Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/932759
AGGREGATES MANAGER / February 2018 17 S ome people believe aggregates operations are the bane of the earth and cause damage to the environment. Not so in Gurley, Ala., however. The people there have come to respect Vulcan Materials' Gurley Quarry for what it has done to take care of the environment on its site. The operation goes above and beyond what is necessary. In fact, the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association (NSSGA) chose Gurley Quarry as the recipient of its highest environmental award, the 2017 Platinum Environmental Excellence Award, which is presented to only one operation each year. Getting started The Gurley community didn't always regard the quarry in a positive light. When Vulcan fi rst began the permitting process for the quarry in 2013, approximately 250 people showed up at the fi rst public meeting to voice their concerns. A second town meeting drew about 50 opponents, and the last one only had a dozen or so, but this was only after Vulcan made good on its promises. "It was a test to get permitted and opened," says Joey West, Vulcan's Northeast Alabama district operations manager, Southern and Gulf Coast Division. "Vulcan was able to get a water permit for the new quarry after a public hearing." "When we laid out a detailed plan of what we were going to do here at the fi rst meeting, there was a lot of optimism about how much we were going to spend on our entrance, front, and berms," says William E. (Gene) Massey, special projects manager for Vulcan's Southern and Gulf Coast Division. "I think people were waiting to see what we were going to do." "We've done everything we promised we would do," adds Stacy Thompson, REM, Vulcan's environmental special- ist, Southern and Gulf Coast Division. "Hurricane Creek runs through the property. It's a signifi cant creek, and they thought we would impact it. They thought there would be dust and had concerns about truck traffi c. It took us in action doing all the things we said we would do to show them that we meant what we were saying. It's been a really wonderful story since then." Not only does Hurricane Creek run through the property separating the pit and processing plant from the scale house/offi ce, there is a protected fl ood- plain next to the creek that extends even farther into the quarry site. Permitting through the county for site development included a No Rise certifi cate that required the quarry to not back up the water or impact the fl oodplain in any way, which meant no raised roadbed between the scale house and the plant. This could have created an issue for the quarry, but there is a back entrance to the plant that can be used during fl oods. "We didn't even run off the wildlife," West says. "There's turkey out here, and we see deer all the time. They're living with us just like the community." "There's something special about this site for the people who worked on the team to make all this happen," Thompson says. "To see that opposition turn into something so positive — it's very encour- aging and something to be proud of." The operation With the pit and processing plant on one side of the property and the scale house on the other, there were some challenges in getting the operation up and running. "One of the fi rst things we did was build a bridge over Hurricane Creek," West notes. "We made the effort to actually span the creek rather than put in culverts, and we built it over the abut- ments of an old county bridge without disturbing them. That was part of the permitting we had to abide by. We put in a lot of effort to make sure we were complying, but also not disturbing." When constructing the plant, a wet suppression system was installed on the processing equipment to control dust. "We had to do visible emissions testing, observations of each piece of equipment while the plant was running, to ensure it was in compliance and didn't produce dust. The system works really well," The operations team at Vulcan Material's Gurley Quarry: (Left to right) Jeff Stephens; Michael Green; Matt McCay; Tom Light; David Wheeler, plant manager; and Mike Carter.