Corona fears limestone mine

Doug Woolsey, general manager of W.R. Henderson Arizona Properties, says his company has spent some $10,000 in recent weeks to clean up the old Andrada quarry and remove more junk that county environmental officials first ordered removed three months ago

Woolsey believes the county's threat to take him to court over the issue is based less on concerns for public safety and more on county officials' opposition to his proposal to mine limestone at the quarry.

"They don't want us out there, and they're doing everything they can to destroy us," Woolsey said.

Public safety issue

Opposition to the company's proposal to mine limestone at the quarry runs deep in Corona. But residents' more immediate concern is the quarry's threat to public safety and health.

It's a favorite site for target practice and paintball battles. The graffiti-covered walls and broken beer bottles throughout attest that it's also a popular partying spot.

Worse, vandals have used wooden pallets and other debris in recent months to set fires. The worst of those, in March, was sparked in a pile of wooden pallets and other combustibles inside an old steel storage building that burned so hot the steel building collapsed.

Bruce Whitehouse, Corona's fire chief, said he hopes the county's cleanup orders will eliminate the need for him to send firefighters to the mine.

He also hopes Henderson will eliminate other health and safety problems at the quarry, like pools of water that could pose a drowning hazard and serve as breeding grounds for West Nile Virus-bearing mosquitoes.

Beth Gorman, spokeswoman for the county Department of Environmental Quality, said Henderson "still needs to do more cleanup — there is more work to be done."

County environmental officials met with Woolsey at the quarry on June 20 to explain what else needs to be done to comply with a Notice of Violation issued March 14 by the county.

When Henderson failed to adequately clean up the property, Gorman said, the Environmental Quality Department "escalated its enforcement" with the threat of legal action. The County Attorney's Office sent another letter to Henderson on June 6 ordering him to comply with the cleanup order or face a lawsuit.

Cleanup not enough

But it will take more than a cleanup in order for Henderson to resume mining at the quarry.

Two local environmental groups that oppose the project, the Empire-Fagan Coalition and the Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, won a round in their fight against the mine on June 6 when the U.S. Interior Department Board of Land Appeals granted a stay to a decision by the Tucson Bureau of Land Management office to permit the mining.

Mike Carson, who lives on property next to the quarry, said he's glad that mine opponents won this round. "But we know we're in for a long fight," said Carson, Empire-Fagan Coalition president.

"It's the first really significant victory that Empire-Fagan has won," he said. "It shows that Goliath can be felled."

Jean Bogg and her husband, Chris, who have lived about a half-mile from the quarry for 27 years, also were happy to hear of the decision. They said they oppose the mining project because the noise, blasting, heavy equipment and big trucks that come with a mine would turn their dream home into a nightmare.

"I moved out here because it's away from the city, and it was going to be my little retirement Shangri-La," Jean Bogg said.

Her main concern, shared by many others in the area, is that the blasting would alter the geology and cause local wells to dry up. "If it (the mine) gets going, our property values would be lowered," Bogg said. "If I lose my water, my land will be value-less."

Studies called flawed

Woolsey says residents' concerns are unfounded: Studies show the mine would have no impact on area water supplies.

Opponents say those studies are flawed, and intend to prove that as they argue their case with BLM officials.

The mine tailings that Henderson wants to process are on state land, but the BLM oversees mineral rights on state lands.

Woolsey said his company only wants to mine the tailings for about a year, to remove an estimated 1 million tons of overburden — crushed rock left over from previous mining — from the quarry, he said.

His plan of operations filed with the State Land Department calls for the removal of 200,000 to 300,000 tons of limestone annually for an unspecified period of time. The company would use money from the sale of the limestone to pay for more cleanup work at the 14-acre site, Woolsey said.

Henderson Properties intends to build homes on 155 acres that include the quarry, he said.

Woolsey said he's tried to convince residents that he's trying to improve the property, and that he wants to be a good neighbor. He said the company bought four adjoining properties — some formerly owned by residents who opposed the mine — for a total of about a million dollars.

Opposition political?

Woolsey said he's hopeful he can come to an understanding with Corona-area residents.

But he's convinced that opposition to the company's proposed project is not just based on residents' concerns over junk at the quarry or the dust, noise and other nuisances of a mining operation.

The real opposition, Woolsey said, is political in nature.

He said the federal land-appeal board decision to halt mining while the two sides argue over the BLM mining permit is only a nuisance that "is delaying the inevitable."

The case was argued by "a bunch of unemployed lawyers who want to stop all mining," he said. He was referring to the Western Mining Action Project, a Colorado-based organization that represents people who oppose mining projects in their communities.

The county officials who are pressuring him to clean up the quarry aren't concerned about public safety, he said. They just oppose mining.

"There are two people who do not want us mining out there: Ray Carroll and Chuck Huckelberry," Woolsey said.

Carroll, the county supervisor who represents the area, and Huckelberry, the county administrator, both have said publicly many times that they have concerns about the impact of mining on the environment and the economic downside of cleaning up after a mine shuts down.

"You've got a couple of guys who think they're pretty powerful, who are going way beyond their jurisdiction," Woolsey said last week.

Both Carroll and Huckelberry were out of town last week and unavailable for comment.