Public Relations versus Mined Land Reclamation Permit Representations By Melvin R McKenzie Jr In a July 2003 edition of Quarry News, in an article entitled "Going from Dry to Wet", the Roanoke Sand and Gravel Corporation publicist boasted of a permit to dig a lake, remove 30-plus million tons of raw material, extend the reserves of the sand mine for twenty-five to thirty years, in Middle Island, Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York. He says that in 2000, Roanoke began looking for equipment to "expand its operations and increase the production of New York State-approved sand for its primary market of New York City-based ready-mix and concrete products plants." The article stated that the Corporation was always looking to enhance business development--and product advancements, the environment, and the surrounding community. Of course these seem worthy goals, but 85% of its product has to be trucked to New York City, and not locally as the Corporation would have you believe. In the Corporation's application for a mining permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, dated December 17, 1998, it was represented that the life of the mine would only be increased 15 to 20 years. Interestingly, the Corporation represented in its application for a mining permit that it required no permit from local government. The same representations were made in its June 24, 2005 application. Though the Corporation claims concern for the surrounding community, the surrounding community has suffered for years from its rooster crows at 4 or 5 o'clock in the wee morning. The Corporation is evidently unaware that the ENVIRONMENT includes human beings as well as the flora, the fauna and the habitat. I must say that dredging into the aquifer from a business development perspective is brilliant, but at the Groundwater Divide, the place of maximum vertical recharge, in Hydrogeologic Zone III ( where protection of the aquifer is supposed to be executed at all costs), in a Federally-designated Sole Source Aquifer, from which millions of people are dependent for their potable drinking water., in one of the dirtiest counties in the nation and in the state? Why should Middle Island export its raw material to New York City when uncountable Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) are required in heavy trucks exceeding local road network capabilities? Why should all that air from here-to-yonder be spoiled by a local miner who gets all his stuff almost free. I was dismayed to learn yesterday that the Brookhaven Town Environment Department had no say in the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) in the rubber-stamped analysis of the 1998 application. I can't bear the thought that the Department will probably be cut out again. Talking to planners, zoners, and environmentalists at the Town Hall the other day, I got the impression that they thought the NYSDEC could overrule anything they said. The magic word "mining" somehow vacuums their minds of any effective action at the Home Rule level! Let me repeat what I said at the latest hearing of the Central Pine Barrens Joint Planning and Policy Commission (which, by the way, didn't get into the minutes): "We don't want a sand mine; we don't want a lake built by a sand miner; we don't want an asphalt plant; and we don't want a residential zone in that hole. We want the Central Pine Barrens Commission to take charge and plant Pine Trees!" Melvin R McKenzie Jr November 15, 2005 4:20 PM Eastern read articles | submit an article for review
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