclamation Division, Heifner said he went into private consulting because "I. warttcd to do reclamation plans that are really creative. After reviewing 800 plans (at the state), I decided mine op- erators aren't very good a[ reclamation plans." But Hcifner's Snyder plans came under fire from several individuals in the audience. Kcrri Schmidt, a Cedar Heights resident who is presidentof the Concerned Citizens for Williams Canyon, said the plan shows no provision Cor watering any grass tha[ is planted on the mined areas. Additionally, she said the esumatcd total reclamation expense of $20,000 Cor the roughly nine acres is well below the trade Despite reassurances from an environmental consultant Cor Castle Concrete that the rec- lamation will be done creatively, Crystal Hills homeowners decided at their annual meeting May 4 to take a stand against the company's expansion of the Snyder Quarry. The group also expressed opposition .to Rocky Mountain Paving's planned reopening and expansion of another limestone quarry, near Waldo Canyon, Both quarries are_visible.from_. the upper Crystal Hills area. There_ 'fias al"so been regional cnnc to --- ~r_ _ because of the quarry's pbtential impacts on scenic Williams. CanyonticartheCaveofth_eW_ Inds. ~~allraclion. The meeting was attended by close to 100 people, including many from outside Crystal Hills who were there for what was one of the first pro and qon quarr/ discussions since Castle's plans became known in April. Crystal Hills Homeowners Association President John Wilkinson, who was elected to his third one-year term at the meeting, said the group agreed to send a representative to the Colorado Mined 1_artd Reclamation Board hearing on the 8.36-acre Snyder Quarry expansion May 7A. The association's opposition to the W aldo Canyon•area proposal (called Summit Pit) also will be carried by a repcesentauve to hearings on that proposal, whenever they are scheduled, Wilkinson said. rZ~ansion.May 4. average of $10,000 per acre. "We're suspicious about how much reclamation you're going to Howard Morrison, a Crystal Hills resident, said he did not like [he idea of waitingand wondering if the lost scenery would.come back. "I'd like to see some evidence in this decade •that you can i successfully reclaim and have somewha[ of a natural took." he said. er peop a comp arced about dre dust which swirls around the mining site on a regular basis. Castle vice president Gordon Morgan said the company tries to .~ ..~ . v. L . cgl4lfq}_ the problem, but that the wand lows" up them more often" than dowri below. Company y G. Scott Briggs said the kat'~ quarry "contributes very little" to the area dust problem. The Snyder Quarry expansion does not have to go through a local review process because of a court ruling in 1974 that grandfathered mining on the 80-acre tract where the quarry is located. Castle Concrete, the major supplier of building aggregate to the arcs, is best known as the enti ty responsible for the "Scar on the Mountain" at the Queen's Canyon quarry in the`1950s: However, Heifner said the company has since won art award for its reclamation efforts on the opperl0 acres of the scar. Castle bought the Snyder . Quarry property in 1969. If people i>~ ' Z I7 ~.1/~Y )l~ i ,t: , f4 L'~,C i z l~~ j, ~ ~~' w.~'ll ~ F'