Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a two-part series covering the Alabama Department of Environmental Management public hearing and meeting held on April 8 regarding the proposed Cusetta quarry. This article will cover the public meeting. The first part of the series appeared in Friday’s e-edition and can be found here.

There was standing room only in Chambers County’s large courtroom on April 8. Citizens from around the county congregated on Tuesday night for a public meeting held by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) on the permitting of a proposed quarry in the Cusseta community.

The first part of the evening was a public hearing, where representatives from ADEM’s air and water divisions, county officials and representatives from Rocky Glade Fund, LLC, the quarry’s company, were available to talk and answer questions from the public.

In the courtroom, Rocky Glade, public officials, and concerned citizens were given five minutes each to address the Department, which will become public record. ADEM has already put the permits on notice, meaning they have “met certain obligations,” according to Lynn Battle, ADEM’s Chief of the Office of External Affairs. Both Tuesday’s oral testimonies and written testimonies, which can be submitted until May 9, will be entered into the public record and can be considered during the permitting process.

ADEM officials gave a prepared statement before the time for public comment.

Dodi Moseley of the ​​construction materials section in the Air Division of ADEM, which regulates permitting, compliance and enforcement activities for quarries, spoke first. Moseley said that based on the review, the department has “proposed the issuance of an air permit developed in accordance with applicable state and federal requirements.”

She adds that the regulations in place, specifically wet suppression systems, for quarries would limit the emission of dust from the operation.

Essentially water would be used to suppress dust coming from the crushers, screens and conveyor belts used during the quarries operation, as well as watering down vehicles before they leave the site.

“The department has made a preliminary determination that compliance by Rocky Glade on LLC with the conditions of the proposed air permit would not result in violations of applicable air quality standards, designed to protect human health and the environment,” ended Moseley.

Skyler Wilson, an environmental engineering specialist in the mining and natural resource section of the storm water management branch in the water division of the Department of Environmental Management, spoke next. Similar to the air permit, Wilson said her department proposes a NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit be granted to Rocky Glade Fund, LLC.

Outfalls are defined by the EPA as “pipelines or tunnels that discharge municipal or industrial wastewater, storm water, combined sewer overflows, cooling water, or brine effluents to a receiving water body.”

The quarry has five proposed outfalls which flow to unnamed tributaries going to Double Tree Branch Creek and Halawakee Creek.

“[ADEM] only considers comments relating to water quality in its final permitting decision. The Department has made a preliminary determination that complies by Rocky Glade Fund, LLC with the terms and conditions of the proposed NPDS permit will not result in violations of applicable state water quality standards,” Wilson said. 

Then, Justin Laney of Rocky Glade Fund, LLC spoke on behalf of his company.

He argued for the utility of having a quarry in the area, saying, “We wanted to say that we complied with everything ADEM has set forth to this point, as far as regulation goes on, air and water. Aggregate material will be the product of this quarry. It is used for roads, concrete, logging roads and numerous other building materials…the price of aggregate material increases drastically every mile that you transport the material.”

Laney also pledged that Rocky Glade would give back to the community through donations to local fire departments and school systems.

“The funding for the school system has failed due to the just lack of community growth over time, and that is nothing against Chambers as a community, but Rocky Glade Fund pledges to give back to that community because the community will allow us to do this going forward,” he ended.

There were four public officials who spoke on Tuesday. There were 18 Cusseta residents and other concerned citizens that went on record. Each statement was unique, but all had similar concerns about the proposed quarry site. 

Water Quality and Quantity

Sally Alsobrook Eiland, a land and well owner near the proposed site, discussed the unique geology of Cusetta.

“Cusseta sits on the Piedmont plateau and relies on a unique fractured rock aquifer. Quarry activity will exploit the vulnerable nature of our water supply from surface activity, contamination and breach of the confining layers of rock that quarry activity could pose. That includes lowering of water levels due to the quarries’ removal of large volumes of groundwater.”

Eiland compiled a list of the around 55 wells within a two-mile radius of the site.

“These wells provide water to families, livestock and farm products, and supply a volume of uncontaminated water to an area that has no available municipal water source. If the proposed quarry drills into a fracture that supplies a well or wells, some or all of these wells would likely no longer meet the owner’s demand. This would indeed create a public health emergency for the affected well owner.”

Aside from wells, she discussed the outfalls and the seven state-protected species downstream of the quarry. Eiland said there is an eighth species, the Georgia Rock Crest, that was identified by Jason Ross a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Biologist but was not listed in the Rocky Glade permit.

State Representative Debbie Wood spoke at the hearing about the water source in Cusseta. Most of the county residents live on well water and septic tanks. In a rural community like Chambers, Wood said the only way to get a water line to the community would be calling on neighboring counties for help. The three water municipalities that could service the area are unable to do so logistically and financially.

“That is the reason that I’m here, because when it’s six o’clock in the morning when they turn on their water and their children can’t take a shower, I’m going to get those phone calls,” Wood said. “So are the county commissioners.”

William Montgomery, Mayor of Cusseta, echoed Wood’s statement about the availability of water without wells.

“When this water is gone for the quarry, the water is also gone for the farmers,” Montgomery said. “The quarry can simply close up shop and move on, but the farm families left behind are destroyed. They will not be destroyed by their own failures and actions but by the results of someone else’s actions. Their families, homes and farms cannot be restored by money for the damage done by the quarry.”

