By FRANK CARINI/ecoRI News
staff
Mining operations at the long-dormant Westerly Granite Co.
property in the village of Bradford, R.I., began in late 2010. The headaches —
literally and figuratively — began about a year later and persist today. (Steve
Dubois)
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is an interesting outsider's take on a long-standing issue covered extensively in Progressive Charlestown. The article contains errors of fact as well as interpretations with which I disagree. Those errors and disagreements are noted in bold red. Nonetheless, it does add to the discussion. - Will Collette
CHARLESTOWN, R.I. — The
half-decade-long Copar Quarries feud appears to be over, and there are no
winners. The quarrying operation has stopped blasting and smashing granite, but
the local environment remains scarred, public-health concerns linger and jobs were
lost. Also, there’s nothing stopping the property’s owner, a well-connected
Westerly family, from finding a new tenant that wants to crush up to 150 tons
of stone an hour.
“It was hell at a very low level,”
said local resident Susan Clayton, who lives a good golf drive from the
controversial quarry, about the past five years. “I’d be tense for three days
after a big blast, and there was the stress from the continued crushing of
stone and the banging of heavy equipment.”
Connecticut-based Armetta LLC, successor
to Copar Quarries, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month in
U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Haven, Conn. Although many Chapter 11 petitions
result in company reorganization, a lawyer for Armetta LLC told The Westerly Sun the company isn’t reorganizing and is
liquidating its assets.
In August 2012, the town of
Westerly issued a cease-and-desist order against Copar/Armetta, claiming the
company “willfully violated” local policies and created a nuisance to
neighbors. A site inspection by the town found the company had failed to
install measures to control stone dust.
In response to that claim and
others, Copar/Armetta would appeal, defy orders to halt work or, in one case,
deny a local zoning official access to the quarry to investigate a complaint.
All the while, the quarry would continue to crush stone.
George Comolli, a local attorney
and a member of the family that leased the property to Copar/Armetta, took the
quarry’s court-appointed on-site monitor on a golfing trip to Myrtle Beach,
S.C.
Even though neighbors claim local
officials did little to address the company’s brazenness, members of the
Comolli family, which owns the 108-acre property, accused the Westerly Town
Council of trying to put the operation out of business and deprive the family
of its ability to lease the quarry.
The state did even less to address
health and environmental concerns, according to neighbors. Earlier this year,
the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) said the quarry
failed to comply with a consent agreement that addressed water pollution, but
the company was forced to do nothing.
Earlier this year, during a
Statehouse hearing, a DEM official told the House Committee on Municipal
Government that the agency lacked a sufficient number of inspectors and lawyers
to properly regulate the Copar/Armetta quarrying operation.
Last year, Copar/Armetta agreed to
pay an $80,000 fine and correct violations identified by the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). Neighbors, tired of DEM's excuses, called the federal
fine “laughable,” and no one really knows if the violationswere corrected
before the business skipped town, leaving behind what concerned neighbors are
calling an “active brownfield.”
Charles Marsh, a vocal opponent of
the quarry operation, is concerned the property will morph into a hazardous
waste site, largely because he fears a lack of oversight at both the local and
state level.
“In nearly five years, our elected
leaders have done nearly nothing,” Clayton said. “A strip-mining operation was
allowed in people’s backyards because our leaders looked the other way.”
An aerial photo of the dust piles
that can be found at Copar Quarries in Westerly, R.I. There are some 40,000
tons of stone dust on the property. (Steve Dubois)
Dust up
Armetta LLC’s lawyer told The Westerly Sun late last month that employees would remain on the property, which the business leased from the Comolli family, for a time to secure the company’s equipment.
But what happens after all the
equipment is moved out and the front gate locked?
It’s likely the quarry will remain
a source of frustration for residents, whose complaints about dust, heavy
metal, runoff and noise pollution during the past five years have largely
fallen on deaf ears.
For Marsh, a Westerly resident,
the biggest concern is what happens to the dust piles that contain a known
human carcinogen when the last quarry employee leaves.
