Quarry officials squelch Corson resident concerns

By: 
Jill Meier, Journal editor
Some Corson residents who attended Thursday’s meeting with Concrete Materials personnel expressed their concerns to preserve an area north of the quarry, recognized as “The Pretty Place.”
 
Submitted photo
Minnehaha County’s Planning & Zoning Commission Monday night approved Sweetman Construction Co.’s request for a conditional use permit to expand its quarry north of Corson.
 
But before the P&Z Commission gave its blessing, representatives of the company invited adjacent property owners to a public meeting on Sept. 24 at the Holiday Inn in Brandon to explain the expansion and squelch fears regarding decreased property valuations, increased traffic and potential changes to the environment and landscape.
 
“We’re good neighbors for this community,” said Sweetman Construction president Clark Meyer. “We live in this community and we want to keep that going.”
 
Clark added Sweetman Construction will continue to sustain the core values the company was built upon, which environmental safety and ethical business practices are among.
 
“Those are the things we’ve always had before and we still do now,” he said. “Tonight’s meeting is all volunteer, as we’re trying to be open and transparent.”
 
Thursday’s public meeting wasn’t the first go around Corson residents have gone to battle against Sweetman Construction. In 1992-93, a group of residents about 70 in number opposed Concrete Material Co.’s plans to open a sand-extraction operation north of Corson that was pegged to send an additional 208 trucks traveling daily through town. Transportation counts at that time marked 3,800 vehicles – many of them trucks – passing through Corson on a daily basis.
 
To get the conditional use permit it needed from the Minnehaha County Commission, Concrete Materials – a division of Sweetman Construction – would have to go through the Corson opposition. At that time, the county P&Z approved the conditional use permit on 24 conditions, which included bypassing Corson to the east as it hauled sand from its pit 1 ½ miles northeast of town to its plant in Sioux Falls.
 
Last week, residents voiced their concerns about increasing traffic once again. The company’s 2018 plan would have done that. The revised plan, however, has traffic to and from the quarry utilizing a road the company built though its property that connects to 259th Street, which stops truck traffic from going entirely through Corson. The quarry expansion is estimated to add 20 trucks per day to traffic. Today’s traffic count cites an average of 7,240 vehicles per day pass through Corson.
 
“So, we’ll be a very small percentage of that,” Meyer said.
 
Residents expressed concerns that the 32 acres the company plans to open in the first phase will become the size of the company’s quarry along Interstate 29 near the Sioux Empire Fairgrounds in Sioux Falls.
 
Company officials squelched those fears, however. An estimated 200,000 ton per year is expected to be mined at the Corson facility, which is a quarter of what the sand plant does, they said.
 
“It takes a long time to open a pit,” said Any Haas, the company’s vice president of operations. Haas said the Corson plant would not be mined every day.
 
“It all depends on supply and demand to help supplement the Sioux Falls quarry,” he said. “The volume will change, it’s market driven.”
 
Product from the quarry will largely go to Minnesota and local area projects, utilizing both rail and trucks to transport. Clark said rail is a more efficient way to move the product.
 
Property owners also had questions about the number of blasts that would take place, and who would be responsible for any damages to their properties as a result of the blasts. Company officials do not anticipate more than one blast a week, possibly two, all depending on demand. Two-day notices are typically provided by the quarry superintendent via email and/or by text. All blasts will be recorded for vibration, Haas said. The fairgrounds quarry, he said, is usually measures about 1 percent of the threshold.
 
Todd Massmann, whose lived a quarter mile west of the quarry since 1993, said he is concerned about damage to his water source.
 
“What are you going to do if you take my water away?” he asked, noting his well is positioned about 500 feet deep.
 
Doug Hoy, civil engineer with Sayre Associates, said typically aquifers are shallower than that, and that it’s unlikely extractions would go down that far.
 
Company officials also tried to squelch fears of residential homes shaking as a result of the blasts. Meyer said today’s blasts are “very engineered.”
 
Hoy explained the intensity that goes through the ground is measured. They’ve strived to keep the blasts well below threshold, but added, “I’m not saying property damage has never happened.”
 
Clark explained the after-effect of a blast sounds “like a truck hitting the approach of a bridge, so it’s not as bad as you think.”
 
Residents also shared their concerns for a red rock spring north of Corson that once served as a place where local children went to have a picnic, for church picnic, chuckwagon rides, weddings or just to visit and enjoy the prettiness of the area. The area is known as “The pretty place.”
 
Residents asked if it could be put into writing that “The pretty place” wouldn’t be destroyed and to allow the public access to it. Meyer said a portion of that area is on BNSF property, which complicates the decision and would be a liability for both Concrete Materials and the rail line.
 
“We have to balance safety and liability with the access,” Meyer said. “But maybe we could even have a (community) picnic there once a year.”
 

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