Cass County Residents Express Concern Over Gravel Quarry Project

CASS COUNTY, Mich. (WNDU) – Dozens of concerned Cass County residents gathered Wednesday night for a public meeting to discuss the High Grade Materials Special Land Use Plan and nonresidential site.

The company is proposing to purchase a 134-acre sand and gravel mining site in Cassopolis on Decatur Road.

WNDU 16 News Now spoke with residents outside the Cass County Road Commission office during the meeting.

Residents do not want this gravel pit in their community and say it will legally change their countryside and peaceful way of life.

“So we have solar farms coming at us, gravel pits coming at us. I don’t know how our way of life is going to continue,” said local resident Cynthia Hemenway.

On Wednesday night, the Volinia Township Planning Commission held a public meeting to consider a request from High Grade Materials Company, along with Nathan and Lou Ann Robinson, to allow mining operations on land zoned for agricultural production.

Amber Hoover, CEO of High Grade Materials, explained that the pit needed the right aggregates, which are raw materials produced from natural sources and extracted from pits and quarries.

Residents near the proposed mine site say production will disrupt peaceful rural life and produce toxic contaminants.

“It’s a lifestyle that has always had us worried about soil contamination from pesticides and other things they use,” Hemenway said. “That was always a concern, along with irrigation. So when you live in the country, you always have in mind that the amount they’re going to put in and use is astronomical compared to what we’ve been concerned about all these years.”

Planned truck routes are Dewey Lake Street through Sister Lakes to I-94 and Marcellus Highway to 131.

People who have lived and grown up near this area their entire lives have explained how dangerous this road is.

“Decatur is here, Fozzy is here from Decatur to Marcellus or Cass. There’s a hill coming up and it doesn’t go from here to this pole, and you don’t see anybody coming up because it’s too steep,” said local residents Glenn and Brenda Blough.

“The traffic in the fall with the harvest tractors, and then they’re going to put these trucks on Decatur Road through Marcellus. You can’t tell me there’s school buses everywhere, they’re going to drive right past the school entrance,” said Victoria Locke, a local resident.