“There’s mountains of dust there,”
he said. “It’s amazing how many piles there are. It’s a major health hazard and
there should be an emergency ordinance passed to deal with it. It needs to be
removed or capped. Silica dust might be tough to see, but it’s there.”
Silica dust, created by the
crushing and/or cutting of materials such as stone, rock, concrete, brick and
block, is a Group 1 carcinogen. Prolonged exposure to crystalline silica can lead to the lung disease silicosis
and to other lung ailments, including lung cancer, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Charlestown Town Council president
Thomas Gentz said he was told three years ago by Copar/Armetta officials that
the quarry contained 80 million pounds — 40,000 tons — of stone dust. “There’s
probably much more than that lying around there now,” he said.
Both Marsh and Clayton, and the
other dozen or so people who have spent the past five years fighting a
quarrying operation in the middle of a residential neighborhood and between the
Woody Hill Management Area and Burlingame State Park, are leery that Westerly
Granite Co. Inc., owner of the property, will do anything to control the
migration of quarry dust.
In fact, these neighbors aren’t
even sure Copar/Armetta was watering the dust piles as required, because no one
was really checking.
Rep. Blake Filippi, I-New
Shoreham, said the town of Westerly never adequately enforced the requirement
that the dust piles remain hydrated. “The town wasn’t proactive in
enforcement,” he said. “And, frankly, it needed to be.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: For his part, Blake "Flip" Filippi failed to carry out his own grandiose campaign promises to the people at the Copar site. Seems like he got the consolation prize by becoming one of a long string of lawyers who have represented the local residents. When I was advising the Copar neighbors, one of my most emphatic pieces of advice was to stay out of the courts - because that's "home court" for their opponents. - Will Collette
George Comolli, speaking for the
family that owns the property, recently told ecoRI News that the quarry’s dust
piles are being watered daily. He said the amount of crystalline silica on the
property is far below state and federal limits.
“More silica dust would be created
if you took a sledgehammer and started smashing a cement block,” he said.
Neighbors say wind-swept quarry
dust covers their homes and cars, and sickens them and their pets.
“Silica dust is as bad as asbestos
dust. Officials weren’t aware how dangerous this dust is,” said Marsh, who has spent
the past several years relentlessly making local and state officials aware of
this health hazard. “There’s a lack of empathy in
understanding the issue and its implications.”
Gentz said he would prefer the
quarry’s dust piles be covered. “They’re too big to constantly keep wet,” he
said. “And it doesn’t make sense for officials to have to regularly check that
they are.”
Neighbors are concerned that
another company will be allowed to fill the quarry vacancy and start adding to
the property’s mountain of dust.
EDITOR'S NOTE: And Gentz, like Filippi, went out of his way to talk big about Copar but actually did nothing of substance. - WC
After the Copar/Armetta case winds
its way through bankruptcy court, Comolli said the family would like to find an
operator to wash the dust into sand or sell it as an aggregate. Once the
property is devoid of dust piles, he said the family would like to bring in a
“credible” and “reputable” operator to run a not-so-big quarrying operation.
Comolli also said there have been
offers to buy the property and turn it into a landfill.
To prevent another quarrying
operation from starting, a group of local residents has asked the Westerly Town
Council to drop or modify a consent agreement the town signed last year with the
property’s owner and the soon-to-be-departing tenant.
Under that agreement, any new
ordinances regulating quarry operations wouldn’t apply to the Comolli family’s
property. The agreement essentially allows the Westerly Granite Co. to find
another tenant interested in operating a neighborhood quarry, according to
Filippi.
Filippi, who is the attorney
representing the group, said the 2014 consent agreement stripped away the
town’s right to regulate quarrying activities and negatively impacted
neighborhoods in both Westerly and Charlestown. A petition has
been filed and the Westerly Town Council has 40 days to respond.
Filippi, whose district includes
parts of Charlestown and Westerly, said Copar/Armetta and the Comolli family
kept Westerly paralyzed by filing a huge lawsuit against the town.
“Copar and Westerly Granite are
very litigious,” he said. “They filed a big claim and the town was
intimidated.”
