The rebirth of dying quarries

THE QUARRY-MAKEOVER MAN: Bill Scully, pictured above, is a 38-year employee of Milestone Materials and is slated to retire in a few weeks. As division manager, Sculley oversaw the reclamation of the Overgaard Quarry near Elroy. The process took several years and involved rerouting a road. Sculley won an award from the Aggregate Producers of Wisconsin for his efforts. Here he displays photos of the reclamation project as it progressed over the years.

By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher

One of the questions that came up on several occasions at Town of Wilton hearings on the proposed Milestone Materials quarry was, “What will it look like when your company is done with it?” We thought it was a fair question and one worth pursuing.

Anyone who has ever driven around Wisconsin has seen abandoned or inactive quarries.

In some cases, they reverted to the landowner; in other cases, the companies that had mined them simply walked away, leaving behind a tangle of roads that go nowhere, broken-down equipment, and unstable rock walls.

Wisconsin has more than 2,500 active quarries, but no one knows how many were opened, mined and forgotten. They are attractive nuisances that draw trespassers to swim in dangerous lakes and to climb fragile rock walls. Each year in the United States, 20-30 people die in quarries, mostly from drowning, falls or ATV accidents, according to geology.com. Wisconsin ranks ninth in the number of quarry deaths.

That casual abandonment of quarries ended in 2001, when the Legislature adopted NR 135, requiring quarry owners to submit reclamation plans before starting quarry operations.

Prior to that, according to Candy Anderson, a geologist with Milestone Materials in Eau Claire, each county had its own rules and regulations, if it had any at all.

Although the program is officially under the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, its management has been handed off to the land conservation department in each county. That agency reviews reclamation plans and works with the quarry operator in implementing the plan. Reclamation plans require a public hearing before they can be approved, and over the life of the quarry operation, the DNR audits the process.

Bruce Richardson is the point man in the Monroe County land conservation department who deals with the county’s 47 active quarries.

Although reclamation sounds like something the quarry operator does on his or her way out the door, it is in fact an ongoing process that begins before the first shovel is stuck in the ground.

Richardson said the process of approving a reclamation plan begins with walking the site. The Monroe County land conservation department follows NR135 rules for reclamation, but if Richardson sees something in the plan that he does not think will work or be appropriate, he negotiates with the quarry operator. Invariably, he said, they are willing to make changes.

According to Anderson, reclamation plans not only deal with the end product, but also specify which steps will be taken during the quarry operation. The reclamation application for the proposed Wilton quarry can be read at http://www.co.monroe.wi.us/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/RecPlan.WiltonQ.AllReduced.4.30.141.pdf.

It includes information on the berms that would be constructed and such details as what would constitute the seed mixtures that would be planted. Erosion control is addressed in a separate permit filed with the DNR. Under NR135, quarry owners are required to stockpile the overburden and topsoil for later use in the reclamation process.

Because the mining will be done in stages of 25-30 acres, each area will undergo reclamation as mining reaches completion.

Once actual reclamation work begins to take place, the land conservationist department steps into high gear, usually visiting the site weekly or, at times, daily. Richardson said he is often checking the incline of slopes, storm-water drainage and verifying that grass and tree plantings follow the reclamation plan.

Determining the use of reclaimed mines depends on a number of factors, according to Anderson, including the property’s current use, the zoning in the county or township and, of course, what is possible.

The Wilton quarry site now consists primarily of corn and hay ground, along with an abandoned apple orchard and a very small abandoned quarry.

Steve Stuhr, projects manager for Milestone Materials, said it is difficult to restore a quarry area to cropland. Although NR135 requires that topsoil be stored during quarrying, putting it back the way it took Mother Nature millions of years to do is rarely feasible. A few sites in Monroe County include restored cropland, but it is far easier to make spent quarries into productive pastureland, Richardson said. In the case of the proposed Wilton quarry, Milestone Materials reclamation plan specifies light recreation: hiking, hunting, snowmobiling and activities of that nature. Richardson said that the permit application got the green light from the land conservation department, but final approval is waiting on Milestone Materials actually acquiring ownership of the property.

