CFE 050800 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

iecting said. "But this is not our responsibility. cers, posted at Chapel Hill Hign 5cnool lent to The schools need to fund it. " P and East Chapel Hill High School, are the please see OFFICERS/PAGE 5 Quar 1'oheighb ors s k d I ee . ei iia of expansion OWASA hopes to use the facility to store 3 billion gallons ' ofwater as southern Orange County continues its growth By RAY GROMBERG The Chapel Hill Herald CHAPEL HILL — Neighbors of an N. C . 54 stone quarm ry pleaded with local officials this week to reject plans for its expansion, as the mining company and OWASA launched their final push to get the project approved . Officials from Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County opened hearings on the proposed expansion Wednesday and, 31/2 hours later, had listened to a suc- cession of complaints about the facility. Homeowner after homeowner complained that blast- Mg at the quarry site rattles their homes, in some cases causing damage . "It's not pleasant," said Anne Parrish, one of the neighbors . "The thought of living with it 30 more years is less pleasant . We are not crazy. Our houses shake, our windows rattle, things fall off our shelves . It's not ghosts. " OWASA directors, however, said the expansion promises southern Orange County a third reservoir, . one capable of holding up to 3 billion gallons of water, about the same as Cane Creek Reservoir. Board of Directors Chairman Peter Gordon brushed aside complaints that the Orange Water and Sewer Authority is overestimating future water demands. He said the project offers insurance against the possibility that growth might tax the utility's supply capacity. Without excess capacity, it would risk shortages. "A water utility has to function all the time," Gordon said. "When you operate a system all the time, you don't want to push it right to the edge. " Wednesday's hearing focused on the American Stone Co. 's request for a change to Orange County's joint land use plan, affecting 75 acres, that would allow the expan- sion. The additional digging would cross BethebHickory Grove Church Road and connect American Stone's cur- rent pit and a smaller one, located to the southeast, that OWASA already uses to store about. 200 million gallons of water. The expansion would produce a 60-acre lake . OWASA and the mining company have been pushing the expansion since 1990 . Numerous delays have dogged the approval process . The utility aborted the last set of hearings in 1994, when Carrboro aldermen please see GUARRY/ PAGE 2