Hello..
I am one of those unfortunates that the board of supervisors for Pierce County, WI decided to put a sand and gravel quarry in front of. I built my home one year before the farmer west of my house (across the road) decided to sell his property to a corporate gravel company (County Materials). Niether our town board nor any of us in the county approved of putting a gravel pit in this area...yet the county decided to do it anyway. All complaints to the county about the air pollution, increased traffic, incessant noise were talked down by County Materials. They told the county that they would treat the landowners that live across from the pit with total consideration, that traffic was only going to be a small number of their smaller trucks and that they would build berms and plant trees to help with noice and dust pollution. Once they received the permit from the county, they totally ignored all promises made. The traffice is triple to what we were promised, working times were ignored and no attempt is made to keep the dust in check.
There are five homes directly across from this pit...we are not a 1/2 mile away nor 1/4 mile away..the pit is within a few 100 ft of our homes. The pit originally was allowed (by Pierce County) to run from Mon thru Fri from 6am to 9pm. and from 8am to 5pm on Sat. I had to go to the board and tell them that not even "city" folks have to put up with companies running these long hours. The county then finally agreed to cut the hours of the company to 6am to 6pm Mon-Fri and from 8am to Noon on Saturday. It is still HORRIBLE!! We are woke up every morning by the constant noise of augers and trucks..the constant noise continues right up until 6pm.
Then...the blasting! One of the first blastings was so horrible that it shoke everything off the walls in my poleshed. I called and "screamed" at the county, who told me to call the gravel company which I did. They in turn had me talk to the "dynamiters", who pretty much called me a baby and that their blasting does not effect anything. I asked the "dynamiter" rep if he would like to come into my poleshed to see the damage and he refused. Every time there is blasting, my home shakes so horribly that the glassware in my cubbards rattle, all furniture with knick knacks on shake and the pictures on my walls are askew.
The dust pollution is the worse. It is totally effecting my health. Even with every window in my home closed and locked, the fine silica penetrates my home, causing my sinus's to stuff up and my eyes to become cloudy. I can't breath because of it. I taste it in my mouth. I have already had a TV destroyed within 7 years of it's purchase because of the filth.
Last year, I went to the board of supervisors of Pierce County about my health issues...one of the board members stated that if the quarry couldn't run during windy days, they might as well shut down...he was being "sarcastic" to our health problems. Pierce County ignores the fact that trees do not stop the filth, nor does the berms. They felt that it was County Material augers that were causing the wind storms and told them to drop their augers to a lower level in order to contain the dust storms...which, of course, County Material ignores..one day they might drop the augers, the next time they keep them at full height.
The problem is that the augers are not the only issue. County Materials has not been considerate to any of us that live within a few hundred feet of their quarry. They have large stacks of product stacked right in front of our homes...they could care less about us and our health! Whenever there is a wind from the west or south, especially over the last few months, our homes are blasted continually all day long by the clouds of material. I have had to leave my home and go elsewhere because I literally cannot breath! If the winds are milder, I am able to stay in my "locked up" home, but I can not go outside, because my breathing is adversely affected. The next morning after these days of wind, I cannot open my eyes because they are so crusted up. The sad thing is that both the dairy farmer next to me and I have animals that suffer thru it! I bet County Materials nor Pierce County will pay for vet fees when our animals start to have eye and respirtory problems
Pierce County should have never allowed a quarry to be put within such close proximity to residences. I cannot believe that there are not laws that state open quarries such as this one should not be built any closer than a mile to residences...
I am to go before Pierce County on 11/16. I have complained to Land Management and they in turn told me to take pictures...which I have that show the clouds of dust coming thru the trees. I also have pictures of 1/2 hours worth of County Material trucks that leave the quarry without being covered. One of the things Pierce County stated was that all trucks coming from the quarry were to be covered. We have complained to the county for four years about this company not covering their trucks..Pierce County slaps their hands and the next day County Materials is back to running "uncovered" trucks.
Wish me luck on 11/16..though, I doubt I can get Pierce County to close this pit. I DEFINITELY FEEL THAT AS A STATE, WE NEED TO BAND TOGETHER TO GET TIGHTER REGULATIONS ON THE BIG CORPORATE QUARRIES AND BAN OUR GOVERNMENT FROM ALLOWING SO MANY QUARRIES TO BE OPEN! There are so many of us in Pierce County that are suffering because our government is allowing so many quarries to open up in our county. As of this time, I have a pit four miles from my home and two that are within two miles of my home as well as the one across the street from me. The pit across from me has a 75 year permit to pull sand and gravel...if pits can be run for that length of time why was a pit needed directly across from my home...why does our county and state continue to let more and more companies expand or add new pits????
If anyone can help me with my cause to get this pit closed, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]...
I agree with this proposal 100%. The right professes confusion about what the OWS movement is about. The OWS probably feeds this confusion by failing to consistently articulate a cogent theme or demands. But one need only step back and consider from a slightly removed perspective that it is a movement about a whole lot of ways the wealthy class have made the government do their bidding to the detriment of the middle and lower classes. Why would this happen in a democracy?, one might naively ask. The answer is clearly that our system of government fails to perform as a democracy. The next question should be: why? Again the answer is simple and everyone knows it: Money buys political power, campaign contributions buy law favorable to the contributing wealthy and corporate interests. Why not adress the problem within the political system? The 1% will always outspend the 99%, both in campaigns and in propaganda through various media. So if you can't work within the political system you protest. But OWS needs an end game, a solution that covers their wide array of issues. That solution is to get money out of politics and that requires a constitutional amendment. Right now campaign contributions are protected under the First Amendment and Corporations are persons with such rights. Pure and simple, until that changes, no change will make a significant difference.
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