BUCKEYE, AZ — Neighbors in a rural Buckeye community say they’re being inundated with dust, trucks, noise and light at all hours of the day by a sand and gravel mine next door.
Nicole Schmitt said she first noticed the desert being cleared out next to her longtime family home this time last year.
“Not really any warning, they just started actually showing up with the heavy equipment and clearing out the land,” Schmitt said.
Since then, the community has reported and recorded hundreds of trucks driving through the neighborhood daily, dust blowing into homes, spotlights shining on private properties in the night and machinery sounds in the early morning hours.
“The dirt, the exhaust, the fumes from the trucks, the traffic, the noise, it's all combined into just one big issue,” neighbor Tobey Gordon said. “I’ve been here for 40 years. We feel that it's an invasion, invasion of our privacy, invasion of our quality of life.”
Larry Gilmore moved into his home two years ago with a desert and mountain view. He said he was never told it would be replaced with a massive mound of dirt.
“It's just kind of depressing. There's no view at all anymore. I used to enjoy sitting out here on the front porch,” Gilmore said. “When the wind blows, it blows. I've had to clean out my cars, it gets in the house. Every little crack and crevice, the porch will turn brown.”
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Homeowner Dianne Snyder said she’s worried about a nearby school stop that mining trucks pass by daily.
“These poor kids have to watch out for the trucks because the trucks aren't going to watch out for them,” Snyder said.
Community members created an online petition against the mining operations.
The mine, owned by Premier Materials Group LLC, was given a Notice of Violations in April by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for not mounting water systems, lack of documentation and testing requirements.
As of July, ADEQ said all that was fixed and subsequent inspections passed.
The mine’s company is now seeking an air quality permit with Maricopa County with a public meeting set for mid-October.
The plant can process 3.9 million tons of crushed material a year, with more than 430 trucks leaving the facility every day, according to the permit application.
Todd Hall with Premier Materials Group told ABC 15 that the company is family-owned and the mine is the first operation in the West Valley.
Hall said he’s aware of the community concerns and provided a list of mitigation efforts:
Truck Traffic:
1. Signs have been posted on and off the property to remind truck drivers to obey the posted speed limit and be respectful of our neighbors.
2. PMG is working with all the county departments to try and obtain a low water crossing(building a road using the Dean Road alignment) that would exit the trucks to the north and not through the neighborhood.
3. If trucks our observed not following traffic laws they are warned and then ask to not come back if they are repeat offenders.
Noise:
1. A 12’ high sound berm is being installed on the south side of our property along Eagle Mountain Road.
2. All back up alarms on all equipment have been exchanged out for a lower decibel alarm.
3. Plant Equipment had been strategically placed to reduce noise and how sound travels.
4. All metal rock chutes our being lined with a rubber lining to reduce noise.
5. Hours have been modified to help reduce noise in the mornings and weekends.
Dust:
1. We are within our operating limits that have been set by ADEQ and Maricopa County Air Quality
“These are just a few of the things PMG is doing to try and be the best neighbors we can. The mine has had a mining permit through the flood control property since the early 2000’s,” Hall said.
