Jasper council opposes plan for limestone quarry

By Wally Kennedy

wkennedy@joplinglobe.com

JASPER, Mo. — Battle lines are being drawn over a proposal to open a new limestone quarry less than a mile northeast of Jasper.

The Jasper City Council has passed a resolution opposing the quarry. The council is concerned that the quarry, which would be near U.S. Highway 71, could disrupt the city’s plan for economic development.

Representatives of the council recently approached the Jasper County Commission asking that it adopt a similar resolution, but the commission declined.

Neighbor’s complaint

The council members are not the only ones complaining. Jack Dunham, who owns a farm next to the land where the quarry would be, also has approached the County Commission about the proposal. He has requested that the Missouri Department of Natural Resources hold a hearing on the matter.

Dunham is upset about the possibility of air contamination and blasting near his house. His son has asthma. But he also is concerned about how the quarry might be operated in light of what already is happening on the quarry property.

“If they operate the quarry like they handle their chicken litter, then we could have a real problem,” Dunham said.

Dunham said the odor from the fertilizer operation can be overpowering at times.

“It depends a lot on which way the wind is blowing,” he said. “If it’s from the east, it can be horrible.”

He also said runoff from the operation has affected Coon Creek, which flows across his property. He has brought his concerns to the attention of the DNR’s regional office at Springfield.

Property owner

Steve Tong, owner of the quarry site and the chicken litter operation, said the quarry project should be given a green light because it would create jobs for the Jasper area. He said it is being opposed by the Jasper City Council because his quarry would compete with a quarry operated by Jasper’s mayor, Paul Nelson. The Nelson Brothers Quarry is about a mile or so east of the proposed quarry site.

“They don’t want me competing with the mayor’s business,” Tong said.

Russell Selvey, a member of the Jasper City Council, said: “This has nothing to do with the mayor. It puts our mayor in a difficult position, but it’s not a factor in us opposing it.”

Mary McNary, city clerk in Jasper, said all four members of the council signed the resolution on Feb. 17. She said the mayor did not sign it and did not vote on it.

Selvey, who operates a home furnishings store in Jasper, said the proposed quarry would be on the east edge of the town and on the east side of U.S. Highway 71.

“Any development by the city is more likely to go east than any other direction,” he said. “It’s an area that could be developed commercially or residentially. The dust, noise and ground vibrations are a concern to our whole community as it is.”

The city, he said, recently purchased a maintenance building that the Missouri Department of Transportation owned on the east side of the highway.

“We want to put another fire department out there,” Selvey said.

As for the odors wafting from the chicken litter storage area, Selvey said: “It can affect us. It all depends on the direction of the wind.”

Selvey said the city is hoping that Dunham will be granted a hearing on the quarry permit application so that the city will have an opportunity to voice its objection to the state’s Land Reclamation Commission.

“We (the city) are not adjoining landowners, but the Dunhams are,” he said. “We are hoping he will get his hearing.”

Permit applicant

Jasper Stone LLC, of Spring Hill, Kan., applied for the quarry permit in January.

Larry North, owner of Jasper Stone and a principal in Lowe-North Construction, near Olathe, Kan., said he, not Tong, would be the operator of the quarry.

“With that highway project, there’s enough business to go around,” North said. “There’s a nice deposit of limestone that runs through there. It’s high in calcium carbonate. It’s good for agricultural lime and highway building.”

He said the quarry would employ about eight to 12 people.

“We will operate it in a businesslike manner,” he said. “We’ll have to get an air permit. That means the dust can’t get off your property. We will operate it within the guidelines. It will (have) no connection whatsoever to Tong. We will harvest the mineral, and he’ll have a nice lake on part of his property when we are done.”

Chris Thiltgen, spokesman for the Land Reclamation Commission, said North is listed on the permit application as the landowner. The commission is the ruling body over Missouri’s mining issues, according to DNR Web site.

“He (North) will be the required party to complete reclamation of the site, and he will be responsible for the compliance issues during the operation,” Thiltgen said.

Concerned neighbors can request a hearing before the commission on any issue, he said. “They must present reasonable cause for a hearing,” he said. “If they have evidence that the property owner was going to cause trouble, the commission could grant them a hearing.”

The annual fee to operate the quarry is $800. Other operating fees also could apply, including a $4,000 charge for every acre that is permitted. The permit seeks to develop the quarry on eight acres.

The fact that other quarries are operating nearby is not pertinent to the issue, Thiltgen said.

Litter operation

Tong said Dunham is complaining about the quarry because of the way he operates his chicken litter operation. Tong said he follows all DNR regulations with regard to stockpiling chicken waste and spreading it on cropland in the Jasper area and across the state line in Kansas.

A DNR spokesman in Springfield said Tong has not been cited by that agency for any regulatory violations. But, Tong has faced complaints in other parts of Jasper County, particularly the Carytown area.

“I am not breaking any regulations that I am aware of,” he said. “We are spreading somewhere every day.”

Kevin Hess, the DNR’s water pollution section chief in Springfield, said Tong’s operation was checked out in 2007 by an inspector from the DNR’s Neosho office after Dunham lodged a complaint. The DNR found that Tong was in compliance with state regulations.

What Tong is doing, Hess said, is a good thing in that he is hauling chicken litter from the Elk River watershed in McDonald County to farmland in northern Jasper County where it can be used as fertilizer.

“He has had a pad for stockpiling,” he said. “It’s good environmental location. He moves the litter off as soon as he can. There were no environmental issues or violations noted during the inspection.”

Hess said the waste needs to be moved out of McDonald County because some parcels of land there can no longer handle the additional phosphate that comes with the spreading of chicken litter on pasture.

Dunham asked the DNR to investigate whether Tong is violating state regulations with regard to long-term storage of poultry litter. Hess said Tong is not.

Hess said Tong could someday be required to get a permit to haul the litter. He said the DNR is exploring that possibility because the state wants to get a better handle on how much litter is being hauled, and where and when it is being spread.

A concern for the state is that chicken litter appears to be coming into the state from Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Hess said only Class 1A operations, such as the Moark egg production plant at Neosho, have to meet odor regulations. All others are exempt.

Carytown

Tong has had problems in the past.

Marvin Frost, mayor of Carytown, an incorporated area south of Jasper, said: “When the price of fertilizer increased a few years ago, Tong began bringing in turkey parts and ground-up waste to spread it on the land as fertilizer. The odor was horrible for a long time.

“We were not trying to fight a man making a living, but he was dumping in fields next to family houses. He would just leave it until it was time plow it in.”

The practice drew flies to the extent that the “side of the house would be black with flies,” Frost said.

“You know, there is a limit,” he said. “When you can’t breathe or open your front door, you have to do something. We passed ordinances that protect us against that. That was about five years ago.”

Said Tong: “All of it is Missouri manure. We log every load. We use a GPS system to track where we spread it. We take soil samples to determine how much we spread. We can account for every bucket.

“We have grown some tremendous crops with it.”

The litter, he said, is better for the soil than commercial fertilizer because it increases the soil’s organic content.

As to the possibility that he might be required to obtain a permit, he said: “It’s OK with me. I’m already in compliance.”

The quarry, he said, would supply him with lime, which he would mix into the manure to raise its pH level. It also would help control the odor and flies.

As for the complaints he has received from Jasper and Carytown, Tong said, “We live in a touchy area.”

Plan for stone

Jasper Stone LLC, of Spring Hill, Kan., wants to supply crushed limestone rock to Missouri Department of Transportation contractors in connection with the department’s plan to convert U.S. Highway 71 into an interstate highway — Interstate 49 — from Carthage to Kansas City.

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