Proposed Lexington County quarry OK’d

Vulcan Materials Co. won approval Tuesday for changes in its plan for a quarry in western Lexington County that company officials say will reduce problems for nearby homeowners.

In a final vote, Lexington County Council approved the revisions 7-1 even though opponents wanted a delay to analyze them.

Vulcan is working to open the quarry on a site midway between Batesburg-Leesville and Gilbert, saying it will be an eventual replacement for its 124-year-old quarry in the Olympia area near Columbia.

It will produce crushed stone used mainly in concrete and asphalt for residential and commercial development, company officials say.

Vulcan agreed to expand the landscape buffer around the mine to reduce noise and dust and to create a new entry on U.S. 1 for trucks hauling stone.

New company development standards means slightly more than a third of the 550-acre site will remain natural, with the closest home nearly a half-mile away from the mine, company vice president Elliott Botzis said.

The new entry will be solely for quarry trucks to keep them off roads used by other vehicles, he said.

Both changes “are the best thing for our operation and for the community,” Botzis said.

Nearby homeowners say the changes alleviate some concerns, but promise to continue their effort to stop the quarry from opening in 2017.

“We don’t want it to ever open, but this gives some protection,” said Lisa Lewis, a leader of the Ridge Protection Coalition.

State environmental officials must sign off on the plan for the new quarry, a review that hasn’t started.

“If this quarry is going to happen, we need to make things as good as possible for those around it,” said Councilman Larry Brigham of Batesburg-Leesville, the only dissenter in approval of the changes. “This is a sensitive situation for this area, and we need to take a longer look at these changes.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 7:13 PM.