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Quarry fight update
NEW SAUGERTIES TIMES, March 21, 2002, p. 6
The existence of pallets of bluestone at the proposed Shott Mine Inc. quarry off Morse Road in Veteran has prompted the company's attorney to seek a declaratory ruling from the New York State department of environmental conservation allowing the stone to be removed while the company seeks a permit to mine. Kevin Bernstein, the counsel, went over the head of DEC's Region 3 to ask the central counsel in Albany for the ruling.
Regional officials do not allow mining or the removal of stone to take place during the permitting process. Shott Mine also faces a serious obstacle from the town of Saugerties, which is in the process of amending its zoning law to prohibit mining from residential zones in the town. (A previous attempt at changing the law had to be revisited because of a technical error in its filing).
"This would be a huge tragedy for Saugerties," said local attorney March Gallagher, who represents CARES, the citizens group opposed to the Shott Mine application. "There's stone all over this town. It means that anyone could come in and mine without a permit anywhere there is loose stone."
Bernstein argues that removing the stone does not constitute mining. The mining, he argues, occurs with the extraction of the stone, not its transportation. DEC in Albany has asked for information on the amount of stone and the reasons for its removal. The state agency also has the option of simply dismissing the request or holding a public hearing.
Shott Mine, meanwhile, has secured an ally in William Parr, the nearby Veteran quarry owner. Parr stated in a deposition that he mined the quarry area behind Morse Road over several years, including a period after the zoning law was adopted. Zoning provisions at the time required that any "existing uses" not in conformance with the new law be registered within a period of time after the new law's enactment. Parr did not make such a declaration concerning the Morse Road area.