Lawrence city commissioners are set to light the fuse tonight on a new set of regulations to cover the use of dynamite and other explosives in the construction industry.
But the proposed ordinance has sparked concerns from residents and members of the city's blasting industry.
"These regulations are really overkill for the situation at hand," said Russell Pilshaw, owner of Lawrence-based The Pexco Co., which provides blasting services to companies that need to remove rock as part of sewer, street, water line or other excavation projects.
But residents who had blasting occur near their houses in April are concerned the proposed regulations don't go far enough to protect homes from potential damage.
"The main thing is there is no mechanism for the public to appeal the city issuing a blasting permit to someone," said Dan Wilkus, a west Lawrence resident. "It is basically just forced upon you."
In addition to adding an appeal process for neighbors, Wilkus wants the city to require blasters to have a neighborhood meeting before work begins and later inspect each home within 500 feet.
The city's Fire Code Board of Appeals has been working on drafting regulations since August. Rich Barr, the city's fire marshal and a staff member for the board, said the proposed regulations were a good middle ground.
"We feel like this will make sure that folks in the neighborhood are notified when blasting is going to occur, and they'll know that there will be proper oversight at the blasting site," Barr said.
The proposed regulations make several significant changes to the city's existing code:
| Commissioners will consider adopting new blasting regulations at their meeting at 6:35 p.m. today at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets. |
- Blasting companies would be required to send all property owners within 1,500 feet of a blasting site an official notice of future activity. The use of certified mail would be required for properties within 500 feet of the blasting site. The current ordinance allows blasters to simply post fliers about blasting activity.
- An expert who is not an employee of the blasting company would be required to be on site during blasting. Barr's office would have to approve the contractor's choice of an expert.
- Blasting companies would be required to have a minimum liability insurance of $2 million for each occurrence or $5 million total. That's an increase from $1 million per occurrence and $2 million total.
6News video: Board finalizes draft ordinance on blasting (10-20-04)
Contractors' use of explosives sparks code revisions (8-03-04)Barr said he thought the proposed regulations went far enough, in part because in his nearly 20 years of regulating Lawrence blasters, he'd never seen a case where off-site property was damaged.
"If we adopt this new ordinance, we'll be the most restrictive city in the Kansas City area," Barr said. "I don't know how much more restrictive we need to be because you just don't see many claims of blasting damage occurring."
Pilshaw will urge city commissioners to reject the proposed changes, which he said could increase the costs of blasting operations by 15 percent to 20 percent. Because most of the blasting work is done for new housing developments, he said, that would increase the cost of new homes.
He also said the city might be taking on a potential legal liability by requiring a city-approved expert to be on site. If an expert required a blasting company to change its procedures and something did go wrong, the city could be liable, Pilshaw said.
The commission meets at 6:35 p.m. at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.
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