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<>Marble
quarrying can be traced back to the 1660s in the Champlain Valley.
Fisk Quarry, located in Isle La Motte, dates back to 1664 and was a
producer of
blue/black marble (also known as “Radio City Black” marble) renowned
for its
stunning polish. In 1995, the Champlain County Marble Company
bought the
quarry and attempted to continue mining. Efforts by community
members
prevented the mine from being re-activated, and in 1998 the Champlain
County
Marble Company sold the quarry to the Isle La Motte Reef Preservation
Trust. Today, it is called the Fisk Quarry Preserve and, due to
its
impressive collection of fossils and wildlife habitat, serves as an
environmental interpretative center. Historically, white and
green
dimension marble has been quarried in Addison, Rutland,
and Bennington
counties.
It
is important to note that environmentalists often draw a distinction
between
stone quarrying and extracting industrial calcium carbonate for other
secondary
products.
According
to the Vermont Geological Survey’s Mine Reference File, there were
three fully
operational marble quarries, five intermittently operational quarries,
and two
permanently closed quarries in August of 2003. Roughly 189 people
are
employed in the marble quarries in Vermont,
the majority of which are located in Rutland County.
Through its
subsidiaries and contractors, Omya Inc., a Swiss company, currently the
world’s
largest producer of calcium carbonate, employs the largest number of
quarry
workers: 159. The Vermont Marble Company began making calcium
carbonate
out of marble composites in 1940. Today, this powder is used in
tires,
chewing gum, plastics, paper, paint, pharmaceuticals, and even
food.
However, food-grade product is not refined in Vermont. Omya owns land on which
three quarries
are operated by SLC and Troy Minerals in Middlebury, Florence
and South Wallingford,
Vermont. Omya
also owns land in Danby that
contains the world’s largest underground marble quarry. This quarry is
leased
to an Italian firm. Omya manages a processing plant in Florence (see Omya’s website).
<>Recently,
conflict has arisen between environmentalists and Omya.
Vermonters for a
Clean Environment (VCE), were successful in halting work on a
proposed
quarry on a Danby hillside in 2004. They charged the company with
potentially
disrupting a range of quality of life issues as a result of noisy
trucking and
blasting. The residents also claimed that the threat of a new
mine has
decreased local real estate values, has led to a decline in the
community’s
aesthetic appeal, and a pump test in preparation for mining has
adversely
affected underground springs
<>
In
addition, Residents Concerned about Omya (RCO) has been concerned since
2002
about the environmental and public health impacts of Omya’s processing
plant in
Florence.
More
recently, RCO and VCE have been concerned that Omya will be opening
mines in
Salisbury, Florence, and other small towns in Vermont with the help of
the most
recent U.S. Congress Transportation Bill. Omya has been
successful in
lobbying for a rail spur that will enable expansion and VCE believes
that this
will take unfair advantage of the Bill’s public funding as well as its
provisions for eminent domain and permit exemption (see VCE’s website).
<>
In
2004, a lawsuit was filed in state and federal courts regarding Omya’s
processing plant waste. Vermont
Law School’s
Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, on behalf of RCO, seeks
to halt
dumping until a safer method is found and groundwater is not affected
(see the Vermont
Law School’s
press release).
The company contends that the product is important and the process
relatively
benign; tailings or waste do not pose any health risks and groundwater
is
unaffected. The Conservation Law Foundation Ventures is working
with Omya
improve community relations and consider joint conservation options.
However,
larger reconciliation with the community continues to remain elusive as
lawsuits are pending on issues related to waste management.
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