Cusseta residents ask commission to intervene on private site – Valley Times-News

Suzanne Montgomery and Jack Robertson both spoke before the Chambers County Commission Monday night to express their concerns about a possible quarry in Cusseta.

A permit has been filed with ADEM (Alabama Department of Environmental Management) for a proposed mining facility and quarry on County Road 389. Many Cusseta residents are against the quarry and have asked for help from the county commission.

The land is privately owned.

After the last commission meeting, Commission Chairman James “Moto” Williams told the Valley Times-News that the commission has no control over the proposed quarry because the county has no zoning laws.

He added that citizens with concerns should contact ADEM.

Montgomery spoke about the negative impacts the quarry will have on the land surrounding the site and on air and water quality. She asked who was responsible for maintaining county roads that could be damaged by trucks traveling to and from the quarry.

“Who will bear the costs of this irreversible destruction?” Montgomery asked.

Montgomery also said the county should protect wildlife in the area, such as bald eagles.

Montgomery said she has always believed in a person’s right to use their private property for their own benefit or that of their family.

“However, if the right to use or develop their property interferes with, interrupts, or destroys a neighbor’s use of his or her property or causes harm to his or her neighbor, they must cease that activity or pay fair compensation to his or her her neighbors for damage,” Montgomery added.

Robertson, a fifth-generation landowner in Cusseta, said his farm is 2 kilometers from the proposed quarry. He spoke about his collaboration with other local farmers in the province.

“Now with this proposed mine site we are being asked to accept that we are exposing ourselves and our livestock to degraded air quality, increased loud, unnatural noise, likely contaminated water in foreign sources and even water elimination,” Robertson said. are being asked to expose ourselves and our families to a much more dangerous road environment, tenfold.”

Robertson said the Cusseta community should not accept development that they see as a disrespect and encroachment on their own land.

“We are being asked to accept this mine site because of the greed of a few, and this would be detrimental to our community, our city, county, and it is completely (disrespectful) to the landowners, farmers and ancestors who have already sacrificed so much in the name of progress,” said Robertson.