Living with Copar

Playing “bait and switch” with our lives

By Christina Holden Shea

Imagine living in an area that gets very little media attention when there are some questionable activities going on in local government.  Can anyone understand the frustration felt by citizens affected and forced to endure back door politics going on and a door slamming in the face of citizens looking for justice?   

Lets mix this with a Zoning Committee Chairman who abruptly recused himself from the long awaited hearing with a less than detailed conflict of interest excuse and then another Zoning official (responsible for issuing the Cease and Desist Order) who up and disappears when the long awaited hearing has finally begun (seven months later), thus, resulting in a subpoena being filed for her return to testify at the zoning hearing.  All eyes need to shift to the south west corner of the state to the town of Westerly.

Our story is that of a group of Westerly and Charlestown residents who are trying to preserve their property and health while legally battling a quarry operation that opened a few years ago in a now residential area adjacent to an area.  The unused quarry prior to recent operation sits on land zoned light industrial due to the prior construction of a cell phone tower. 

Copar truck loaded with rocks and dust. Note the lack of a cover.

The residents of Bradford and neighboring Charlestown are dealing with Copar Quarry.  Copar Co. is an operation that slid in the backdoor of this quiet, rural area and brought in a half dozen rock crushers, a fleet of large capacity dump trucks (all registered in Connecticut. I might add) and non stop noise like a jackhammer along with beeping trucks being loaded with crushed rock. 
 

If that were not bad enough, there is the silica dust all over homes and cars and windowsills.  But wait, there is more. The total upheaval of our lives is the explosives detonated every five to eight weeks, shaking homes and causing damage.

Westerly quarrying operation in 1923

Most people familiar with Westerly know that it is a town known for Westerly Granite which is sought after around the world.  The town of Westerly built its economy on quarrying the stone.  As a matter of fact both Westerly and Charlestown is pock marked with quarries and test holes. 

In 1969 the Sullivan quarry stopped operating in Bradford.  Left behind were old cables, derricks, a burned out shed like building and two crystal clear quarries filled with water.   These were all remnants of an industry from the past. The surrounding plots were all zoned rural residential.  With the zoning being “RR”, houses and entire Neighborhoods were built all abutting the land the quarry was situated on.  It was quiet and a great place to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful Charlestown /Westerly woods.  

This was our lives until 2010.  A permit was taken out in 2007 to reopen the quarry by owners Westerly Granite.   Did I mention the President of Westerly Granite was also President of the Westerly Town Council at one time?   Westerly Granite then leased the quarry to Copar Quarry LLC.  Mind you, the site the old quarry sits on is “light industrial”. 

Since when is rock crushing, numerous dump trucks and the use of explosives light industrial?  One might ask how a zoning board would let this happen when you need a meeting just to change a driveway or add a sundeck.  On the permit is a question about the state of property where the use was circled “Existing Use”.   Many of the residents including myself will assure you this was not the case.

A group of Bradford residents decided enough was enough and sought to have the quarry shut down based on the permit being incorrect and that rock crushing is very different from traditional quarrying of cutting and pulling large chunks of granite to be carved.   There is also the issue of this operation being a health hazard and silica dust in the air causing silicosis. The Bradford residents decided to litigate. 

In the late fall of 2012 some residents in neighboring Charlestown residents decided to lend their support to the litigants. Despite Copar having a sixteen year lease with Westerly Granite Inc.,   Copar quarry decided expansion was necessary and decided to apply for expansion much to the resident’s disapproval.  

The neighbor’s disapproval is one thing.  DEM and EPA and MSHA (Mine Safety Health Administration) violations are quite another thing.  While the DEM has to visually see “fugitive dust” leaving the area the quarry was not in violation.  Residents, like me will tell you otherwise.  

Storm water carries mine drainage into Charlestown wetlands

In July of 2012 The RI DEM issued a notice of violation to Copar Quarries for operating without a storm water on-off plan, the dumping of solid waste and filling in wetlands.  The hearing for these violations is the 20^th of March 2013.  With this in mind along with 57 violations from the MSHA Westerly Zoning official Liz Burdick filed a Cease and Desist Order against Copar Quarry on the merit of noise, lack of sufficient water to cut down on dust, dust migration, operating outside of the original footprint they were zoned for, using a road not located on their property and parking their truck on property not their own. 

Copar quarry is currently operating under an appeal filed with the town of Westerly.

So, Let us cut to the chase.  The hearing is finally under way after the recusal of the Zoning Chairman offers a very vague excuse citing that he has a conflict of interest because of his working relationship with an attorney who is a relation of Westerly Granite.  This very same attorney is a solicitor for the Westerly Housing Authority which is the very same agency the recused Zoning Board Chairman is a candidate for the job of Executive Director of the Westerly Housing Authority.  Residents wonder why this zoning board official did not recuse himself in August when the Cease and Desist order was issued.

If this were not enough new lawyers hired by Copar Quarry owners spent over seven hours grilling zoning board replacement (Liz Burdick’s) as to whether he had enough time to look over all of the leases, contract, and affidavits given to him by Liz Burdick. Most recently, the Westerly Sun has revealed that Ms. Burdick was apparently offered a job to work for Copar. 

Residents of both Bradford and Charlestown sat through the sessions that covered whether land not really owned by a woman who was married to the man that owned it was under conforming use even though it was taxed as open space by the Town of Westerly for over a decade but had given rights to Westerly Granite to take piles of rocks… 
 

Enter an expert on urban planning who compares removing a kitchen from a triple decker tenement to whether a quarry not used for years is conforming use, abandoned use or subject to willful and overt changes. What the surrounding residents are left with is the fact that if you have built a house in a zoned rural residential area and someone wants to open up a quarry and detonate explosives.  

In doing this, shaking the bedrock within close proximity to the town’s well head and possibly cracking the aquifer that also feeds Charlestown resident’s wells, then Westerly and neighboring Charlestown is the place to live.  No one will bring up whether it is safe to live near detonations or what “rural residential” or “light industrial” actually is.  Only town officials with questionable relationships know what is going on, because the rest of the state is none the wiser.