Gravel pit gets six-year stay

Thursday, July 22, 2004 | 9:39 a.m.

The Clark County Commission on Wednesday gave a six-year lease on life to continued digging at a gravel pit in the residential Silverado Ranch area despite the warning from the county's legal counsel that the pit amounted to a commercial mining operation.

The gravel pit, where digging started in 1995, will eventually serve as a detention basin for flood waters on the south side of the valley.

Chris Kaempfer, the attorney representing the owners of Cactus Sand and Gravel, said the terms of the pit's original approval from the county gives the operators six years from the time the Federal Emergency Management Agency defines the flow of flood waters expected to the detention basin.

The FEMA study should be done by January, he said, so the pit operators have six years from that date. He said the detention basin is 55-percent complete.

"We cannot just go away," Kaempfer said. "For the protection of the whole neighborhood, the basin has to be built."

Rob Warhola, county counsel, said the point of the operation, however, no longer appears to be to build a detention basin.

"Our engineers have told us they have already over-excavated for the detention basin," Warhola said. "This is basically a commercial mining operation. This was supposed to be completed a year or two ago."

Although the mining operation has generated opposition through the years from residents in the neighborhood bothered by dust and noise, Kaempfer said that during the past year the county has not received any formal complaints about the operation.

"We are working with our neighbors," he told the commission.

Many of those neighbors bought homes from American West Homes, which shares offices and corporate officers with Cactus Sand and Gravel.

Dale Osburn Sr., a retiree, said he was disappointed with the 6-1 decision to allow the gravel operation to continue. He lives about a third of a mile from the pit. He said many of the residents of the area expected the gravel mining to be over years ago.

"They really haven't covered the issues of concern regarding the noise and the dust," he said. "I can't even sit on my own front porch in the evening."

Commissioner Bruce Woodbury, who represents the area, was the sole vote against the continued operation of the gravel pit.

"I do appreciate the efforts that have been made to try to address the concerns that have been expressed, but that doesn't make the concerns go away," Woodbury said.

Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey disagreed.

"I feel very comfortable with the six years to complete it," Kincaid-Chauncey said. "I can understand the properties aren't selling, and I don't think I would have bought a home next to a property that was being excavated.

"I just feel we should let them complete it, do the job," she said. "We should have not approved projects right next to this and people should not have bought them if they are disturbed by this."

Kaempfer said the pit would continue to operate under rules imposed by the commission a year ago that are designed to limit the impact on the residential area. The mine operators also will continue to meet with neighbors four times a year to discuss problems of noise, dust and other issues, he said.