Residents raise water, air and historic-resource concerns at ADEM hearing on Rocky Glades quarry permits

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management held a joint public hearing April 8 at the Chambers County Courthouse on draft air permit 302-0022-X001 and draft NPDES permit AL0084500 for Rocky Glades Pit, a proposed granite quarry near Casita, Chambers County.

ADEM air-division staff said the quarry’s crushing, screening and conveying operations would be controlled by wet-suppression systems and that, as configured in the application, the facility would qualify as a “minor source” under state and federal permitting programs. Dodie Mosley, of ADEM’s construction materials section, said the department’s preliminary determination is that compliance with the draft air permit “would not result in violations of applicable air quality standards,” but that the department will reconsider that finding after reviewing public comments. Mosley also noted the agency’s limits, saying, “The department does not have the or the authority to regulate other aspects of the mining activity, including blasting. Blasting is regulated by the state fire marshal.”

ADEM’s water-division representative, Skyler Wilson, described the draft NPDES permit as authorizing treated-effluent discharges through five proposed outfalls to waters identified in the application as an unnamed tributary to Double Branch and an…