Call to Action!!!!
Link to a petition opposing the amendment to the Felton Quarry usage permit: Felton Quarry Permit Letter of Concern and Opposition
The following informational flyer was put together by a group of Dooners that oppose the expansion of nighttime operations at the Felton Quarry, and it contains information about upcoming events:
Outreach-flyerBackground
Granite Construction Company has applied to increase the nighttime operation of its Felton Quarry at 5100 Empire Grade by an additional 80 operations per year. As congestion in Santa Cruz County has increased, local road work is increasingly scheduled at night, and the mining operation at Felton Quarry includes an asphalt plant. Granite Construction and the County of Santa Cruz Planning Department consider nighttime hauling from Felton Quarry necessary for safe and effective road repair. The State Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 (SB 1) generated significant new funding for such projects.
Currently, Granite Construction operates the quarry from 6 am to 8 pm Monday-Friday. The quarry was granted an additional 20 annual hours of exception for nighttime paving projects and then 20 more annual off-hours trucking for projects approved by the County. This new permit would allow 80 off-hours of trucking in addition to those current 40 hours of exception, allowing 120 hours per year of nighttime hauling privileges for Granite Construction. There is no limit on the number of trucks that can haul in an hour of operation.
The County of Santa Cruz has filed a Notice of Intent to Adopt a Negative Declaration for this nighttime trucking plan. A Negative Declaration means that no Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is deemed necessary. The last EIR prepared for Felton Quarry was in 1979. In 2000, another Negative Declaration was generated, and to support the Negative Declaration, an acoustic engineering consultant measured noise generated by the quarry’s nighttime operations. Nighttime noise was measured at two locations: at a private residence near the quarry and at the corner of Escalona and Bay streets in Santa Cruz. No significant increase in noise pollution was found at those two locations at that time.
The approved route for Felton Quarry trucking traffic is east (downhill) on Empire Grade and then either north or south on Mission Street. When asked about this winter’s noticeable increase in traffic going northwest (uphill) on Empire Grade, the County planner said that quarry traffic will vary based on fluctuations in demand. The County is responsible for monitoring quarry noise, hours, truck routes and speed.
The Felton Quarry also has an entrance in Felton at San Lorenzo Avenue, the original access route for the quarry and still one of the allowed routes under the quarry’s permit, but only the Empire Grade route can be used during nighttime trucking operations. Daytime trucking routes are determined by quarry customers and the trucking company they employ
Documents related to this project can be found at the Santa Cruz County Planning Dept. website, www.sccoplanning.com.
