The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has notified Legacy Mining Co. that its June 14 public notices regarding Notifications of Intent to Quarry at a 600-acre site off Rockhouse Road near the Kings River were not compliant with the Quarry Act’s Chapter 57 section for Public Notice. ADEQ will notify the company associated with the investment group Sixty West that it must start over and correct errors and omissions.
The ADEQ action occurred just one day after a large number of local residents sent emails and made calls expressing concerns about the quarry operation. Monday was the deadline for property owners within a half-mile of the quarry operation to respond to the original public notices published June 14 in the Carroll County News, which gave residents only ten days to respond to the notice that has now been deemed faulty.Mining laws in Arkansas don’t require any other notification of neighboring property owners.
Chris Fischer, who lives on Rockhouse Road and has been actively communicating with ADEQ regarding the activities at the site where exploratory drilling is currently being conducted, said that he was informed Tuesday by ADEQ Jerry Neill, who heads up the agency’s Mining Division, that Legacy Mining will have to start over with public notifications. Fischer said that is good news to people concerned about how their wells, local springs and Keels Creek, Winona Creek and the Kings River could be damaged irreparably by quarry operations.
Justice of the Peace Marty Johnson, who represents residents in the area on the Carroll County Quorum Court, will hold a public meeting on the Legacy Mining\Sixty West activities July 12 from 1-3 p.m. at the Carroll Electric community meeting room in Berryville.
Fischer said ADEQ has indicated it will send a representative to the meeting. Fischer said it is also expected that ADEQ will respond to citizen’s requests for public meeting after the public notice is re-advertised and the property correctly identified and other errors corrected.