County backs off company’s rock mining

Officials: See if Fayetteville can regulate operations

FAYETTEVILLE — Washington County will not take action against a rock mining company that is blasting outside its permitted area, according to County Attorney Brian Lester.

County Judge Joseph Wood and Lester want to see what role Fayetteville could play in regulating the quarry, said Jim Kimbrough, county planning director.

The mine, off Hamstring Road, is near Farmington and Fayetteville. Hunt-Rogers Materials, the company running the mine, is a joint venture of Rogers Group and NW Arkansas Quarries, according to the Rogers Group website.

The county backed off its request for operators to stop mining outside the quarry’s original 45 acres after a Rogers Group attorney sent the county a six-page letter outlining why the company can continue to blast.

Mine operators can expand beyond the original property boundaries without getting a permit from the county planning department because of a 2006 county-company agreement, according to the Rogers

Group letter dated June 29. The agreement is signed by George Butler, who was county attorney at the time.

The company holds land in reserve that can be used to expand the mine, attorney Robert Rhoads wrote in the letter.

Lester said in an email the county is not backing off over fear of a lawsuit. The quarry is in Fayetteville’s planning area. “Therefore, Washington County will not exercise jurisdiction over the site,” he said.

Lester previously said the mine operators must go through the county’s permit process to expand mining operations.

Cities that are not near a navigable river cannot control land use outside the city limits, said Don Zimmerman, executive director of the Arkansas Municipal League. The mine is in the county’s jurisdiction, said Andy Harrison, Fayetteville’s development coordinator in the planning division.

“That’s not completely true,” Lester said in an email. “They have some statutory control over certain residential projects outside of the city limits.”

Neighbors say blasting at the quarry has continued unabated. No one has complained to the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality recently, spokeswoman Kelly Robinson said in an email.

The state is not involved in any actions that involve the county, Fayetteville or mine operators, Robinson said. The quarry’s state unconditional authorization permit expires May 27, 2018, she said.

The quarry opened as a dirt mine in the 1990s.

Rogers Group filed paperwork with the state environmental agency to “reopen” the quarry in 2008, according to documents provided by ADEQ. Exactly when the mine closed is unclear, based on records, but neighbors say the mine originally was only open intermittently.

County property records show the land was sold three times before Rogers Group bought it in 2011. The company bought about 10 smaller subdivision parcels of 3 to 5 acres and a 40 acre tract at the same time, records show. Rhoads said in his letter Rogers Group had planned to expand.

Lester said previously the quarry was in operation before the county set largescale development standards in 2004 and before the conditional-use permit standards appeared in 2006.

Rogers Group tried to get a permit to expand the mine in 2009 but ran into resistance from residents. The county denied that request.