Multiple county leaders said they couldn’t do anything against Vulcan Materials Company, so the fight to stop a local mining operation from doing more damage to homes in Piney Grove and Galestown will go on without the Richmond County Commission.
More than 20 people from Piney Grove and Galestown got together at the Galestown Community Center last summer to talk about how a nearby quarry affected their homes. When Richmond County officials heard about the talks, they told the residents that they couldn’t do anything about it because it was against the law.
“We hear you.” We hear you, but I wish we had the power to do some things. Commissioner Jason Gainey said, “I think we can look into things like speed limits and other similar things. At the very least, we can ask questions and see how we can help as a county to find a middle ground between two different goals.”
The problem is with a gravel quarry that is run by Vulcan Materials Company. Several homeowners say that the quarry damaged the foundations of their homes and makes everyday life dangerous for kids and the old. Yolanda Steele and her husband Chris have been trying to get Vulcan Materials Company to fix the problem for years.
They turned to social media to find other neighbors with the same problem after they thought a very large explosion last summer caused parts of their house to collapse. The Steele family paid Dry-Pro Foundation and Crawspace Specialists $20,000 to fix their home, but many other families who were affected by the blasting aren’t as lucky with their money.
The guy said, “I’ve worked on thousands of homes around the world, and I’ve never seen anything like this before.” That really blew my mind. Never.’ That’s what he said. That kind of thing will only be seen in a basement… “This is definitely caused by the ground moving,” Steele said.
In earlier conversations with Vulcan, the company told her that their own studies showed that explosions from mining operations were not strong enough to damage foundations. Steele says that one explosion might not be strong enough, but that repeated blasts over time cause the ground to move.
As soon as I heard about what you guys were doing, I paid close attention. We heard suggestions about the speed limits for heavy trucks… Commissioner Andy Grooms said, “I hear a lot of what you’re saying, but we can’t do much about certain things.”
Michael Newman, the county attorney, said that the US Bureau of Mines has control over the area and that the Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of keeping it safe. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality is in charge of state and local problems. The county, on the other hand, can’t do anything or enforce laws and rules that are already in place.
“The NCDOQ or the EPA will be in charge of watching how mines work and making sure they follow the rules and standards set by federal law.” For the same reason as every other county board, this one can’t tell mining companies how to run their businesses. It’s mostly a matter of preparation. Federal and state laws don’t allow it, Newman said.