Former Chambers County economic developer Valerie Grey tied the issue of water to growth.

“I am asking you to have foresight of the impact that this will have on my citizen’s water supply in that area as well as what I consider economic development, the agriculture industry,” Gray said. “We have thriving businesses in this area. Mr. Laney talked about the lack of community growth. I can guarantee you if this happens in Cusseta, that will drastically impact our community growth.”

Suzanne Montgomery, a council member in Cusseta, got emotional when talking about the issue.

“What if you woke up one morning to find you didn’t have enough water to fill your coffee pot or enough water pressure for a full shower or wash a load of clothes? So you walk down to the small pond that has been your water source for your cattle for over several decades and find that it is only half as full today as it was yesterday…Where do you go for help? Would you seek help from the same government or government agency that issued permits to a rock quarry that are now responsible for their personal and economic demise?”

Jason Bryan, a Cusetta landowner, volunteer firefighter and employee of Opelika Water, a department that submitted a letter to ADEM against the proposed quarry, spoke of his experience.

“We’ve seen the impact daily on what a quarry can do to a water system. It’s sad. It’s sad standing up here knowing that my neighbors are behind me and have got the same concerns and stuff that I do…We can’t take it. We can live without rock and concrete, but we can’t live without water….So please, please don’t let this go through,” Bryan said.

Rachel Robertson also discussed the threat to the water and by extension the farmer’s way of life in her statement.

“We work hard to live simply and responsibly. We care for our land so that it can keep caring for us and future generations. A quarry is not just a business venture, it’s a permanent scar on the landscape, one that cannot be undone once the blasting begins,” she said. “The right to live in a place where clean air, clean water and quiet nights are not luxuries but birthrights.”

Air Quality

Another common theme on the night was the fear that the air quality of the area would be compromised by dust and other particles.

Carla Robertson Williamson, a sixth-generation Cusetta farmer, spoke of her fear as someone immunocompromised and waiting for a kidney transplant.

“In 2015, I was hospitalized with histoplasmosis and Aspergillosis. Both of these fungi come from bat and bird droppings that are found in our soil…The removal of the topsoil from the quarry site, in blasting will not only release the cancer causing silica dust that we are all aware of into the air, but also fungi like the histoplasmosis and Aspergillosis, bacteria and other spores that can negatively affect our lungs.

Williamson said that the noise pollution caused by blasting will also affect the tranquility of the family’s farm.

“This will negatively affect my son who’s been diagnosed with Autism, ADHD, PTSD, anxiety. He doesn’t do well with loud noises, and the blasting will keep them in a constant state of dysregulation.”

Rebecca Massey was also concerned for the health of her child.

“I live less than a mile within the radius of the proposed site, and I have a girl who was born at 23 weeks gestation. She has a lung disease. Until the age of five, she was required to have oxygen 24/7…She still requires oxygen at nine, she has an oximeter that she hooks up to at night that watches and monitors her lung capacity and function.”

Massey said that her daughter is unable to venture far from the house due to her compromised lungs.

“It’s going to affect her daily activity…her only activity is playing in her yard. I can’t afford to leave and go anywhere else. I sold small parts of my property to family members just to provide myself and my little girl with a support system. You’ll be destroying her one activity that keeps her life normal. “

Cameron Douglas Williamson, a retired SMSgt in the Alabama Air National Guard and United States Air Force wants to be a “living example of actual effects of poor air quality, non-potable water due to environmental changes and bad living conditions.”

“I have suffered through many days of breathing that air that possess so many harmful chemicals and silicate matter,” Cameron said.

The veteran said has pulmonary fibrosis and scarring with the lung, had surgeries in his nasal cavities, larynx, throat, and a removal of a silicate-type mass behind his left eye due to air quality, among other issues.

“Suffices say that I would be an authority on the topic of what actually happens when we pollute with silica matters in our air supply,” he said. “I signed a contract for my service. I volunteered. No matter what happened to me, I was okay with [it]. My three young children are being volunteered to have the same symptoms…their health is being volunteered by someone who’s putting profit margin on my children’s livelihood.”

Road Upkeep

Some citizens mentioned the impact the quarry trucks could have on the county roads.

“The quarry site is located on County Road 389 and 290, both of these roads are in poor condition,” said resident Robert Harris. “Currently, most quarries are located on state roads, or at least in close proximity to state roads…The quarry being placed at this location will ruin these roads.”

“[CR 389] is a basically 1950s style road. It’s tar and gravel and it’s about an inch and a half thick. At the present time…there’s anywhere from 20 to 50 holes in this road,” said Russell White, who has lived on the road his whole life.

“The road has six culverts that creeks run through… those culverts have sunk in. Where they have sunk down the Chambers County Highway Department, put asphalt in four to five inches to bring it up to road level,” Harris argued that the tonnage of the quarry trucks would crush the culverts.

He asked ADEM to give the County Commission time to do an impact study on CR 389 before permitting.

Written comments by the public must be received by 5 p.m. on May 9, to be put on public record. They can be emailed to airmail@adem.alabama.gov. For questions call 334-271-7860.