SU0007300 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

buffer area around the plant has remained the same. The facility can run 16 hours per day seven days per week,a fairly new occurrence that seems to happen more and more often is the use of rubberized asphalt. When the rubberized asphalt is produced the stench and smoke fills covers our properties burning our noses and eyes, and seeps into our homes. It is especially bad at night because there is little air movement and an inversion which concentrates the stench in our area. 1 see nowhere on their application how they intend to remedy this problem, the only solution I know is to add a smell masking agent.-...they don't work. A night job is no small undertaking, while they may turn some back-up beepers off, and tell their drivers not to use jake brakes they still have to run the asphalt plant, run their loaders, and have up to 100 trucks or more in-hauling, out-hauling, dumping loads, revving engines and squealing brakes. During last summer's night run it was impossible to sleep and we couldn't go outside because of the stench and smoke. We have the right to 8 hours per day not to have this nuisance. George Reed does have other plants that they can source this material from and while I understand trucking costs might be higher these plants are situated where they do not impact residents in the area,they also have a portable rubberized asphalt plant that might only affect residents for the duration of one job, not day after day year after year. This operation can no longer be considered a quarry, but a processing plant as now virtually all their rock and most of their sand is trucked in from out of county. The supposition on page 7 of their noise study that the noise from a rock processing plant should be considered the same as Agricultural noise is absurd. First of all crushing rocks and making asphalt is not growing food and fiber! We who live here do expect Ag noise, it comes and goes, a tractor moves across a field and is gone,a farmer applies a pesticide and moves on. Farming operations are not cemented to the ground with 100's of trucks feeding it daily day after day, year after year. Also, the Noise study does not address the in-hauling and dumping of road grindings that usually accompanies a night paving job. If you read the appendices of the report many times in the 24 hour noise monitoring the acceptable levels set by the county. If the Community Development Dept, against the wishes and well-being of the residents of our area decide to let the asphalt plant to work at night they need to clearly define the ambiguous application. The production of rubberized asphalt should absolutely not be allowed at night, even with the addition of smell masking agents it is unbearable. The county should define what an occasional night is, I would define it as one or two nights a year,while the plant might consider it whenever they can get a bid that involves night work. The number of trucks that are allowed to enter and exit the plant at night should be limited; I can assure you that the 100 trucks per night of last summer is many times too many. I am not advocating trying to stop all operations at this facility, but feel that we have already been unfairly burdened, enough is enough, no further expansion of any kind. Before the County considers expanding operating hours they should be requiring the plant to take proactive steps to reduce their impact on us like enclosing the plant, containing smells, and reducing truck noise,all of which are realistic options, and have been required at other operations. Thank-You Page 2