By Chris Ullery
Posted at 6:01 AM
An area environmental group will stage a demonstration outside the Bucks County Justice Center Monday morning before a trial between East Rockhill and Rockhill Quarry starts at 9:30 a.m. in Doylestown.
Area residents against a proposed asphalt plant at Rockhill Quarry plan to gather en masse Monday as a court battle begins in Doylestown Borough.
The Rockhill Environmental Preservation Alliance announced Friday its plans to gather outside the Bucks County Justice Center at 100 N. Main St. at 8 a.m. as part of an “approved peaceful demonstration.”
East Rockhill has been fighting quarry operator Richard E. Pierson Construction, of Pilesgrove, New Jersey, since work resumed in early 2018 after 30 years of apparent inactivity.
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.
Pierson was awarded a $224 million Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission contract providing asphalt for work on the Northeast Extension north of the Lansdale exit, prompting quarrying operations to resume.
The dispute between the township, Pierson and quarry owner Hanson Aggregates was moved from the township’s hearing board to the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas in June.
A November trial date had previously been stayed, but Judge Robert J. Melon would later set the trial’s start at 9:30 a.m. March 2.
A response from the owner of the Rockhill Quarry regarding last week’s calls from officials to permanently halt all work has now appeared to rile lawmakers further.
The quarry has recently come under fire by state and federal lawmakers for allegedly violating a work cessation order issued after naturally occurring asbestos was found at the site near the end of 2018.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ordered work to stop as it investigated the potential health impacts on the surrounding community if work were to continue.
The DEP was contacted on Feb. 20 that activity was occurring at the quarry despite the cessation order, and sent an inspector to ensure rock moved from a stockpile was returned and that all other guidelines of the order were being followed.
Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick, R-1, of Middletown, and state Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-10, of Lower Makefield, were already demanding the quarry be shut down entirely, and announced the alleged violation at a press conference last Friday.
A spokesman for Hanson responded to this news organization’s request for comments on the calls for the quarry’s closure and the alleged work order violation.
″(Hanson) continues to work closely with the (DEP) and remains committed to an operating plan that includes appropriate mitigation measures along with ongoing asbestos monitoring to protect the health and safety of our employees and the surrounding community,” Jeff Sieg said in an email.
Sieg went on to say that the “microscopic” presence of asbestos “does not specifically equate to an inhalation risk.
“No asbestos was found at detectable levels in any of these samples.” Sieg wrote.
“Therefore, there are no indications of unsafe levels of asbestos in the air, and no indications that employees or the surrounding community have been, or are currently, at risk due to the quarry.”
Virginia Cain, a DEP spokeswoman, stated the levels of asbestos and the risk to employees and residents was still under review.
“Determining the risk of naturally occurring asbestos and the potential quarrying of it is the very question DEP is working to answer and why we issued a cessation order on the quarry until we have that answer.” Cain said in an email Wednesday.
“We have been working to collect, assess, and analyze all available information to make a sound determination on the quarry based on all available science and data,” she added.
Fitzpatrick fired back at Hanson this week saying the company is showing “a complete lack of respect” for residents and officials by downplaying the presence of a known carcinogen.
“I have great concern for the 11,000 children that go to school every day just five miles from the quarry, the parents who must consider moving from the area to keep their families safe, and the employees at the quarry that continued operation of the quarry would put in harm’s way.”
Hanson’s response went on to add that information regarding the quarry has been inaccurate and Fitzpatrick and Santarsiero had refused past requests to meet and discuss the quarry operations.
“For more than a year periodic meeting requests by the company have been turned down,” Sieg wrote.
“The company remains interested in meeting with Sen. Santarsiero and Rep. Fitzpatrick, and will reach out to their staffs to do so,” added Sieg.
“If Hanson Aggregates would like to meet, I am of course open to that, but as of yet, no requests for a meeting have ever been sent to me or to my office,” said Santarsiero this week.
“Obviously, none of this changes the fact that the (Pennsylvania) Department of Health has made it clear that naturally occurring asbestos at the quarry poses a serious health risk to the residents of East Rockhill,” he added.
Fitzpatrick also disputed Hanson’s remarks, adding he had a “face-to-face” meeting with representatives from quarry operator Pierson shortly after the DEP cessation order.
Post from: https://www.theintell.com/news/20200301/quarry-riles-officials-residents-as-court-hearing-approaches