COLLEGE TOWNSHIP — Some residents who live near the Oak Hall Quarry are petitioning for a public hearing on an application by the quarry’s operators to extend its depth by 200 feet.
They say they’re concerned about blasting at the limestone quarry off Boalsburg Road and particularly the impact the deeper mining could have on Spring Creek.
“We have major concerns about the way a deeper quarry will affect ground water and possible subsidence and formation of sink holes,” said Lemont resident James Marden.
Hanson Aggregates Pennsylvania LLC has applied to the state Department of Environmental Protection Moshannon District Mining Office in Philipsburg to revise its permits. According to a public legal notice, the application includes a request to increase the depth of mining at the quarry 200 feet below the existing approved pit floor elevation. The proposed permit area involves 315 acres. The current permit area is 331 acres.
A spokesman for Lehigh Hanson, the Irving, Texas-based U.S. parent company of the quarry operator, said the company has done “extensive hydrologic testing” which focused on ensuring “there would not be depletion or adverse impacts on Spring Creek.”
“There is not going to be any additional impact beyond what we’re doing now,” said Jeff Sieg, director of corporate communications for Lehigh Hanson.
CREEK ‘TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT’
Steve Sywensky, a Lemont resident and owner of Flyfisher’s Paradise in State College, said Spring Creek is “arguably the best trout stream in Pennsylvania.” It brings tourists to the area from across the state, the Northeast and beyond, he said.
The creek is “tremendously important” as an economic and ecological resource, Sywensky said, noting that among other things it helps clean the Chesapeake Bay.
“Do we need to have potential impact on Spring Creek so that Hanson quarry can mine deeper? I think not.”
Marden sent a letter requesting a public hearing to the Moshannon District Mining Office on Dec. 5.
“In particular, I would like information addressing my concerns about the way a cone of depression created by dewatering of a deeper quarry at this site may affect sinkhole formation and the flow of water in Spring Creek, which runs immediately adjacent to this quarry,” he wrote.
Because the quarry floor is already below stream level and under this revised permit would extend much deeper, the danger is that water from the stream will flow into the quarry pit and need to be pumped back to the stream, Marden told the Gazette. In that case, any pause in pumping could cause all of the stream water to flow into the quarry, leaving the streambed to run dry. As such, the flow of Spring Creek may become dependent on the uninterrupted operation of a quarry pump, he said.
As an example of the potential danger, Marden cited ongoing issues, including damage to roads and bridges, involving Bushkill Creek near Easton, which drains into a nearby quarry pit. (Hanson is not involved in that operation.)
Lehighvalleylive.com reported in 2013 that when another quarry operator’s pumps stopped working during a power failure, portions of the creek dried up and fish died.
Marden also cited a map from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources showing numerous surface depressions and a few sinkholes in the area near the Oak Hall Quarry.
“One possible outcome of increased quarrying activity in Oak Hall is new subsidence beneath the Mount Nittany Expressway, which according to the map runs directly over one surface depression,” Marden said.
Marden, a professor of biology at Penn State, noted that he was speaking as a concerned resident who has used his training as a scientist to research the matter, but that this is not his area of professional expertise.
PETITION DRIVE
Resident Sue Smith has organized a petition drive calling for the DEP to hold a public hearing on the application. Smith said she had already submitted two or three petitions with 10 names and had distributed about 50 other petitions to interested residents so they could each collect 10 signatures. The deadline for submission to the DEP is Monday, Dec. 19.
“The scary thing is if they would hit a sinkhole Spring Creek would go right into the hole and there would be no more Spring Creek. It’s a very serious, serious thing,” Smith said.
She said she is also concerned about blasting and its impact on neighboring homes.
“Everybody who lives in Lemont has been affected by the blasting,” she said, noting issues such as cracks in walls and windows rattling.
Smith said she worries that “if they’re going 200 feet lower, that’s going to be a heck of a lot of blasting.”
Sywensky said that “Every time they take a major shot at the quarry, I can feel it in my house.”
Sieg said that while blasting is dependent on demand for limestone, he expected it generally would occur about once or twice a week. The volume in blasting and in truck traffic should be largely unchanged from current operations, he said.
“We just want to go deeper, we’re not going to expand the actual mining surface area,” Sieg said, adding, “We want to be mining and supplying stone to that market as long as possible.”
Sieg said the company, which has about 15 local employees, is open to answering residents’ questions at a hearing or at other times.
“We’re open to suggestions on how we can improve relationships with our neighbors,” he said.
Dan Spadoni, a spokesman for the DEP, said after the agency receives requests for a public hearing, one would be scheduled “in the general vicinity of the application.”
The department’s review of the application to dig 200 feet deeper considers potential impacts on groundwater, stream flow and water supplies and any proposed changes to the reclamation plan, he said.
The department has 60 days following a public hearing to notify the applicant of its decision or of the requirement to submit additional information.
The key questions are, Marden said, “What is the risk to Spring Creek and is the community willing to accept that risk?”
