Editor,
Legacy Mining Company’s plans to develop limestone quarries in Carroll County will be discussed at a second community meeting this Friday, 1-3 p.m., at Carroll Electric Cooperative’s Meeting Room in Berryville. The meeting will serve as a forum for citizens to voice their concerns, which will become part of the public record to be conveyed to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.
ADEQ staff were invited to the meeting 10 (?) days ago but their participation is as yet uncertain. Hopefully they will come and clarify Legacy’s current violation of the Clean Water Act, address the company’s error-filled Public Notice, and shed light on its improperly filed Notice of Intent to Quarry.
The owners of Legacy Mining’s two quarry operations, one permitted and one undergoing exploratory core sampling, were also invited. They replied that they have “business obligations out of the area” and made no offer to send a designated representative.
If you live in or own property in Carroll County, you are invited attend. If you want Carroll County to be protected from the environmental degradation associated with quarrying – the extraction of dimension and aggregate stone, come and speak up.
To learn more about the potential impacts of quarrying on groundwater, springs, streams, and rivers as well as air quality, noise pollution, and visual aesthetics, see the report, “The Potential Environmental Impacts of Stone Quarrying in Karst – A Literature Review,” a publication of the U.S. Geological Survey, which is available for download at https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2001/ofr-01-0484/ofr-01-0484so.pdf.
Chris Fischer and Pat Costner