Casita residents tell ADEM proposed Rocky Glades quarry threatens wells, air, roads and wildlife

Residents and community leaders told the Alabama Department of Environmental Management at a public hearing that the proposed Rocky Glades granite quarry could lower groundwater, contaminate streams, worsen air quality and damage local roads, and urged ADEM to reject or tighten the draft permit.

Speakers described a fractured-rock aquifer that supplies dozens of private wells near the site and said blasting or quarrying could “hit a fracture” and reduce well yields or make wells unusable. Rebecca Massey, a resident who said she lives less than a mile from the proposed site, said of quarry dust: “That dust affects everyone within miles.”

The concerns were not limited to private wells. Patricia Robertson Smith and other residents pointed to inconsistencies in the quarry application and the ADEM draft permit, including different statements of hours of operation and which pollutants would be subject to emission testing. “Which is correct? The Rocky Glades application or the ADEM preconstruction analysis?” Smith asked, noting one document lists 10 hours per day and another allows, quote, “other hours may include operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

Speakers gave numerical and technical details they said supported their objections. Commenters said there are roughly 50–55 private wells within a two-mile radius of the site and described well depths varying…