If the price of gravel and cement seems to be escalating, one reason may be the cost of reclamation. In its application, Milestone Materials estimates $855,000 in reclamation costs. Richardson determines that figure based on what he thinks it would cost the county to do the reclamation work should the operator fail to do so. The county then requires a bond or proof of insurance from the operator and reviews the estimate every five years to make sure the amount keeps up with inflation and with changes in the quarry operation.

Obviously the quarry operator, with all the tools and equipment, can do it cheaper. Stuhr estimates anywhere from $5,500 to $6,000 per acre for quarry reclamation.

Richardson said he had charge of the reclamation of five Monroe County quarries since the passage of NR135, most of them Mathy/Milestone Materials.

“They do a thorough job,” he said. “They are always willing to fix anything I may have a problem with.”

Light recreation usage was also the fate of the Overgaard quarry outside Elroy. That quarry was more than 600 acres, with 120 acres of active area, and had been mined since the 1920s. Milestone Materials bought it in 1982 and operated it until 2005, before it played out. Milestone Materials began reclamation immediately, moving and grading dirt to cover the sheer faces and quarry floors, and then landscaping and seeding the area.

In 2011, the company was recognized by the Aggregate Producers of Wisconsin for its exceptional work on the Overgaard quarry and on the Medary Quarry in La Crosse, part of which is now a wildlife and nature area belonging to the Mississippi Valley Conservancy. The Overgaard quarry was divided into four pieces, all of which have been sold for hunting ground. There are also several new homes on the property.

Anderson said that in her area, a quarry was converted into a subdivision. In some cases, municipalities buy them and convert them to parks and recreation areas.

Because each quarry is different, the results of reclamation vary. Just off County Highway A is the Moser quarry, which Milestone Materials leased and then reclaimed. That walls of that quarry were 70 feet tall, which is what is expected with the proposed Wilton quarry. Once reclamation was complete, the property owner took control and now has part of the site for sale. It would be difficult for the casual observer to see anything more than a big dimple in the ground.

That is exactly the goal of the Monroe County Land Conservation Department, said Richardson.

“We like to hear people say, I didn’t even know a quarry was once there.”

Other quarries may show more obvious signs. Steep walls can be terraced, and overburden and topsoil can be spread across the quarry floor, but signs of quarrying may always be evident for the careful observer who knows what he or she is looking at.

A reclamation permit is a fluid document, according to Richardson. The land conservation department recently granted a permit to Gerke for a 10-year quarry. But the Wilton quarry could last as long as 50 years, and times change. Revisions to the permit would require approval from the land conservation department.

Richardson said the public’s resistance to quarries makes it increasingly difficult to site one. About 10 of the county’s quarries are nearing the end of their lives. Only two ridges of land in the county can be expected to yield productive quarries, Richardson said. One is south of Sparta, in the town of Leon; and the other, south of Tomah, in the towns of Ridgeville and Wilton. Quarry operators, he said, must also find landowners willing to sell to them, and then make a big investment in test borings and other research to determine the quality of the rock.

Once reclaimed, will the Wilton quarry land look like it does now? Probably not anymore than it now looks like the pinery that once filled the hills and valley before the first settlers. But at least with the passage of NR 135, companies can no longer mine and leave behind a mess for the next generation to clean up.

It doesn’t look like much, but this is the old quarry on the Meacham property, which is now the center of the Milestone Materials’ proposed quarry controversy. It is believed the quarry opened in possibly the 1930s or 1940s for the construction of Highway 71. It was then closed.

The Moser quarry on County Highway A, just off Highway 131, has been reclaimed. Milestone Materials leased the property and reclaimed it at the end of the quarry operation. Although its reclamation was for passive recreation, it would be suitable for home sites overlooking Tomah, according to Mathy.

The photo below shows the Overgaard Quarry before reclamation; and the one above, after reclamation. Mathy stopped operating the quarry in 2004.

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