Vulcan Materials have arranged a community meeting at the Placitas Library, Tuesday, July 7, from 4-6PM. During this past legislative session, and following the defeat of ES-CA’s House Bill 188 to allow greater County enforcement of its Zoning Laws, the mining lobby, through Representative Smith, offered to arrange a meeting with Vulcan leadership. This is not that meeting. Vulcan have stated that they would like first for the community to know their company character.
By clicking this link 28June2015_Vulcan Questions you will find the questions that ES-CA’s Land Protection Trust (LPT) provided to Vulcan and further below in this article Vulcan’s response . The lawsuit that Vulcan refers to is the Sandoval County vs. Lafarge lawsuit that is on its fifth or sixth judge without its first hearing. ES-CA has filed a complaint with the court to join this suit. ES-CA believe there are three primary violations. The first and second are that mine has grown past its permitted boundaries and its maximum active (un-reclaimed) quarry size. The third is that the mining lease, and therefore mining, are not to extended past 2015.
From: Goodrich-Welk, Barbara [mailto:goodrich-welkb@vmcmail.com]
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2015 8:20 PM
To: Bob Gorrell; Representative Jim Smith
Cc: Barbara Goodrich-Welk
Subject: Fwd: Vulcan Materials Company Open House–Placitas
Hi Bob. Yes, you are correct. Vulcan, as a matter of practice, believes that doing the right thing–socially, environmentally, financially–is the only way to be successful. That said, we understand that it may take time to develop and build a working relationship with the community. To that end, Vulcan views this Open House as a good first step toward building a respectful relationship with the community that surrounds our facility. We hope that the residents afford us the time and opportunity to demonstrate that we are a responsible company.
As I mentioned previously, there are a number of questions that your community members posed that we are unable to answer because the topic is subject to current and/or potential litigation. For those topics/questions, it would be inappropriate for us to comment. What I can tell you, however, is that Vulcan is excited to have acquired our predecessors business. We understand the community has questions about who we are and how we operate. Again, we are hopeful this open house is a good first step to start a positive dialog with the community.
Below are a couple of answers to questions posed prior to the open house. I took the liberty of merging several of the questions that were similar.
I am looking forward to meeting you and the residents of your community Tuesday. I hope you have a wonderful Independence Day weekend!
Barb
What protocols have been set up to address neighbor complaints and detrimental issues arising from the operation of the mine? / Will there be a contact or issue-resolution person at the home office that has the authority to address unresolved issues arising from operations?
Vulcan is committed to open and transparent communications with the community where we operate. Consistent with this practice, we have set up an 800 number for the residents to use as a direct line to our team. The number for this line will be provided at the Open House. This can be used to contact a Vulcan representative that can assist you in answering questions that may arise.
Consistent with Vulcan’s practices and standards of environmental and land stewardship, we have hired a full-time Environmental Specialist dedicated to support all of our NM operations, including the Placitas facility. In addition to the NM area Environmental Specialist, our company has a Division Environmental Manager. This manager is responsible for compliance support for all of our Mountain West operations (AZ and NM). This manager is responsible for inspecting and auditing the effectiveness of our management systems at both the individual plant and area levels.
Is there any monitoring of air pollution outside the perimeter of the mine and in the Placitas community in order to provide clear demonstration that issues are not occurring?
Vulcan takes the safety of our workers and neighbors very seriously. Our Safety Health and Environment (SHE) processes and practices were designed to meet and/or exceed applicable laws and plant-specific permit conditions. Vulcan deploys three tools at every site: Employee training. Systems audits. Operating facility inspection plans. We are fully engaged with the appropriate regulating agencies on these matters.
Are you monitoring the incidence of respiratory issues at the mine perimeter and comparing this to the norm? What would you do to warn the community if levels at the mine reach an unusually high level?
Since Vulcan purchased the site last Fall, we have implemented a full Environmental Management System (EMS) which includes emissions control and reporting. We are committed to complying with our permit which is issued by NMED. The permit developed by the NMED uses compliance standards that are designed to be protective of public health. Our commitment is to fully comply with these standards and to openly communicate with our neighbors.
Can the local community expect a greater effort from Vulcan to resolve detrimental issues arising from operations until mining cessation?
Vulcan is delighted to have acquired this business. We understand the community has questions about who we are and how we operate. This Open House is our opportunity to start this positive dialog with the community.
I sent the following note to James Dominguez, District 1 Sandoval County Commissioner:
I won’t make it to the public meeting with Vulcan representatives, but I would like you to raise the issue regarding road damage by the gravel trucks. It has only been a number of months since the construction of Rt. 165 toward Placitas. At the intersection where the gravel trucks enter and leave the frontage road the pavement is already getting rough due to the trucks turning with heavy loads. You can feel the difference when you drive over the turning places.
I think now is the time to alert Vulcan to the necessity for them and the drivers to take responsibility for the likelihood of damage to the highway in the future. They are the ones making money from gravel hauling, and they are the ones damaging the roads much faster than routine car-truck travel. I’d suggest a surcharge per truck of gravel that is put into escrow for the county to use for repairs. $0.50 per truck per trip would yield about $20/hour if there are 40 trucks per hour. For 8h/day x 5 days/week x 50 weeks/year would yield $40,000. I do not know how much it would cost to repair and maintain the Rt. 165 intersection and other places where the trucks are likely to damage the road. This should be estimated by highway engineers and the appropriate cost applied to the trucks and gravel company. The same should apply to the Fisher gravel, since once they get going the damage will progress faster due to more trucks.
Thank you.
I’m happy that Vulcan is at least making an effort to start a dialog with the community. However, none of the really important questions were answered (such as those related to ending mining in 2015, etc), and Barb’s repeated statements that they are “delighted to have acquired this business” is a pretty good sign that they are not intending to cease operations any time soon. I am not hopeful that the meeting today will make anyone in the community feel any better, unfortunately.
On another note, as someone who uses Camino Manzano every day, I would like to know what Vulcan’s responsibility is for enforcing the STOP sign at the bottom of their property to access of the I-25 frontage road. I don’t know how many times I’ve witnessed gravel trucks just rolling right through it, creating a potentially dangerous situation.