Quarry hearing focuses on noise, unanswered questions

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC

One neighbor leaving last Wednesday’s Development Review Board hearing on the Julian Materials in Gassetts said his head was buzzing. It was not because of the noise of extracting stone but rather the complex and technical noise assessment presented by Eddie Duncan of RSG Inc. of White River Junction, which does “noise control engineering,” in support of Julians’ application for a zoning permit.

The permit sought by Julian Materials would allow the company 18 months to continue its unpermitted stone cutting operation at its Chandler Road Quarry while lowering the “floor” on a portion of its South Quarry by 30 feet. The company would then put up a 24,000-square-foot building at the South Quarry and transfer its stone cutting there. The permit would also allow the company to lower the level of the North Quarry to construct a “contractor’s yard” where finished product could be stored. The remainder of the “current quarry limits” would be reclaimed.

Duncan said he would not review the report, but make comments on it and take questions. The sound monitoring took place between April 13 and April 21, 2023 using what Duncan called “class one” equipment. The monitoring was done on a weekend day as well as weekdays. The upshot of his presentation was that the ambient road noise from Route 103 was between 70 and 85 decibels and that was a contributing factor to the sound of the quarry.

Attorney Jim Dumont, who is representing Gassetts residents Leslie Thorsen and Scott Kilgus, questioned Duncan on the methodology for interpreting the results of the sound monitoring. These included a number of complex questions about standards and whether the uses of frequency weighting aligned with Chester’s zoning bylaws. Duncan said that the bylaws are silent on those issues and declined to answer a number of questions that he said required a legal opinion.

After Dumont grilled Duncan on methodology, other residents spoke of their experiences with the sound of the hydraulic hammer used at the quarries and played cellphone audio of the noise.

Those neighbors are represented by attorney Stephen Ankuda of Springfield.

Barry Goodrich played two cellphone videos showing a softer more muffled sound on a day when sampling was going on and a much louder sound a few days after the sampling was concluded.

Cheryl LeClair played a cellphone recording of the sounds at her house and Ankuda asked if RSG could produce the data that came from the monitor at LeClair’s home on Clemons Road. Duncan said there was no monitor on Clemons Road but they can produce a model of the sound.

Ankuda called the model a “guess based on experiments of other engineers in other places with other rocks.”

“It’s clearly not a guess,” said Duncan referring to international standards of modelling.

“So you’re using statistics to calculate what it sounds like at Cheryl’s house – not using actual sound measurements,” said Ankuda. “But the plaintiffs live there and suffer there all day long.”

Duncan said he could not verify the sound from the cellphones since those have less precise microphones and use algorithms to accentuate the some sounds but not others.

Subpoenas sought to question Julian brothers

Neither owner of Julian Materials — Andrew and Jason Julian — appeared at the hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 11 despite Dumont’s effort to have the DRB issue subpoenas to have them appear. On Sept. 21, Dumont sent a request to the DRB asking it to issue those subpoenas not only to the Julian brothers but also to the company itself to produce documents and photographs and testify at the Oct. 11 meeting.

The response from Julian Materials attorney Mark Hall came two weeks later. Hall apologized for the late response citing the company’s search for those documents that would answer the subpoena. He also took issue with much of what was requested – referring to it as a fishing expedition – and noted that as a company Julian Materials — and “not opposing counsel”  — has the “full discretionary right to choose what witness is best able to respond to the DRB’s inquiries on its behalf.”

Hall also suggested that calling the Julians was more “inclined to pillorying the Julians instead of reviewing the project.”

“One does not expect owners of companies, whether it be Sam Walton or R.L. Vallee, to be forced to attend and give testimony on a zoning application,” wrote Hall.

The DRB considered Dumont’s and Hall’s responses, then issued a subpoena to the company, but “reserved making any ruling or issuing any order” to compel the Julians to appear “pending the receipt, review and admission of the requested documents.” By the time the decision was signed, it was Oct. 10, the day before the hearing.

At the hearing the next day — Oct. 11 — attorney Pam Eaton, appearing for Julian attorney Hall – asked for a one-week extension to produce the documents.

Board member Phil Perlah asked how often there was blasting at the quarries. Duncan was unable to say, which prompted board member Scott MacDonald to comment, “These are the kinds of questions we were hoping there would be someone here from the company to give us answers for. We’re not getting those answers. It’s frustrating not to get answers to simple questions.”

Dumont will be asking Jeremy Matosky of Trudell Consulting Engineers questions on Monday Oct. 23, but in two hearings so far, he has not been able to answer a number of questions. Matosky will be appearing remotely.

Is this strip mining and will it generate tons of truck traffic?

Also on Oct. 11, Gassetts resident Scott Kilgus submitted an affidavit in which he analyzed the work to be done to lower the South Quarry floor ahead of constructing the 24,000-sq.-ft. building. Kilgus, who has a master’s degree in architecture and a degree in geography specializing in interpretation of aerial images for land use planning, estimated that an enormous amount of stone would need to be removed.

Kilgus pointed to the floor of the quarry at the front of the building where Julian Materials says it needs to lowered 30 feet, but then showed that removing the hill where the rear of the building will sit and other work would produce about 1.12 million cubic yards of material.

Kilgus expects that much of that stone would go to the Chandler Road Quarry for processing. At 15 cubic yards per truck, Kilgus estimates that 1 million yards of stone would generate nearly 67,000 round trip truck trip. He added that none of this has been addressed in the 18 month plan put forward by Julian Materials.

In addition Kilgus points to the digging down that Julian Materials proposes as “strip mining” which is prohibited in the district. With this added to the mix, it looks like the hearings will continue into November.

The board recessed its hearing until Monday Oct. 23 at 6 p.m. at Town Hall, 556 Elm St.