Residents concerned about reopening riverbed quarry  

Editor's note: This featured photo was changed as it incorrectly identified the SBS Concrete Aggregate Supplies property as Sandman, Inc's quarry.

Residents living west of Hollister were unhappy to hear that the County Planning Commission would be receiving a report during the April 5 public scoping meeting for the proposed Nash Road Quarry Reclamation Plan that could lead to the re-initiation of mining activities at the 131-acre site owned by Sandman Inc. at 1070 Nash Road.

Mining operations ceased in the San Benito Riverbed in 1989.

The county will serve as the lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in preparing an environmental impact report for the plan that would supersede the previously approved 1977 Hillsdale Rock Company Reclamation Plan, according to the agenda documents.

Deleta Jones, lives on land adjacent to the San Benito River by Nash Road that was once part of the quarry where she operates K9 Ambassadors, a working-dog training facility. Besides her concerns about home values being adversely affected if the mining operation reopened, she said the public has not been made aware of the plans to do so.

Jones said she first heard about the scoping meeting on April 2. In talking with neighbors she said no one knew about the plan. She said she has since learned the public has only until April 24 to submit comments on the scope of the EIR. According to the agenda, the scoping period began March 24, but Jones contends she and her neighbors were not made aware of the proposed plan or the submission period.

She said the increase in truck traffic will endanger children who walk to schools along Nash Road and create noise and water quality pollution.

"Once this goes in, who's going to clean it up when they’re done?" she said. "We have a history in San Benito County of mining [debris] being left and making a mess and San Benito picking up the bill. When they left, they put lots of debris in the ground and covered it with dirt. Our water is contaminated there."

She said the county needs to do a better job of informing the public because "everyone's air quality will be affected."

Jason Shelby, who lives along what may be the only route to the quarry, said cement trucks already drive on Riverside Road onto Nash Road.

"When trucks run through there they shake the entire house," he said. Riverside Road, he said, "looks like someone put hand grenades on it. It's just totally obliterated."

He called Riverside Road the "worst road in San Benito County," and said it needed to be repaired if the quarry is approved, then recommended a sweeping crew regularly clean the road, and a speed limit of 25 mph enforced by radar.

"I have a business myself. I’m not trying to hurt business. I’m all about business, but they’ve got to fix the road," he said. "I want to know what the truck route is. If the route goes by my house, I’m not really for it."

Shelby said when he moved into his home there was no quarry and no Nash Road Bridge over the San Benito River.

"It was quiet as could be but I understand things got to change," he said. "People built the bridge and it's great. But now it's the freeway through there because everybody's trying to take their kids to school and everybody rolls through like [it's] a racetrack."

One resident who called in via Zoom said he did not think the Planning Commission or supervisors were trying to use "a backdoor" to move the process along, but said there is a "lack of awareness" within the county. He suggested reaching out through school boards to educate the public about "how the planning process works."

"We have to come up with better solutions to inform the public," the caller said.

According to the agenda document, the first Notice of Preparation (NOP) to provide input to the county for an EIR was circulated in May 2013 for a then-proposed reclamation plan amendment for the Nash Road Quarry. The current NOP supersedes the 2013 NOP. Comments that were submitted in response to the 2013 NOP will not be considered by the county in its review of the current project.

The County Planning Department did not respond to BenitoLink before publication about the reason the 2013 NOP did not advance.

The plan would allow mining of an approximately 32.95-acre portion of the 131-acre site within and adjacent to the San Benito River channel. Mining operations would take place in three phases and may be increased incrementally to a maximum depth of five feet below the existing thalweg (a line connecting the lowest points of successive cross-sections along the course of the river) elevation if monitoring between each phase indicates that no significant impacts to river channel conditions can be attributed to mining have occurred.

The mining is planned to take place in three phases over several seasons and would extract an estimated 419,527 cubic yards of aggregate.

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