Copar/Armetta and Westerly Granite
filed a $10 million lawsuit against the Westerly Town Council and Zoning Board
of Review, claiming they were the victims of a conspiracy that included bogus
findings of zoning violations and other unfair enforcement practices that
violated their constitutional rights.
Among those fraudulent violations,
the lawsuit claimed, were the six issued in July 2012 by DEM alleging that
Copar and Westerly Granite engaged in activities that altered freshwater
wetlands without a permit, failed to obtain a stormwater discharge permit and
improperly disposed of solid waste. More than 20 cubic yards of bottles, cans,
jars, plywood, vinyl siding and asphalt shingles were found on the property.
Copar/Armetta officials claimed
those conditions were there before the company moved in. The lawsuit has since
been settled, according to Comolli.
“We need to re-empower the town of
Westerly and DEM so they can better protect the community,” said Filippi,
referring to efforts locally and statewide that would better manage quarrying
operations.
This past legislative session, the
General Assembly passed the Residential Mining Safety Act — a law largely written to address
problems at the Copar/Armetta-run quarry.
Both Filippi, who co-sponsored the bill, and Gentz believe the act will give DEM and local officials the teeth needed to better enforce laws that govern quarrying operations.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Actually, this is INCORRECT. The "Residential Mining Safety Act," referenced and linked above DID NOT pass. The bill linked is H-5740, Filippi's bill. It was introduced at the end of February, not the first week of January as he promised during his campaign. Flip's bill never got out of committee. From all appearances, Flipper put little effort into it. But for him, it's the headlines that count.
The bill the House actually passed was H-5680A by Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy. The Senate passed the companion bill, S-621A, sponsored by Westerly Senator Dennis Algiere. The bill became law without Governor Gina Raimondo's signature.
Filippi was a "me-to" minor co-sponsor but Filippi and his pals in the Charlestown Citizens Alliance give Flipper all the credit. - WC
DEM didn’t make anyone available
to discuss how it plans to protect residents who live within a mile of the
quarry from wind-swept dust or how it plans on addressing the situation in the
future. DEM also refused to comment for a story ecoRI News published two years ago
about the issues associated with the Copar/Armetta quarrying operation.
Unhealthy concerns
ecoRI News recently spent nearly four hours at the kitchen table in Clayton’s
home on Niantic Highway — don’t let the name fool you, it’s a bumpy dirt road —
speaking with her and Marsh about the problems caused by a long-dormant quarry
becoming active again.
Clayton bought her home in 1982,
about a dozen years after the quarry had last been worked. She said the
real-estate agent told her the quarry would remain closed and that the last
time the property was heavily quarried was prior to World War II.
“We were kids, and it was heaven,”
said Clayton, noting that she and her husband were in their early 20s when they
bought the house. “My father was the only person who was concerned about the
quarry.”
For the next 28 years, however,
there was no reason to be concerned, as the quarry remained mostly quiet.
Clayton and her family hiked the area in and around the property, enjoying the
wildlife — swans, ducks and egrets — and vegetation that thrived in the land
between Burlingame State Park and the Woody Hill Management Area. Clayton
walked three different family dogs on that land.
“Nobody, not the councils
(Westerly and Charlestown) or DEM, valued that land or its history,” she said.
“A quick buck and a few more jobs were more important.”
Today, that land is mostly barren
and lifeless, no one in the family hikes it or walks the dog on it, and Clayton
is having a hard time selling her piece of heaven.
Her home is on the market, with an
asking price of $212,000 — about $40,000 lower than it was valued prior to
2010. She said a hired water-quality expert, citing concerns about the release
of radon gas and other problems related to quarry blasting and the shifting of
granite plates, recommended that she move.
Clayton put her house on the
market a year ago, after being diagnosed with what she said her doctors are
calling an unusual cancer. The divorced mother of six said her illness began as
breast cancer, but has since moved to her abdomen. She noted that she was never
a smoker and there is no family history of cancer.
