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Stone Quarry Update <br />August 28, 1995_. <br />Page 4 <br />11 <br />Planning Area Public Hearing in April, 1999. <br />No new information is available at this time that has not been provided previously. An <br />October 7 public hearing would be useful in presenting OWASA's and American Stone's <br />position to local elected officials who may benefit from a review of the issues, or those <br />who have taken office since the information was last presented, but it would provide no <br />new information. <br />It is likely that questions will be raised about the timing of our expected need for an <br />expanded water supply; how an expanded quarry would affect the need and timing for <br />Jordan Lake water; the basis of our future demand forecasts; how much additional yield <br />would be provided by an expanded quarry versus the existing (active) pit now being <br />mined by American Stone, and so forth. We have addressed these issues fully and <br />directly with the best information available in all previous presentations and written <br />information to the Board of Directors, local governments, and the public, and have <br />always qualified it in terms of technical certainty and reliability. <br />It has been staff's position that the existing information has been sufficient to support an <br />informed decision on the quarry expansion; but, as noted above, certain elements of the <br />upcoming Water /Sewer Master Plan project will focus specifically on several unresolved <br />questions. In order to provide more accurate and reliable information, and to be more <br />responsive to citizens' questions regarding these issues, staff recommends delaying the <br />public hearing until April, 1999. <br />We expect that more technically definitive information will be available within the next <br />six months, and are confident that neither OWASA's nor American Stone's operational <br />or planning interests will be compromised by a six -month delay. Staff believes that the <br />additional information will help clarify several important issues and better support an <br />informed decision to approve the quarry expansion. <br />Ed Kerwin <br />Executive Director <br />