| Snow Camp Community Action Network <snowcampcan@gmail.com> | Sun, Apr 3, 2:24 PM (7 days ago) |  | |
| to john.paisley, tonya.caddle, WT.lashley, pamela.thompson, steve.carter, craig.turner, planning, Bryan.Hagood, ncgatorpoe, rcheek, twilloughbyjr, mactiresc, me |
April 3, 2022
To: The Honorable Alamance County Board of Commissioners et al
From: Snow Camp Community Action Network (SnowCampCAN)
RE: Contesting the Alamance Aggregates Operating Permit Application
We, the overwhelming majority of Snow Camp residents, opposed to the Alamance Aggregates mine that was allowed to operate in our rural community, near to homes, school, and the Colonial fuel pipeline, without public input or oversight, and without a county permit, have received irrefutable proof that the mine’s as built operations are significantly out of compliance with the Alamance County 2011 HIDO.
Since we first discovered that Alamance County planning director, Libby Hodges, had issued an intent to build permit to this shady corporation, we have been forced to fight tooth and nail to receive information that should have been readily available to us, and sometimes at great expense.
Regardless, through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, we now have the “As Built” site plan map submitted by Alamance Aggregates, along with the application for a county operating permit. It is clear the evidence strongly supports denial of the permit application for the following reasons:
1) The “As Built Site Plan” submitted for the County operations permit clearly does not match the “as built site plan” submitted and approved by the state. The two maps are required to match.
2) The mine is operating in violation of two important stream buffers and setbacks.
A. The NCDEQ state permit map should have been submitted as the as built. Instead, a different map was submitted in an obvious attempt to evade the violations of the 2011 HIDO restrictions
These two Maps do not match, and the State map violates the 100’ stream buffers required by the Alamance County 2011 HIDO. There are conflicting stream locations and stream buffers from the approved NCDEQ Mining Division permit #01-10. Differences include omission of intermittent streams and 100’ stream buffers from the county map as shown on the state map.
B. The storm water measures are also in violation of the 125’ set back requirements. The installation of additional storm water protection ponds and storm structures into the 125’ setbacks are in violation of the 2011 HIDO which only allows fencing and landscaping buffer.
C. The fact that the land spacing of 2000’ from an accessory structure has yet to be proven on the west property of Deborah Sanders (parcel ID 102699). The fact that original maps provided this information concerning the home and accessory structures, has been removed from future provided maps
This is a clear attempt to bypass the requirements of Alamance County by intentionally submitting ambiguous “as built site plans” to Alamance County and the State of North Carolina.
3) The blast quarry continues to operate full scale, without an operating permit, and outside of the hours of operations designated in the County noise ordinance, with multiple explosions being heard by residents for miles, and as many as 100 fully-loaded dump trucks per hour leaving the facility. These violations, which have been repeatedly brought to the attention of the planning director, the Planning Board, the Board of Commissioners, and the County Sheriff, have been ignored. These violations alone should be ample reason to deny an operating permit. However, the operations continue, unabated, with no action by Alamance County to force the operators to “Obey the Law”. Instead, the County is giving these “Bad Operators” carte blanche to break the law and do as they please in our community – our backyards! It has also come to our attention that the County Sheriff has been advised by County Counsel NOT to enforce the noise ordinance. These are examples of the many ways that our county government, the Board of Commissioners is failing to do its duty to enforce the rule of law and hold itself and the quarry operators accountable.
* Fact … the NC Mining Act of 1971 states the county ordinance takes precedence.
* Fact … the NCDEQ Mining Division does not dictate where placement of storm water control measures are located.
* Fact …NCDEQ Mining Division has stated that the county as built maps are required to match the NCDEQ Mining Division approved map. If not, the quarry would be required to apply for a permit modification from the Mining Division.
We respectfully demand that the County Planning Department and the Board of Commissioners, fulfill their oversight and enforcement duties by denying an operating permit to Alamance Aggregates. Further, we demand your enforcement of the violations (including violations of the noise ordinance) by issuing a cease-and-desist order on the owners/operators of the mine. Without such action we your citizens will have no choice but to investigate why you have failed to do your duty to ensure a safe and “legally” operating industry in our peaceful rural residential community.
In a recent planning board meeting, Rodney Cheek said “And we got a lot of people in proximity to the quarry, and they feel like the government in its purest form failed, and they would be right, ‘cause it did…” We ask. Will it continue to fail us, or will it rise to, serve, the residents of Snow Camp?
On Monday, April 11, a Town Hall Listening Session and Community Potluck will be held at the Sylvan School, 7718 Sylvan School Road from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Please join us.
We also respectfully request to be placed on the agenda for the Board of Commissioners meeting on April 18 to present a proposal for the Board’s consideration.
Respectfully,
Snow Camp Community Action Network (SnowCampCAN) on behalf of the residents of Snow Camp, North Carolina.