Conditional use permit request draws community input

Many concerned Sidney residents filled the Cheyenne County Planning Commission’s room Monday afternoon to discuss an application for a conditional use permit for a proposed use of mining soil, gravel, sand and rock. The land is located on County Rd. 99 in the Southeast quarter of section 13, according to information from the commission.

The permit was applied for by Pine Bluffs Gravel and Excavation, Inc. and Doug Keller attended the meeting to represent the company.

Residents hoped the commissioners would deny the conditional use permit saying that the dirt and dust caused by the company was making their residences practically unlivable. Keller on the other hand said that the company kept the roads wet and that their project was vital.

“There is an I-80 project. The use of that sand and gravel probably saved well over a million dollars to the taxpayers and minimizes the traffic on county roads because it is all being produced there instead of being hauled from outside the area,” said Keller.

“We also have a concrete plant sitting in there until the fall of 2014. It would just provide competition for the city of Sidney and all the activity going on at the Sioux Army Depot.”

Commission member Bill Sydow inquired if at the time the business started in the area a permit was required for Keller and his crew to conduct work and why he hadn’t filed for a conditional permit back at the beginning of the process.

Keller said that when his company moved to the property in July it was his understanding that the county zoning regulations stated that on agricultural land it is permitted to use borrow pits, asphalt plants and concrete plants. He said that at the time his business exclusively and temporarily used those services for public road improvement projects.

Keller said his crew didn’t find the gravel deposit upon the property until late June and his business had to begin making material by the middle of July.

Sydow said that the “conditional permit actually specifies for mineral resource development and that includes open pit mining, asphalt and concrete plants.”

The commissioner also asked whether the agricultural zone could go back to said use after the company was done with the projects.

“Yes we do we have a reclamation plan in place. We have stored all the strip top soil and when we get done it is my understanding that that all will be replaced,” Keller said.

Sydow however brought up the stipulations that the company should have been operating during their project and said that it hadn’t been up-to-par.

“This is a pretty heavy duty operation and one of these things in the mining

regulations is that the operator shall maintain haulage roads in a reasonably dust-free condition if within a quarter-mile of a previously established residential subdivision,” Sydow said. “I only drove by it a couple times last summer but it was a haze and you couldn’t see through it and it was going downwind on everybody’s property who was there before this operation was.”

Keller said that the company ran a full-time water truck along the establishment all summer long and that the contractor for I-80 is trying to permit access off of Highway 30 so that County Rd. 99 will be used less as projects continue.

“Something that we have always done is try to maintain our haul roads,” said Keller.

He also stated that the team had spread straw on top soil and seeded a cover crop, as well as had an engineer draw up the company a storm water pollution prevention plan.

“You may have gone ahead and watered it but it wasn’t getting the job done,” said Ron Flohr, a commission member.

Bob Reynolds, a lawyer who drove from Ogallala to represent the Craig Harrison, Brad Sutton and Chad Hrbek families at the meeting, showed pictures of the families’ homes and all of the dust that would compile very quickly within and on the outside of the residences due to the company’s proceedings.

“Their three residences are literally immediately to the east of this proposed use. They have been inundated by dirt and dust. One has put his house up for sale because their children are unable to use it. It’s devalued their property dramatically over night,” said Reynolds.

Craig Harrison, the man who put his house up for sale, was also in attendance and explained his reasoning behind the move.

“I live just directly east of that proposed pit and I’ve been in Sidney for just over two years now. When I came to Sidney the reason why I decided to live out there was I wanted to be out in the country, I wanted to have some acreage and I wanted to be away from a lot of these things this gravel pit has done to us,” said Harrison.

“I am the one who put our house up on the market. When we bought that house we had full intent to do a remodel on that house and really make it a place that we wanted to be for a really long time,” he said. “Unfortunately for the health and safety of my family I have the house up on the market right now and I had to buy another house. I had to leave and it wasn’t because I wanted to leave. You (Keller) put me in that situation as to here I had to take my family out of that habitat and leave.”

Harrison said that he hoped the commissioners would not grant the company the conditional use permit.

“You have put undue stress on me and my family with what has happened up to this point and I don’t see this moving forward. It is just not the right thing; it has cost us so much,” said Harrison.

Reynolds said that other complaints against the company were that residents could not open their doors without an incoming of dust and dozens of diesel work trucks would idle and make noise from sun up to sun down.

“The noise in addition to the dust was intolerable,” said Reynolds.

Brad Sutton, who said he lives directly across from the proposed site, said that another problem was that people were trespassing.

“We get people stopping in late at night wanting to use the bathroom because they are here with their husband or what not in the trucks,” said Sutton.

“One guy brought his kid over to ask if he could swim in our swimming pool,” added Harrison.

Other concerns brought up by nearby residents were potential ground water issues, road congestion and dust and dirt in the air.

“When they tried to take care of the road dust problem they made a mud problem. The road was blocked by their trucks from 20 minutes to 2 hours sometimes. You couldn’t get around them;they parked on both sides of the road,” said one citizen.

One concerned citizen said that due to the accumulated dust his grandkids were unable to use their swimming pool this past summer because of all the dirt and mud collected in it. He also said that the company’s activities made it harder for him to visit his grandchildren there.

“I personally haven’t been able to be over there as much as I want to because of the dirt. I can’t take that much dirt. I would like to recommend we don’t give the permit,” said the grandfather.

Reynolds said that he had written to the company on behalf of the families he represented outlining the problems residents were having.

“The response that we received basically said forget it - we have the power to do this so we are going to do it,” said Reynolds.

“This is D-day number one. There is plenty of law in the state of Nebraska that says if you create a condition where you trespass on your neighbors property, whether it be by dust or otherwise, you can be responsible for that and it will be our intention to pursue this further if the condition persists,” said Reynolds.

Cheyenne County Attorney Paul Schaub said that when the company came to him initially it appeared as though the company was in compliance with permissible use standards under an agricultural district when using asphalt and borrow pits to complete a public roads project.

“But I want to point out that the section is limited to temporarily and exclusively within completed project. It’s a period of no more than six months,” Schaub said. The project however had already fallen over seven months and Schaub said the only way for a extension to continue would be by the company acquiring a conditional use permit.

“I don’t think this dust problem will ever get solved and I think it will just get larger and larger,” Sydow said.

The commissioners moved to deny the application. Although it was denied by planning commission members however, the Cheyenne County Board of Commissioners gets the final say in the matter.

Schaub brought to the attention of commission members ways to change the code regarding proposed permissible use so that an event like this would be prevented from happening so easily again.

Also discussed among the commissioners was if language should be changed to put actual sizes and amounts of gravel that could be permitted on areas of land. Discussion will continue after the next Cheyenne County Board of Commissioners meeting next month.