The Department of Environmental Quality has issued an additional notice of extended review regarding the proposed opencut mine gravel pit at the Donnes site in Shepherd. With the initial sixty-day review period ending on June 26th, DEQ sent a letter to Riverside Contracting, Inc. dated July 25th informing them that the Department would need an additional thirty days to evaluate concerns raised by the public at a meeting at the Shepherd High School in April.
Area residents have raised concerns about the impact to the water, air, and soil that would come from having an asphalt plant and gravel crusher set up in their neighborhood as well as high traffic, noise, and lights throughout the day and night as Riverside’s application states that they would be seeking the ability to run the mine 24/7.
In the statement from DEQ, they say that additional time is needed to evaluate concerns that the proposed plan of operation does not deal with these issues to the extent they would need to: adequately protecting the shallow groundwater resources that local residents use for drinking water and domestic needs; making adequate provisions for noise and visual impacts on nearby residential areas; adequately conveying the interrelation of the pit hydrology to the neighboring Crooked Creek watershed; and adequately addressing maintaining the conveyance of irrigation water through ditches contained near and within the site or the interrelation of pit hydrology with the ditches.
This is the last time that the DEQ will be able to extend the review on the Donnes site. Once this thirty-day period runs out on July 25th, Riverside Contracting will be presented with either a letter of approval or a letter of deficiency. Most opencut mining permits are usually labeled deficient in their first stages and if it is decided that their plan for the site is insufficient, they can resubmit a new application up to DEQ standards at a later date and restart the application process.
