Many residents of the Rockhouse Road – Winona area who attended a public meeting on a potential rock quarry July 12 spoke frankly about worries that one company that isn’t even based in Arkansas could devastate the natural environment, their property values, and their sense of well-being.
Nearby property owner Jim Culpepper spoke passionately about the proposed quarry threatening his retirement. He grew up in Pine Bluff, and said he worked his entire life with a dream of saving up enough money to buy land and build a home in a beautiful natural area. He and his wife are currently building a home off Rockhouse Road.
“This fifty-year dream to live where there is clean air and water is under a strain,” Culpepper said. “It scares me. It bothers me.”
Chuck Braswell, whose property adjoins the Legacy Mining Co. property, voiced concerns about water quality and what could happen to their water well.
“Legacy and ADEQ [Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality] probably think time is on their side,” Braswell said. “There seems to be a lot of money involved. There are trucks in and out of there every day. The opposition so far hasn’t slowed anything down. We are all downstream. It affects all of us. One of my earliest memories is of playing in the river. I am passionate about this, and I don’t have a lot of faith in the authorities doing the right thing. The people making decisions with the power to change things are not here today.”
Braswell said Rockhouse Road is already dangerous to drive because of the amount of traffic on the two-lane road that is steep and winding with inadequate bridges. He said he is not interested in allowing Legacy Mining to continue only to later say, “Oops. We messed up.”
“No way should they be allowed to have this kind of impact on property owners,” Braswell said.
Braswell suggested that since ADEQ didn’t care enough to even show up, residents should take their concerns to higher governmental officials such as the governor.
Nearby landowner Mary Tait said people all work to leave something of value to our kids and grandkids. Now people who are neighbors of the Legacy Mining operation feel that is threatened. Tait said people in the area want to know Legacy’s true intent. Company representatives have told some residents that they intend to turn the Rockhouse Road property into syndicated conservation easements that are then sold to wealthy investors interested in tax savings. Legacy Mining has done several conservation easements on their Ozark Southern Stone quarry property in Elk Ranch.
Resident Doug Allen said he was raised on the river and it’s very special to him.
“I feel its pulse,” Allen said. “This thing doesn’t need to happen. We need to get out in front of this thing and beat it. Keep attention on it. Go to the governor. Public pressure is what’s going to turn this around.”
Allen said the quarry is being proposed by out-of-state people who don’t care about the people or environment of Carroll County.
Local resident Michael Schumacher said his spring never goes dry and he’s concerned about how their water supplies and property could be impacted by the proposed development. His wife, Sharon, is self-employed.
“This is her 401k savings program,” he said.
He also expressed concern about heavy truck traffic and said there have been two accidents at the bottom of Cedar Hill on Rockhouse Road in recent weeks. There is a one-lane bridge in one area and many steep curves and drop offs on the side of the road. How would that be impacted by trucks carrying heavy loads of limestone?
Mike Shah, who lives nearby, noted that Northwest Arkansas is the second fastest growing area of the country next to Dallas, Texas.
“Where do you think the Dallas people are retiring?” Shah asked. “Where do you think people from New Orleans who flood will go? We are a small place in a middle of the country that is clean and inexpensive and we are a magnet for people who are relocating.”
Shah spoke of other development occurring in the Rockhouse Road area including one that has clearcut a 300-ft.-long path through the forest for a road. The removal of trees and other vegetation has caused a large amount of gravel and dirt to enter the creek and more trees are endangered by the erosion. Shah said the threats are serious and ongoing.
Bobby Wilson said the quarry could affect the area for generations. He said for Legacy to decline to be represented at the meeting was wrong.
“They could have at least listened,” he said.
Wilson said it is important to decide if Arkansas is going to live up to its motto of being “The Natural State” or become the unnatural state.
Katy Turnbaugh has been working 14 years to improve her farm and ranch off Rockhouse Road. She drives a great distance to work in Bentonville, where she is a sustainability specialist for a school, in order to live in rural area of Carroll County. She said she was mad to have her environment and property values threatened by this development. She joked that she wanted to prevent the quarry in order to preserve her right to lose money farming. She pledged to educate her students about the harm from this kind of development.
While the crowd was largely in agreement with their opposition to the proposed quarry, when local resident John Rankine spoke, he was interrupted when he said, “Unfortunately, we have a president who is anti-environmental.” A man in the back shouted at Rankine that he didn’t have proof of that. Rankine seemed momentarily stunned at being interrupted by a Trump supporter.
Reached after the meeting, Rankine said he was taken surprise by the man asking for proof that Trump is anti-environmental.
“I wish I had talked about the fact that Trump denies climate charge, has pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement, has promoted burning more coal and has slashed EPA environmental regulations,” Rankine said. “His environmental record is atrocious. For anyone to disagree with that is just crazy.”
Speakers had been asked to limit their oral presentations to three minutes. Later in the meeting, Dane Schumacher said it wasn’t right for another person at the meeting to interrupt Rankine as that Trump supporter could have taken his allotted three minutes to have his say rather than interfering with someone’s else opportunity to speak.