LJWorld.com / Quarry seeks reduced bond for reclamation

Archive for Thursday, May 22, 2008

May 22, 2008

A rock quarry operation in western Douglas County wants its reclamation bond requirements dramatically decreased.

Representatives for Mid-States Materials LLC. made that request Wednesday night to the Douglas County Commission. Mid-States operates Big Springs Rock Quarry.

A conditional use permit allowing the quarry operation requires a reclamation bond of $400,000 to be filed for each 10-acre area being quarried, or $40,000 per acre. Mid-States wants that reduced to $3,000 per acre.

Mid-States manager Eric Bettis said the bond reduction would be more consistent with other quarries in the county and in the industry.

The bond is money set aside to pay for reclamation of quarried land in the event the mining company should leave without doing the reclamation. Reclamation means returning the ground quarried to the condition it was in before mining.

Commissioners said they wanted to see bids solicited from companies that could do reclamation work to determine how much reclamation would cost at the Big Springs site.

“Somebody needs to help us find some numbers that have some backbone to them,” Commissioner Bob Johnson said.

Commissioner Jere McElhaney said bond amounts should be consistent for all quarries in the county.

The current Big Springs bond amounts were set in 1990 by county commissioners. The amount was based on a study by Phil Struble from Landplan Engineering in Lawrence. Mid-States became the quarry operator last year.

A survey of quarry bonds in other counties showed them to be considerably lower than Big Springs, including some that were $1,500 and $3,000 per acre.

Concerning another matter, commissioners approved a resolution that allows the city of Lawrence to annex nearly 160 acres north of the Interstate 70 Lecompton Interchange. Developers intend to build an industrial or business park there.