By Anthony DiMattia
Posted Apr 3, 2020 at 5:58 PM
On Friday, Richard E. Pierson Inc. announced it planned to terminate its lease agreement with Rock Hill Quarry owner Hanson Aggregates.
The fight over a controversial proposal to replace an East Rockhill quarry with an asphalt plant may be over.
On Friday, Richard E. Pierson Inc. announced it planned to terminate its lease agreement with Rockhill Quarry owner Hanson Aggregates.
In a letter sent to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, Hanson representatives said Pierson will cease mining operations and has 60 days to remove its property from the site after a stay-at-home order from the coronavirus pandemic is lifted by Gov. Tom Wolf.
The announcement was in response to a letter from the DEP, which questioned a November geological survey on the extent of naturally occurring asbestos that was first found at the site in 2018.
In the March 2 letter, the DEP asked the quarry owner to clarify several testing methods applied by a consulting firm in its report and raised issues over apparent discrepancies from samples it took at the quarry.
In its response to the DEP, Hanson requested it be allowed to extent its original April 3 response date an additional nine months, to Jan. 6, because the COVID-19 shutdown has “caused unprecedented interruptions to normal business operations across industry and the Commonwealth.”
In the letter, Hanson said it also needed more time to find a new company to conduct the asbestos testing since the company it originally hired is no longer working in that field.
In early March, Bucks County Court of Common Pleas upheld an East Rockhill zoning law that prevented Pierson Inc., of Pilesgrove, New Jersey, from operating an asphalt plant at the quarry on North Rockhill Road.
The March 3 ruling by Judge Robert J. Mellon included a permanent injunction, preventing asphalt from being manufactured on site for the foreseeable future.
Activists and lawmakers called Friday’s announcement a win for the community after pressuring state agencies to permanently close the quarry due to asbestos concerns.
When reached Friday, Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick said he was “thrilled” to hear that the lease at the quarry was terminated but that work was far from over.
“Going forward, we must work to ensure that our children and the surrounding environment will be safe from the dangers of asbestos and ensure the current and future mining permits are negated,” said Fitzpatrick, R-1, of Middletown. “I remain insistent on having the EPA conduct a rigorous independent geologic investigation to see the full impact mining would have within East Rockhill. This is a huge victory for the children and families in our community.”
State Sen. Steve Santarsiero said in a statement Friday that he would continue to work with environmental groups as well as township, state and federal officials to prohibit mining, crushing and asphalt activities at the site.
“While we know that there is a strong possibility that Hanson will pursue further testing and will try to resume activities at the quarry at some point in the future, the lack of an active operator at Rockhill Quarry is a huge step in the right direction,” said Santarsiero, D-10, of Lower Makefield. ”… The presence of asbestos at the quarry makes those activities inherently dangerous no matter who operates there.”
In December 2018, the DEP issued a work cessation order for the quarry until the extent of the known carcinogen could be determined.
The contention between residents and the quarry dates a bit further back, when machinery and blasting started seemingly out of nowhere near the end of 2017.
Shortly before, Pierson was awarded a $224 million Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission contract providing asphalt for work on the Northeast Extension north of the Lansdale exit. Before 2017, the quarry saw little activity for about 30 years.
Noise, traffic and other issues had neighbors of the 110-acre property demanding the township take action immediately. A lengthy series of zoning hearing board meetings followed, but the dispute between the township and the quarry was moved to the courts this past June.
Pierson claimed it had been operating at bare minimum legal requirements to maintain state permits and that past township zoning laws that allowed the quarry to operate in the 1980s should still apply.
Rockhill Environmental Preservation Alliance, which has objected to the project, said Friday that the DEP should reject the extension request and require Hanson to respond by Monday.
“The testing for asbestos at the Rockhill Quarry is a major concern with the residents of East Rockhill Township,” said Katie Zackon, head of the grassroots group. “REPA requests that PADEP does not accept the extension, and requires Hanson to respond to PADEP’s comments as scheduled for April 6, 2020. REPA continues to request that PADEP require that all operations at the Rockhill Quarry permanently cease.”