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Monday, October 3, 2005
By SHAWN HOPKINS - Bulletin Staff Writer
But neighbors not convinced
Boxley Materials Co. representatives say blasting at their quarry on Carver Road complies with state regulations.
"We don't want anybody to be unhappy, but we're not doing anything out of the ordinary at all at Fieldale," said company President Ab Boxley.
At Tuesday's Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting, about 15 area residents, led by Gail Riley, who lives about a third of a mile from the quarry, aired a number of complaints about noise, vibration, dust and rock thrown from the blasts. They also said homes had been damaged by the operation.
"I can't sleep at night because of this," said Riley, who brought a petition with what she said was 75 signatures in support of her claims.
Although the supervisors said they had no power to regulate mining, they expressed concern about the residents' safety and voted to send a letter to state officials, local legislators, congressmen and Boxley, asking that the situation be investigated.
Bill Hamlin, vice president of aggregate operations for the company, said it was unaware the residents planned to speak about their grievances at the meeting. If it had known, he said, a Boxley representative would have been there to respond.
Boxley officials said they blast about once every week-and-a-half and check each blast with a seismograph, a device that monitors vibrations and sound from a blast. State records show the only official complaint that has been filed about the blasting in the last five years was lodged by Riley around March.
At that time, Riley told the state Department of Mines and Minerals and Energy Division of Mineral Mining that pictures were knocked off her walls and blasting had caused cracks in her driveway and walls and caused floors to buckle. She said it also had caused problems at her nearby beauty shop.
State investigators did site inspections and interviews, monitored records from seismographs and reviewed the results of an investigation into Riley's complaints by a company commissioned by Boxley, Saul's Seismic, in February.
Boxley hired Saul's Seismic after Riley complained to the company. That was before she filed the complaint with the state in March "We did not find any blasts that were out of compliance with the state standards," said Mike Abbott, public relations manager for the state Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy.
"If a company's blasting within those limitations ... there should be no structural damage being caused," he said. However, he added that does not mean the blast won't be heard and felt and possibly be "very, very annoying and upsetting" to people.
It also does not rule out the possibility of cosmetic damage such as cracks in drywall, he said, but it is difficult to tell in those cases if the damage was caused by the vibration from the blasting.
Complaints also were filed about the blasting around 1998 and 1999, said Abbott, but he said he would not be able to provide the outcome of those reports until Monday.
Riley said she was aware of the results of the state investigation.
"That's what they tell us, that they're not breaking any regulations, but the proof is on the walls," she said, in the form of cracks.
Riley said the company had fixed the pictures that had fallen and has fixed damage for others, but she said she was upset that it would not take responsibility for the "big things," like what she said was damage to the structure of her house.
"They make you feel like there's nothing you can do," she said.
Riley said she went to the supervisors to prove that wrong, and she feels the letter they sent was a good start.
Hamlin said the earlier study by Saul's Seismic showed the vibration from the blasts measured between February 2004 and February 2005 were on average slightly above one-fifth of the vibration rate allowed by state standards.
At that rate the vibrations are easily detectable by people, he said, but should not do damage, even cosmetic damage, to structures.
"Our blasts did not cause the damage (to Riley's house)," he said.
Other area residents also said they had experienced damage to their homes, some of it repaired by Boxley and some not.
Ollie Parker, who lives on Carver Road closer to the quarry than Riley, pointed out cracks in her walls and garage. She also said a rock from the quarry had hit her house a few years ago and damaged a drain, which Boxley replaced.
"(The blasting) makes me very nervous," Parker said, "especially after the rock."
Merriman Road resident Ed Connor said he felt that if the blasts were enough to rattle the dishes and windows in his home, they were enough to damage his house.
Connor said he had a cracked wall which he attributed to the blasting, but he had fixed it.
Another Merriman Road resident, Cindy Seay, said the first time she heard the blasts, she thought her car had rolled into her house.
"It's surreal," she said.
Seay said some cracks she attributed to the blasting had developed at her house over the years.
Hamlin said speculation at the supervisors' meeting that the company is using more explosives because the quarry is old and has to dig deeper is unfounded. The deeper blasting does not require more explosives, he said.
Trees, however, were removed as part of a forestry project as the residents reported during the meeting, he said. Hamlin said it is possible those trees were acting as a sound barrier and removing them has made the blasts seem louder.
Hamlin said Boxley has been at the site since 1969 and the company tries to be a good neighbor and corporate citizen.
Ab Boxley said the company takes neighborhood complaints seriously and will look at any "reasonable solution" to the problem.
"We work hard in Henry County to do a good job," Boxley said.
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