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Luck Stone suspends quarry activity in county
Late Tuesday afternoon, officials of the Luck Stone Corporation announced the company is “suspending all current activities” on 750 acres on Route 340 north of Berryville where it has been performing drilling to test rock quality since last year to determine whether to exercise an option to buy the property as a potential quarry site.]
Additionally, the Richmond-based company stated in prepared remarks, the suspension includes “any work toward submitting an application to the county” seeking approval for a quarry.
The suspension will allow company officials to evaluate its options, according to the statement. “We anticipate being able to provide further updates by late spring,” it added.
The announcement was quickly hailed as a positive step by members of a citizens’ coalition opposed to a quarry. In their own prepared statement, the steering committee of Citizens Against the Luck Stone Quarry stated they are “gratified” and “encouraged” by the company’ s suspension of activity.
The company, which produces crushed stone, has been studying the property since March 2007 when it secured an option from the Wolfe and Cook families to purchase tracts of their farms.
"This process has involved studying and attempting to understand the geology and hydrogeology of the property and surrounding area, the history and culture of the land and community, and the county’s comprehensive plan, among other things,” Luck Stone stated.
"Based on what we have found thus far, we feel that this is a viable site for a quarry, but each of these areas of study has presented its own set of obstacles that need further analysis and thought,” the company added.
Those obstacles and the work resulting from them “have caused us to take pause to evaluate our current status and options,” the company stated.
The citizens’ group took issue with the company’s claim about the site’s viability.
"Our technical consultants have told us that a quarry operation would cause substantial environmental harm on the fragile limestone karst geology of Clarke County, would create unacceptable dangers to the geology and watershed of the surrounding area, and impair the agricultural livelihood of immediate and more distant neighbors,” the group stated.
The group, which in late January met with company president Charles Luck IV to voice their concerns, further stated it hopes the company “will conclude that the geologic, hydrogeologic, and environmental details of this area in Clarke County preclude the acquisition and operation of a quarry.”
"I think Charles Luck IV finally realized that he was dealing with greater obstacles, both in our comprehensive plan and in the will of citizens in the county,” said steering committee member Tom Cammack.
The company would have to ask county officials to amend the comprehensive plan to allow the quarry.
County supervisors Barbara Byrd (I-Russell) and David Weiss (R-Buckmarsh/Blue Ridge) last summer said they would vote against the quarry, and Board of Supervisors Chairman John Staelin (D-Millwood/Pine Grove) told Luck during a late January meeting the quarry was a “dead issue” – an assertion he first made last summer.
Two other supervisors, A.R. “Pete” Dunning, Jr. (R-White Post) and J. Michael Hobert (D-Berryville) , who have said they were consulted by one of the property owners about the deal, were expected to abstain from voting if the issue came before the board.
Contact the reporter at rmarlow@timespapers.com
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