Mine proposal cuts deep
Chicago company’s plan to extract gravel near wildlife preserve has many up in arms
LITTLE TURKEY CREEK CANYON» Silence and fine mist engulf the place now as bears stir, birds flit through piñon and juniper trees, and a year-round creek trickles up through delicate cracks in granite.
But a battle over a proposed 239-acre gravel mine to rip out millions of tons of that granite just south of Colorado Springs — here along Colorado’s already-scarred Front Range mountains — has blown up into a high-decibel test case: How does a state increasingly oriented toward natural beauty handle extractive projects that ravage the beauty?
Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety officials this week are recommending approval for the Chicagobased Transit Mix Concrete company, which runs two existing gravel mines cut into Pikes Peak foothills north of Colorado Springs, to carve out a new one here — next to an emerging 1,600-acre wildlife preserve.
They have refused to discuss that recommendation.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife previously designated the area as a prime surviving ecosystem along the booming Front Range. Federal officials are studying a nearby area as potential wilderness. State mining officials already have permitted 1,260 other gravel mines around the state.
“Why would we trash this when there’s a huge surplus of aggregate in the area?” said Warren Dean, a commercial developer helping to lead opposition. The Hitch Rack Ranch gravel mine would bring up to 400 trucks a day and daily explosive blasts to remove rock from under today’s wildlife habitat.
“The world has changed,” Dean said near his home at the base of the canyon, casting Colorado’s future as “knowledge workers” who want to reconnect with nature rather than destroy it.
“We’ve already got plenty of resources. Our society has placed a much higher value on ecosystems, beauty and natural heritage. This is a modern world. We compete in a modern economy. And scars are bad for business,” he said.
On the other side of the battle, industry officials contend more gravel is needed to sustain Colorado’s building boom that now includes widening Interstate 25 north of Colorado Springs. They’ve offered a “world-class mountain biking park” for Colorado Springs and promised to fix the existing scars on the mountains. And they say royalties for the owner of the 1,400-acre Hitch Rack Ranch where the mine would be cut would prevent possible construction of houses or other development next to the wildlife preserve.
“We want to close our two mines north of the city and move our business south to this area that is more in line with the growth,” Transit Mix president Jerry Schnable said. “State schools also will receive royalties from these minerals — that will be $750,000 a year. And this project will allow the family to keep the ranch as it is.
“The ranch will stay as a large open space, a good conservation measure (next to the wildlife preserve). Once somebody proposes a mine, it tends to polarize people. But this state was built up as a mining state. People have become somewhat detached from the fact they drive on roads (made using gravel). The notion is that we will go mine someplace else. Well, this is the best answer for conservation, versus the preservation advocated by the opponents.”
The existing gravel mines owned by Transit Mix have loomed over Colorado Springs for decades as much-derided “scars on the mountain.” A state permit designates both as “active,” allowing delay of work to fully “reclaim” the land as legally required. A landslide swept down one quarry in 2008, and state regulators had to step in, ordering stabilization work.
Transit Mix officials emphasize they will accelerate reclamation if state officials grant a permit to create the Hitch Rack Ranch mine, nine miles south of Colorado Springs along Colorado 115 across from the Fort Carson military base. Otherwise, they would keep mining gravel at the existing sites and delay reclamation for another two decades.
This gravel project has ignited a storm because the Nature Conservancy, El Pomar Foundation and a local trust already have invested millions here to establish the Aiken Canyon Natural Area and Preserve, including a visitor center. Trout Unlimited supports saving the wildlife habitat and protecting water flows. El Paso County and Colorado State University’s natural heritage program also have earmarked the area for preservation. The land spans crags, canyons, juniper and piñon forests. It is home to bears, migrating elk and deer, and more than 100 species of birds, including nuthatches, western bluebirds, wild turkeys and golden eagles. Federal authorities have designated critical habitat here for saving the Mexican Spotted Owl, a threatened species.
“Given that there is ample aggregate for our community, our future is to protect and preserve our mountain backdrop and natural assets, not continue to destroy them. We continue to apologize for those scars on the mountain,” said El Pomar vice president Thayer Tutt. “Why in the world would we invite people to come here and then tell them we are allowing a new scar? The last thing in the world we want to do is something that would destroy our natural habitat. This is not a good deal at all.”
Transit Mix’s proposal to extract gravel from a 500-foot-deep pit requires approval by the Colorado Mined Lands Reclamation Board, expected this week. Then, El Paso County authorities would issue a special-use permit and work with state transportation officials to develop road access from Colorado 115 for the trucks.
When the state DRMS officials recommended board approval of this project, they overrode a near-record 568 formal objections from residents. Colorado’s 1976 law governing gravel extraction was amended in the 1980s to require conservation of natural resources and protection of wildlife and water. The DRMS officials tackled each objection in a 75-page report based on Transit Mix promises to monitor and minimize harm.
The State Land Board, which owned mineral rights to the gravel, signed off on this project in 2016 because of a mission that prioritizes generating revenues for schools.
Opponents have been pressing mining board members to hold fast to a previous decision not to allow the mine. Transit Mix filed a lawsuit challenging that initial denial as “arbitrary and capricious.”
Transit Mix submitted reclamation plans committing to restore its two existing gravel mines — the Pikeview and Snyder mines — to a condition suitable for wildlife habitat, state natural resources spokesman Todd Hartman wrote in response to Post queries. A landslide in 2008 disrupted that work, he said, and Transit Mix shifted to a different “lay back” approach involving grading to try to stabilize a scraped-off slope in hopes of eventually revegetating the area.
Among those challenging state officials’ recommended green light is Harris Sherman, a former director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources and the Mined Land Reclamation Board who also served as the U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary overseeing the Forest Service.
“This state has a responsibility to prevent a massive, destructive gravel quarry from being developed in a highly sensitive area, particularly when important wildlife and water resources cannot be protected,” Sherman said, warning of “a terrible precedent” for protection of natural areas statewide.
At the Hitch Rack, owner Cindi Allmendinger, a former schoolteacher, said the ranch is historic, dating to when the Zebulon Pike expedition stopped to draw water from a spring. The family believes strongly in unencumbered private property rights and wants to keep the land undeveloped if possible, she said.
“Yes, we really want to keep the ranch as a ranch, and we would be excited to have the quarry on our land,” she said. ” Once the mine is done and the land is reclaimed, I will have a really great habitat for pasture and wildlife. Housing developments are forever, but in terms of the life cycle of a ranch, quarries are a short-term event.
“My kids and I want to keep this ranch going. … The plan is for us, like all the owners before us, to keep taking care of the land. But I can’t predict the future, so I don’t want to limit my grandchildren’s options.”