I wanted to summarize the reasons why the Board of Adjustments denied the 7-Sands mine. So I listened to the recording of the meeting.
Here are the key points that they made when they denied the last application (they had to do it 6 times because of the way the applications were made, so they got pretty polished by the end):
- Proposed extension to the Moratorium
- The size of the facility
- Health department studies have raised issues of air quality and ground water quality impacts
- Impact of facility of the health and safety of the residents in the area
- Traffic issues
- Concerns that Glacier Sands and the CFC School District were unable to reach an agreement on the traffic safety issues
- Lack of harmony with the future development of the district
- Existing topography and drainage — impact on natural filtering capacity of the sand, by removing it — impact on ground water quality
- Substantial justice to all parties involved
- Concerns with the impact on the current economy — impact of running trucks through the small towns along the river (Fountain City and Alma)
- Impact on tourism economy
- Inability to agree on haul route and impact on students
- Public health, air quality and water quality
- Soil drainage
- Impact on, and safety of, County roads
As I was listening to the audio of the meeting, the Ray Charles version of “America the Beautiful” kept running through my head. So I picked the last time through for the BOA and added Ray to the mix.
Ray’s on one channel, the BOA is on the other. So if one is too loud, twiddle the “balance” control to set the mix to your liking.
Click HERE for the MP3.