CHEEKTOWAGA
Mine issue to near some conclusion
A Cheektowaga conflict about the expansion of an 80-year-old gravel mining company and the town and neighborhood that has grown up around it will near some conclusion this summer after more than a decade of wrangling.
Buffalo Crushed Stone, with quarries bounded by Como Park Boulevard and Indian Road, has land it would like to mine beyond the limits of the town-zoned borders. The company owns 280 acres, and so far, about 160 are approved for mining.
This dispute, which has been fought in court since 1998, is now before the State Court of Appeals, which held a hearing in Albany earlier this month. The court says it will rule sometime in the next month or two, said Town Attorney Kevin Schenk.
Two citizen groups joined the town to oppose the mining company as the expansion requests made their way through the courts and the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The DEC has been reviewing a different, contentious issue. In the next month or two, it will decide whether Buffalo Crushed can move some equipment — a stone crusher and asphalt mixer — into a quarry pit in order to mine the area where the crusher and mixer now stand.
“This permit process has been about as contentious as we see,” said David Denk, the deputy permit administrator.
When a DEC hearing was announced in fall of 2007, the citizen groups and the town had a month to quickly prepare arguments against the request to move equipment into a quarry and mine the “isthmus” between two pits where the crusher and mixer are now.
In reaction to the concerns, the DEC asked the town and citizen groups to respond this month to preliminary permit conditions it drafted for the company:
• That it mine where authorized.
• That hauling trucks have protective tarp covers and tires get dust washed off before they leave the quarry.
A company representative declined to say anything, explaining the court and DEC decisions would be coming soon.
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