Martin-Marietta begins explanation of the impact on surface water from the Vanceboro quarry | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

   Second in our series on Tuesday night's public information session

    This is the second in our series on the Martin-Marietta Vanceboro quarry. Click here to read the first article. In that piece we posted video in which the company spokespeople and consultants explained the project, the permitting process and the ground water issues. By ground water they mean water that is pumped out of the Castle Hayne aquifer. The immediate concern in that issue is what impact the quarry will have on private wells in the vicinity.
Marin Marietta Quarry located on this terrain map
    In this article they focus on the surface water issues. The permit calls for them to eventually, at maximum build-out to pump as much as 11 million gallons into the Blounts Creek drainage basin.

    The first video begins that presentation:




    The second video is simply a continuation of the first:



    The third continues the presentation and gets you to the conclusion of this part of the presentation.



    As you hear in the presentation most of the study of the impact of the water that will be pumped into the basin focused on the upper reaches of the drainage basin...the freshwater portion. In response to questions after the presentation it was explained that they focused on the headwaters because if they had found a non-permitable impact then the project would have been abandoned. Now that the freshwater impact does not appear to be insurmountable they will now turn to the lower portion of Blounts Creek from Herring Run to the mouth of the creek.

    In the discussions following the presentations Al Hodge of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources explained that the individual permitting process they are using will allow state regulators to put specific conditions on the permits going forward and that those conditions will likely involve monitoring of the impact on the creek for years after the mine is started. He referred to this a "managing the resources." He also explained that the critical permits related to surface water quality have yet to be issued but that is where they are now.

    As we have previously published, anyone interested in keeping up with what is going on in the permitting process may do so at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources website. Click here to go to the website, which allows a search of the most recent activity. Note that on that page is a link to sign up for an RSS feed with will send you notices of new enteries to the calendar. You can subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking here. You will also note on that page that you may subscribe to DENR's Facebook and Twitter pages. Or you can just read the Beaufort Observer on a regular basis. And of course you can check the Legal Notices in a local paper of record.