Proposed mine in the middle of Chino Valley neighborhood sparks outrage
CHINO VALLEY, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — People in Yavapai County are outraged over a proposed mine that would sit right in the middle of their neighborhood. The site is planned less than 250 feet from homes and would be in use for at least 20 years.
Tim Wright has lived in the Chino Valley for almost 30 years. But after deciding to move closer to family, they put their house on the market. Everything was on pace, but when the news spread about a proposed aggregate mine in their neighborhood, the buyers backed out. Now, he is scrambling to find someone to buy his once-dream home at 2875 Nighthawk Road in a situation that has turned into a nightmare. “I’ve got to come up with $785,000 in 11 days and this really puts us in, like I said, a quagmire. $785,000, that’s a lot of money to lose,” he said.
The mine run by Rock Supply LLC would operate on a 25.2-acre site and remove more than 616,000 cubic yards of rock to be processed into cement material over the next two decades.
Tim is one of the hundreds of concerned people in the quiet neighborhood who said they were notified just weeks ago by public notices on surrounding telephone poles. Danny Brumett lives just downhill from where the mine would sit. “From the rock processing area to my house is 213 feet,” Brumett said. “As time goes by, we’re just heartbroken.”
Residents shared that they are not only worried about the direct impact to their community but also how this will impact the wildlife and their water, as most people are on wells.
State mine inspector Paul Marsh held a meeting Thursday in Prescott to answer questions from dozens of concerned neighbors. “We sympathize with them but I don’t have any jurisdiction on whether or not the mine goes in,” Marsh said. “We look at the health and safety of the mine, of the employees of the mine once the mine is running.”
The specific timeline of the project is still unclear. Rock LLC representatives said this is just the beginning of the process and they plan to hold a community outreach meeting in the future. “Any modifications that need to be made, anything else, we’ll have it taken care of and we’ll bring it back to you as a part of this public process,” a spokesperson said.
But residents said they don’t want the mine anywhere near their community. “For somebody to step up and say this is unacceptable,” Brumett said. “You can’t be this close to neighboring houses.”
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