She’s undergoing chemotherapy, and
has told her children she wants her body to be autopsied. She expects crystalline silica will have played a role in her death.
Her youngest child, 11, has been
diagnosed with asthma and croup. She believes crystalline silica is to blame.
As she deals with her serious
illness and her son’s health problems, Clayton can’t help but be frustrated by
how such a heavy industry was allowed to return to a community that had been
residentially reshaped since the quarry last operated.
Clayton noted how local officials
wouldn’t allow her to build a garage or put a shed on her property because it
would negatively impact surrounding wetlands.
“They told me I couldn’t build on
my property because there was skunk cabbage,” said Clayton, a registered nurse
who works at a health-care facility in Johnston. “So it’s amazing to me that
the quarry was allowed to operate again and allowed to expand.”
She said she watched in amazement
at DEM’s reaction to the explosion this summer at Salty Brine State
Beach. “Janet Coit (DEM director) was everywhere,” said Clayton, noting she was
glad the injured woman recovered. “In our five years of worrying about silica
dust and other health concerns, we can’t get anyone from DEM on the phone.”
Marsh blames this lack of concern
and measly oversight on a corrupt process, calling it the “Westerly Way” and
“typical Rhode Island politics.”
“Land is the most valuable thing
in any town, and whomever controls land use, controls the town,” Marsh said.
“Public health was jeopardized for the sake of land use.”
ecoRI News contacted interim
Westerly town manager Amy Grzybowski for comment about the quarry’s dust piles
and the property’s future use. In an e-mail, she wrote: “Since the bankruptcy
court has now assumed jurisdiction, these are issues that will likely be raised
by the litigants to that proceeding, including the bankruptcy trustee. We
assume that the court will adjudicate the matters pertaining to the piles of
sand and stone dust.”
In addition to having spent the
past several years fighting the quarry and documenting the pollution being
caused by its operation, Marsh said he’s worried taxpayers, such as himself,
will be left to pay for the cleanup of what he calls the “nation’s only
wetland-based strip-mine.”
He said the destruction of wetland
fauna and soil surrounding the quarry has damaged the ecosystem’s ability to
filter ground and surface water. Many residents who live in the area, such as
Clayton, have private wells on their property.
“We’ve been dealing with a corrupt
system,” Marsh said. “DEM negotiates with polluting businesses instead of doing
their job. All they do is protect the status quo.”
Marsh, citing the Union of Concerned Scientists,
said he’s also concerned about heavy metals, such as arsenic, selenium, cadmium
and zinc, from diesel-fuel emissions of mining equipment and trucks polluting
local wells and the Pawcatuck River aquifer.
EDITOR'S NOTE: When I was advising the Copar neighbors, I strongly urged them to stay away from "junk science" or for that matter, making any health claims at all. Instead, I suggested they stay focused on issues that can actually be addressed by laypeople without getting into "duelling experts."
Even though it's true that silica dust is harmful and a tightly regulated workplace toxic hazard, the science about short-term exposure outside sites like Copar doesn't help people make the case. Against my advice, they banked on getting a good result from silica dust testing at Bradford School. As I expected, the tests showed no airborne silica.
Even if the Bradford School results had come in positive, that would have led to months of inconclusive debates dominated by experts.
I stopped advising the Copar neighbors when it was clear to me that they weren't going to take any of that advice even though it was based on twenty years of national experience on the issues. - WC
“This is one the biggest
environmental issues in the state right now,” Filippi said. “It impacts the
public health, safety and welfare of a residential community.”
During a Statehouse hearing in May regarding the DEM budget,
residents living near the quarry criticized the state agency for its inability
to stop incessant noise and air pollution.
“We’ve seen nothing but inaction
from DEM for four years,” Steven Dubois testified at the May 12 hearing.
“They’ve done nothing.”
Dubois, whose backyard abuts the
quarry, claimed Copar/Armetta revived the long-dormant quarry without obtaining
all the necessary permits. He said dust from the mining coats his property
daily.
Sitting in her kitchen last week,
Clayton said, “Cronyism is not more important than children’s health."