Public Hearing on Quarry Continues Tuesday Night

A plan outlining the quarry's vision for the future of the 180-acre Millington Quarry after quarrying operations cease for good is scheduled to return before the Township Planning Board tonight, Tuesday, at a public hearing to begin at 7:30 p.m.

David Schley, township planner, said on Tuesday morning that the in a previous meeting on Nov. 22.

During that meeting, the board ruled that Millington Quarry Inc.'s plan, with a few requested additions, was complete, and experts began testifying about a so-called rehabilitation, or reclamation, plan for the property.

The last witness to testify was Jim Cosgrove, an environmental engineer discussing a proposed 50-acre lake that would be enlarged from a smaller body of water already existing at the site.

The quarry representatives said Cosgrove likely would be back to continue his presentation at this meeting.

Schley on Tuesday said that the series of meetings about the proposed plan likely will take "quite a while" based on past hearings on plans for the decades-old quarrying operation. The quarry's representatives also have stated that at least half a dozen experts will testify on behalf of the plan.

Planning board members and the public last month asked about the source of the "clean" fill that the quarry would plan to bring in to grade the property and to provide topsoil.

Tom Carton, vice president of business development for MQI, said that the soil would come from several sources, but would be subject to testing. How that testing would be conducted was an issue not yet resolved at the November meeting.

Concerns about contaminated soil coming into the property sparked a stayed lawsuit between township, and the quarry's owners and operators. The quarry's operator, Tilcon New York, has since dropped out of the lawsuit, which Millington Quarry also has put on hold pending the outcome of the hearings before the Planning Board.

The quarry was last before the Planning Board in 2008, when the Planning Board recommended a previous reclamation plan. However, the Township Committee added several conditions to the plan in a resolution in mid-2008, and Schley said the quarry objected to some of those conditions.

The goals of the rehabilitative plan, required by law, would be to protect natural resources, such as water quality, to prevent erosion and to prepare the land for reuse after the life of the quarry is ended, Michael T. Lavigne, an attorney representing MQI, said in November.

The plan is not an application for future development of the property for some other use, he told the board and public. "That would come later."

The quarrying operation off Stonehouse Road has slowed since Tilcon New York ceased its large-scale mining early in 2010. Tilcon reportedly leased the quarry from MQI starting in 1999 and until last year. Millington Quarry acquired the quarry in 1978, according to testimony last night.

Carton said that if the Planning Board approves the quarry's plan is approved, subject to questioning by both the board and public, restoration could begin within a year.

But then, it could take up to three years to bring in thousands of truckloads of topsoil, as well as additional fill for areas where the state Department of Environmental Protection has ordered potential environmental concerns to be addressed, and also rock to line the proposed lake, Carton said.

Carton estimated that carrying out the reclamation could bring in 30,000 trucks, each carrying 14 cubic yards of soil; another 7,800 truckloads of similar fill for the areas where the state might require environmental remediation; and an additional 18,000 loads of "rip-rap" rocks to complete the plan for lining a lake.

During rehabilation, (or reclamation) the entire property would be graded, stablized and, except for the lake, seeded, according to his testimony.